How the Dodgers destroyed the Cubs market

This was an article posted over at yahoo sports' bigleaguestew.com

For those of you not familiar with Yoonew.com, it's a pretty nifty website that allows fans to buy and sell the rights to tickets as if they were shares in a stock market.

Think at the beginning of the season that your team is going all the way? Pick up an option on postseason tickets at a cheap price in April.

Believe your team won't keep it going all the way into October? Sell that option high in July.

In fact, as you read this, the Yoonew exchange is busy with speculation over World Series tickets for the Red Sox (up) Rays (down) Phillies (down) and Dodgers (up). It's fascinating to follow.

Anyway, because I was masochistic curious enough to see a graphical representation of the Cubs' quick fall against the Dodgers, I asked Yoonew to send along their Cubs data from the optimistic beginning of the season all the way to the bitter end. As expected, the end days came so quickly for those foolish enough to invest in the Cubs that even a busted-out employee from Lehman Brothers has to look on the bright side — it could be worse.

The dollar figures you see above were for one (1) premium ticket to the first game of the World Series at Wrigley Field. Asked to describe the last few days of the Cubs' ticket market, Yoonew analyst Claudio Cabrera paints a scene of blue-clad ledge-jumpers:

"Based on chat conversations I had on the blog, many Cubs fans decided before the (Dodgers) series that they were getting out, because either they knew something was going to go wrong, Joe Torre does well against Lou Pinella, or they always play tight when expectations are high.

"Many traders then only needed the Game 1 loss to show them they need not get greedy and just take the profits they had on the site. Many of our users just took the Cubs profit and didn't hold on to their seats before and after Game 1 because they had no reason to — or because they sensed danger as a Cubs fan — and didn't want their money to go to waste."

So, yeah, if you're looking for an easy and safe way to make money, you'll buy into the Cubs early next April, wait until they put it on cruise control in what should be an easy NL Central again and then start to sell once everyone decides in August that a title in the 101st year sure has a nice ring to it.

A big BLS head nod to Claudio Cabrera for sending along those numbers.