E-Mail This Article to a Friend The toughest ticket ever BY CHRISTOPHER YOUNG

Last October, I watched patiently as the Boston Red Sox swept the St. Louis Cardinals in four straight games to win the World Series. I did not get to see any of the playoff games in Boston during last year’s post-season, but I came close. Heading into the post-season, I knew that I had an ace in the hole: a pair of game-seven World Series tickets at Fenway Park. Good seats, in the upper infield grandstand.

Once the Sox had dispatched the Yankees and moved on to the Fall Classic against the vaunted Cardinals, there was little doubt that parity and history would dictate a seven-game battle for the commissioner’s trophy. After all, St. Louis was a 105-win juggernaut in 2004 — a wire-to-wire NL dominator — while Boston was riding high from its four-game turnaround against the Yankees. In addition, Boston had been in just four World Series since the best-of-nine format had been reduced by two games before the 1922 season, and all four Sox visits (1946, 1967, 1975, and 1986) had gone the full seven (and, one might mention, ended badly for the local nine). It was certain: the 2004 World Series also would go seven games, and I would be at the deciding game — the third of only four World Series game sevens to be hosted by the Red Sox since the park opened in 1912.

I often think in retrospect about two things: what would a Sox-Redbirds game seven have been like? And how much could I have sold my pair of coveted seats for, had the game actually been played? Enough to put my daughter through college? Both daughters?

Understand that had a game seven been played at Fenway, that would have meant that the Sox had undergone a Yankee-esque, um, transformation and dropped three straight to the Cardinals to knot the series — and anyone who knows sports history or (especially) Red Sox lore knows that if Terry Francona’s squad had lost three straight Series games to blow a three-games-to-none lead, it would more than likely eventually become four. Hence, it seems safe to speculate that selling my game-seven seats on game day for enormous piles of greenbacks would have been a wise, and ultimately financially satisfying, decision.

But I’ll never know. (And in the end, I probably would have wanted to be there to bear witness nonetheless.)

And we’ll also never know how hot a ticket that Halloween-night contest would have been and how much it would have fetched from desperate scalpers and ticket brokers. But it undoubtedly, unquestionably, indubitably would have been the toughest local sports ticket to come by — ever.

Now, as a result of the Red Sox' accomplishments in a mere four World Series games last October, a new candidate for that ducat laurel has emerged. All of the extraneous forces that could have possibly been thrown into the mix for Opening Day at Fenway in 2005 are in place, and every Red Sox fan alive — nay, perhaps every baseball fan — wants to be in attendance on April 11 for this historic occasion.

Oh, it would have been an important game and a sell-out even if the Red Sox hadn’t staged a remarkable rally against the Bombers, or even if the Cardinals had emerged victorious a week later. But the potential pomp and circumstance that will be on parade as the Red Sox return to their beloved stadium as world champions will be unprecedented and unmatched. Think about it: ceremonial F-15 fly-bys are a necessity, and do you think the team brass will sway from its old habit of inviting the defending Super Bowl champs and the Lombardi Trophy for another march from the Monster to the mound? How about the juxtaposition of the two championship trophies — introduced at last? Consider how loud it will be for the introduction of the players, who haven’t been on this hallowed turf since last year’s Series game two. And the ring ceremony? God almighty, what a moment that will be.

And surely this day would have been a historic moment for the baseball players and denizens of this town even if the Devil Rays were in town to match wits on the diamond with the defending champs. But no.

The diabolical powers that be have deigned that the Yankees represent the designated foe, and the drama of this scenario alone brings a feeling of speechlessness and an overall emotion bordering on the verklempt. Consider those player introductions, particularly for guys like Jason Giambi and (gulp) Alex Rodriguez. The hootin’ and hollerin’ could get downright ugly with a capital ugh, and one can only hope that some of the classier veterans of the Pinstripers will be spared the long-suffering Sox’ fans’ long-delayed haughtiness. However the patrons handle it, it will still be interesting to see if the tenants of the visitors’ dugout actually remain in their seats to watch the awarding of championship rings unfold on the field. My guess is that Joe Torre will do the classy thing and request that his minions grin and bear it, even though it won’t be a pretty spectacle to watch or endure.

But wait — there’s more. Opening Day at Fenway could very well be the first start of the year for last year’s warrior in spikes, Curt Schilling. Red Sox Nation owes him a heapload of thanks for last year’s turn of events, and this will be its first chance to show its appreciation. (And even if it’s not Schilling, then it might be the beloved Tim Wakefield, who had long ago earned a place in Sox fans’ hearts; pitching the home opener would likely be a watershed moment for the knuckleballin’ veteran.)

And don’t forget that the two teams will already have met the previous weekend at Yankee Stadium to open the season, so who knows how many subplots will have already developed by the time the rematch is staged in the Fens?

You’d have to go back a long time to find a game with such fervent appeal to the local masses, and that’s why tickets are so much in demand (and hard to come by). At last glance, Ace Tickets, a local ticket broker, was charging $625 for the cheapest single seat (in the grandstand) on April 11, while its top price was an astronomical $2150 for a field-box seat. On-line giant eBay boasted similar prices, including a pair of standing-room tickets for $305 and two lower-bleacher seats for nearly $800.

One would venture a guess that a ticket to this Red Sox’ home opener will be the single toughest (and expensive) ticket ever in these parts — more than any Patriots game, regular-season or post-season, and definitely tougher than even a Celtics playoff ticket against the Lakers in the old Garden. Everybody wants to be at Fenway on the afternoon of Monday, April 11, and everyone has his or her own reason for wanting to be in attendance. Is it because you’ve been to 19 straight openers (like I have) and don’t want to break the streak? Is it because of the ring ceremony? The Yankees’ presence? Just to say you were there? (Because God knows, it could be the only such opportunity in this lifetime.)

Whatever your justification for wanting to attend, I hope you make it, and it lives up to expectations.

Just one request ... take me with you?

Sporting Eye runs Mondays and Fridays at BostonPhoenix.com, and Christopher Young can be reached at cyoung[a]phx.com