Monday, team ticket representatives came calling to all partial-season ticket holders to trot out their 27-game plans for 2013, and it’s time to compare promises to results.

That’s ripped right from the White Sox promotional email. I’m pretty sure they won’t mind.  Confusing baseball-themed names aside, these plans are distinct simply in the sense that Hit & Run is a 27-plan composed of weekend dates, and Double Play is made up of weekdays. They’re the same price now, and the White Sox want us to know that, because they have eliminated the pricing tiers based on days of the week.

That certainly lives up to the billing for the 32% and 30% promised for bleachers and outfield reserved, even accounting for  the typical extra dollar for single-game seats. Absent from this breakdown is anything about the lower section between sections 119 and 145, or the club sections, or the corner outfield sections.

The club and prime box areas are obviously targeted at a higher price point and not part of this initiative to pull in more casual fans, but the corner outfield sections are. They’re somewhat shoddy seats–the closest thing U.S. Cellular has to obstruction seating–so it might make more sense to keep it as a single game $20 ticket to the lower section than try to sucker someone into buying it 27 times. Or they’ll just be addressed in a later release. I’m betting on that one.

A cool $567 is enough to tempt me into committing to 27 games in the bleachers, but schedule uncertainty makes such a large commitment hard. Still, this is some encouraging stuff so far. There’s still approximately $40 in ticket fees to tack on to all of these totals, and perhaps one might want to wait until after the White Sox have decided what the hell they’re doing in 2013 before throwing out c-notes like a lawn sprinkler.  No one wants to spend $600 on bleacher seats only to immediately afterward find out that Paul Konerko’s been traded to the glue factory for cash considerations.

Let’s end on that note.

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Not sure if that’s emboldening or just infuriating.

Probably just infuriating, since the Tigers might be able to trot out Justin Verlander as many as three times (and against Barry Zito for Game 1!), and cruise their way to a World Series title after leaving the barn door open on the AL Central for six months.

The Tigers rotation whirring to its full, terrifying capabilities in the playoffs has done all it can to validate the AL Central as legitimate; now their continued success just hits home the “Man, the White Sox really blew it” angle.

Tigers in 6, I say, knowing full well that in a 7-game series, the Giants succeeding behind Marco Scutaro killing everything in his path and other “nonsense,” is just as meaningful as Detroit pitching well.

Obvious research

Mocking the White Sox for needing to hire an independent consultant to tell them to lower their ticket prices seemed like an easy, and immature joke.

And yet, the more revealed about the study Rich Luker conducted for the Sox, the more it sounds like a highly-trained profession ran a highly-elaborate and professional study that continually ran into the same obvious answer.  This is especially become apparent when Luker surveyed the fans themselves.

One telling find for Luker came from a question about why White Sox fans go to games. Their No. 1 reason is to support the team. “Generally, the No. 1 reason to go is more selfish,” Luker said. “My observation from the research is that White Sox fans are always on board.”

So the fans are not uniquely detached from the team.

The second reason for attending was the overall experience at U.S. Cellular Field. In examining teams such as the Bears and Cubs, or even concert attendance, the White Sox held up fine.

So the stadium is not particularly dreadful anymore.

The surveys revealed that 50 percent of the individual ticket buyers said they had less money to spend in ’12. And of those attending fewer games, two-thirds said they had less money available, while only one-third had the same or more. So, affordability clearly emerged as the No. 1 issue for this particular group.

A recession combined with top-end prices? It seemed liked this might just be the culprit.  Luker was also kind enough to compare the dedication of the White Sox fanbase to that of the Green Bay Packers.  That’s an interesting comparison to make, since Packers fans have a tangible investment in the health of their franchise, and the Sox have an owner with fairly typical tendencies to avoid paying for his own facilities  and charging top-end prices.

Terrible player available

Yunel Escobar was already my buy-low supreme candidate before CBS Sports’ Jon Heyman broke the shocking scoop that the Toronto Blue Jays may not be keen on paying the soon-to-be 30 year-old shortstop $5 million in 2013.  Not after a season where he hit .255/.300/.344 and was suspended three games for writing a homophobic slur on his face, that is.

I don’t actually want the White Sox to pursue Escobar–the eyeblack incident was revolting–but I would have to admire the shrewdness of reaching out for a guy who was the toast of Canada in 2011, but has depressed his value through incompetence.

His $5 million salary for next season is a hurdle and a hindrance that would need to be negotiated with Toronto, but between Gordon Beckham and the 3rd base situation, infielders that know which end of the bat the handle is could be a needed commodity.

Alex Rios is the White Sox nominee for the Heart & Hustle Award

Even people who remembered him being good in Toronto are weirded out by this.

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