San Francisco Giants Tickets

There are two primary forces driving the sales of San Francisco Giants tickets--the performance of the team and the performance of Barry Bonds, whom some equate with the team. In the Giants' defense, the team has made the playoffs in three of its previous five seasons, including a World Series appearance in 2002 against the Anaheim Angels. Were it not for Anaheim's famous "Rally Monkey," many Giants fans are convinced they'd be sitting on a World Championship.

Though the Giants haven't won a World Series since 1954, the year they beat the Cleveland Indians 4-0, they've made it to three of them in the past 50 years. In that same span, they've ended up in the postseason a total of nine times, leading many to believe that it's only a matter of time before the organization brings home its next championship trophy. By and large, these fans insist that it's Barry Bonds who will help deliver their next World Championship.

The Bonds Factor

Sports fans and historians love to argue "all-time" debates, mainly because the issues behind them are impossible to settle. There are fans who maintain that no player has ever dominated a sport the way Michael Jordan dominated basketball throughout the '90s, but just as many (if not more) affirm that Barry Bonds has defined modern baseball to an even larger degree. As proof they cite his seven MVP awards, eight Gold Gloves, his single-season home run record, and highest single-season on-base percentage, among innumerable other marks.

So long as Bonds stays healthy, fans have proven that they'll line up for miles to score tickets (though the smart ones simply keep tabs on tickets through online brokers) to watch him play, even if he draws 230 walks in a season. The reason is that no player can so dramatically change the shape of a game simply by appearing at home plate. As proof of this, consider that several pitchers intentionally walked Bonds even with the bases loaded during the 2004 season, a year in which he finished more than 130 walks ahead of his base-on-balls-leading counterpart in the American League.