Or perhaps it helps to be a bit crazy.

Mariners catcher Jesus Montero has been at the organization’s A-Ball Everett club, rehabbing an oblique injury. The 24-year old hasn’t been playing, and was coaching first base when he began being heckled from the stands. Oddly, the heckler was none-other-than one of the Mariners scouts.

When Montero left the field at the inning’s end, the scout began yelling “rapido, rapido,” which means faster in Montero native tongue of Spanish. This seemed to in reference to a reputation Montero has for not hustling.

Not very subtle. Even less subtle was the unnamed scouts next move; he sent a Montero an ice cream sandwich, a clear dig at the weight problems that have kept the former top prospect in triple-A for most of the year.

In that context maybe Montero’s response wasn’t so crazy . The 6-3 inch 240+ pounder went into the stands with his bat and throw the ice cream sandwich in the scout’s face. He was restrained by an Everett coach before things got really ugly.

While this is another dark chapter in Montero’s rapidly declining career, one has to wonder what in the world is going in in the Mariners organization. GM Jack Zduriencik just got himself a contract extension, but it’s clear he’s not running a very tight ship.

But we guess a surprise winning season trumps a rouge scout in the eyes of the Mariners ownership.

The other surprise team in the American League this year are the Royals, who sit 1.5 above the Tigers for first place in the American League Central. Catcher Salvador Perez is a big part of their success ,and a big part of his success could be attributed to a feminine beauty product.

You see the 24-year old wears perform behind the plate and, apparently, the umpires love it. It’s a trick he picked up from teammate Alicdes Escboar.

“I learned that from Alcides, because every time he plays, he uses Victoria’s Secret. So one day I said, ‘Alcides, let me try it,” he told KSHB-TV. “In the first inning, the umpire says, ‘You smell good, Salvy.’ I said, ‘Thank you.’ And that game, I hit a ball and everything, so I started to use it every day. Now I use Victoria’s Secret every time.”

Actually, that not quite true. Perez later admitted he will occasionally mix it up with Chanel.

But whatever he’s using, it’s working. The unheralded Royals pitching staff is fifth in the league in runs allowed, and Perez ranks highly as a pitch framer.

Perhaps the perfume reminds the umpire of their wives or girlfriends. Given the size of many of the men in blue getting behind the plate smelling like an ice cream sandwich may induce a similarly positive reaction.

The Chicago White Sox have flipped their starting second sacker Gordon Beckham out west for a player to be named later. The Angels had put a waiver claim on the 27-year old and then the two teams worked out a deal.

After an eye-opening rookie year in 2009, Beckham has struggled with the bat.  But never as much as he has this season, where his .598 OPS is fourth worst in baseball among qualified batters.

On the positive side of ledger, Beckham’s defense has always rated above average, and, at least this year, the right-hander had been showing signs of life against lefties, OPSing .803 with the handedness advantage.

“Not having a great year with the bat, but really wearing out left-handed pitching,” Angels GM Dipoto told MLB.com. “We feel like it’s a real nice platoon advantage for us.”

“I think the benefit with our team is that you don’t need him to take four at-bats a game, seven days a week,” Dipoto continued. You just need him to be a part of the team.”

Dipoto added that the Angels will also “take a look at” Beckham at shortstop and third base, where he already has 102 career appearances.

Beckham, who is making $4.2 million in 2014, will likely get a raise next year in his last arbitration season before he hits free agency. Since the White Sox have second baseman prospects Carlos Sanchez, Micah Johnson and Marcus Semien in their system, it is unlikely they would have offered Beckham arbitration.  So a trade, even for a PTBNL, made sense.

Sanchez will be called up from triple-A Charlotte to replace Beckham. Semien is expected to join the team on September 1 when rosters expand.  Johnson injured his hamstring earlier this week in Charlotte and has been ruled out for the season.

White Sox GM Rick Hahn praised Beckham on the way out:

“He’s obviously of tremendous character, a great makeup guy, it just didn’t work for him,” he told MLB.com “The big part of this game, as we all know, is mental, and that can be extremely difficult to get past. Perhaps with a change of scenery it becomes easier with the new organization, not the one that drafted him, to become easier on himself or to let go of those expectations a little bit and fulfill that potential. He’s obviously still quite young and filled with talent.”

Of course, Angels fans were hoping that their team had a acquired a starter with good stuff, rather than a utility infielder with good character. As we explained yesterday, having the best record in baseball makes it difficult for Los Angeles to trade for an impact pitcher through the waiver process.

So it looks like they’ll just have to be happy to have Beckham’s noodle bat and intangibles.

Gordon Beckham displays grit in the field

Minnesota Twins farmhand Byron Buxton’s Double-A debut couldn’t have gone worse. Baseball’s top prospect struck out in his first three at bats for the New Britain Rock Cats. Then the center fielder was involved in a terrifying collision with right fielder Mike Kvasnicka as he attempted to dive for a flyball. Both players lay motionless for a several minutes. Buxton was ultimately carted off the field in ambulance and taken to a local hospital.

“Buxton, who was parallel to the ground, appeared to hit his left shoulder/neck with RF Mike Kvasnicka’s knee, explained Don Amore of the Hartford Courant.

Buxton, who was unconscious for ten minutes, was diagnosed with a concussion. Kvasnicka accompanied Buxton to the hospital, but was able to return to the dugout later in the game. He has a sore hip.

Twins GM Terry Ryan reported that Buxton suffered no serious injuries besides the concussion.

“He’s alert. He has a concussion, so we’ll have to take the normal procedures and protocol for concussion symptoms,” said Ryan. “He’ll certainly be watched.”

It’s been basically a lost season for Buxton, who had a huge 2013, hitting .334 with 12 homers and 55 SBs over two levels of A-ball. An injured wrist cost him the first three months of 2014, and then the 20-year old struggled in high-A, only OPSing .718 before being bumped up to double-A for Wednesday’s game.

Buxton was taken with the second pick of the 2012 draft by the Twins and then shot up the prospect lists after a solid season in rookie ball.

The Twins confidence in Buxton allowed them to trade both Denard Span and Ben Revere after the 2012 season. Among the return in those deals were pitchers Trevor May and Alex Meyer, who Minnesota hopes will be part of their pitching staff for years to come.

Now Buxton will almost surely miss the rest of the minor league season and a September call up to the big club seems doubtful.

The San Francisco Giants acquired the 33-year old from Boston for pitching prospects Edwin Escobar and Heath Hembree. Like most of the Red Sox, Peavy has been disappointing in 2014 and leaves Boston with a 1-9 record and a 4.72 ERA.

The right-hander played a key role for the world champion Red Sox in 2013, going 4-1 for the team after coming over in a trade deadline deal with the Chicago White Sox. During the first half of his career Peavy was one of the best pitchers in baseball, winning the 2007 National League Cy Young while with the San Diego Padres.  Injuries, including a detached latissimus dorsi muscle in his back, began to take their toll in 2010, and even when at his best Peavy has been more of a middle-of-the-rotation guy since.

The Giants are locked in a tight race with the Dodgers in the National League West, currently leading their rivals by a half game. Peavy comes in to give their usually terrific pitching staff a boast — while Madison Bumgarner and Tim Hudson have pitched like aces, Tim Lincecum and Ryan Vogelsong have been inconsistent and Matt Cain was put on the disabled list July 11 with no set return date.

The question becomes whether Peavy will be an upgrade from Yusmerio Petit, who was less than impressive this week subbing for Cain, but who did have some success as a starter earlier in the season.

A big factor in Peavy’s attractiveness to the Giants is his 14-2 record with a 2.21 ERA in 25 career starts against the Dodgers. He also played in San Diego for current Giants manager Bruce Bochy. The Giants and Red Sox are said to be splitting the $5 million owed to Peavy in 2014. Peavy does hold a conditional 2015 player option for $15 million. But it only vests if he throws 132 more innings this year, which is virtually impossible.

As for the Red Sox, they get Escobar, the Giants number two pitching prospect, and Hembree, their 11th. Escober, the 56 best prospect overall according to Baseball America, has struggled this year in the hitter friendly Pacific Coast League. The 22-year old had been dominate in 2013 in AA and high A ball.

Peavy’s injury also clears room in the Red Sox rotation for young pitchers Brandon Workman and Allan Webster.

Boston might not be done dealing starters, and there have been lingering rumors ace Jon Lester may also be on the move. In an interview with Gordon Edes yesterday, Lester, a free-agent-to-be, said that he would be open to returning to the Red Sox in 2015 even if the team deals him before the deadline. The Red Sox would also listen to inquires on Clay Buchholz, but they’d be selling low on the struggling righty

Peavy, Lester and Bucholz were the core of World Series winning rotation less than a year ago. The Giants are hoping Peavy can be part of one again in a few months. Maybe he can bring his cigar store Indian with him for good luck.

The cancer also claimed Beastie Boy Adam Yauch, who was 47, back in 2012. When Yauch got the cancer it was attributed to unlucky genetics. Gwynn, on the other hand, has always blamed the affliction on his use of chewing tobacco, which began during his baseball career.

If you look up salivary gland cancer on Wikipedia chewing tobacco is listed as its “chief risk factor.” However on the presumably more reliable Mayo Clinic website chewing tobacco isn’t mentioned as any kind of risk factor. In fact, there is no direct proof tobacco causes salivary gland cancer.

Because there are so few cases of it, it is difficult to pinpoint with any certainty what does or doesn’t contribute to salivary gland cancer. Still, there are many doctors and researcher who deal with the cancer who believe, like Gywnn did, that smokeless tobacco would increase one’s risk getting it. Gwynn, who became an anti-chew advocate late in his life, was also quick to point out that the cancer formed on the right side of his mouth — the same side he used when he chewed tobacco.

In reaction to Gwynn’s death, pitchers Stephen Strasburg and Addison Reed, both players for Gwynn when he coached San Diego State University, have vowed to quit chew.

“I think it’s a disgusting habit, looking back on it,” Strasburg said. “I was pretty naive when I started. Just doing it here and there, I didn’t think it was going to be such an addiction. … Bottom line is, I want to be around for my family. This is something that can affect people the rest of your life.”

“It’s one of those things where I’ve done it for so long it’s just become a habit, a really bad habit,” Reed explained. “It was something I always told myself I would quit, like next month, and the next thing you know it’s been six or seven years.”

In 1993, chewing tobacco was banned from all minor league fields and clubhouses. The expectation being that in time this move would effectively eliminate the habit in the Major Leagues.  It hasn’t. An ESPN investigation earlier this year found that 21 of 58 of the Boston Red Sox participating in spring training used chew.

Bud Selig has long been on board with major league ban, and could try to institute one before his run as commissioner ends in January of 2015.

However the players association has been resistant. During the 2011 labor, MLBPA head Michael Weiner dismissed talk of a ban. “Our members understand that this is a dangerous product, there are serious risks associated with using it,” Weiner said. “Our players felt strongly that those were appropriate measures to take but that banning its use on the field was not appropriate under the circumstances.”

Current player association president Tony Clark has yet to comment on a ban.

Smokeless tobacco has long been a part of baseball’s culture. When you see David Ortiz come up to the plate you expect to see a big wad of chew in his cheek. Same with Chase Utley, Nick Swisher, Alex Rodriguez, Josh Hamilton and many, many more. And who can forget legendary chewers of yore, like the permenatly chipmunk cheeked Lenny Dysktra and Manny Ramirez.

When you ask the players who do use chewing tobacco about it, they, almost to a man, will tell you they wish they could quit. (And generally add that they only chew during games.)

Should MLB step in and ban chewing tobacco? Or is up to the players to decide what they put in their months, no matter how dangerous.

When they finally do see him, he may appear a little weird in the ear.

Guerrero, a shortstop in Cuba, made Los Angeles’ opening season trip to Australia, but has been in Triple-A since then, learning second base. The 27-year olds’ failure to grasp the subtleties of the position has now cost him part of his face.

(More great teammate fights.)

During a game between the Dodgers’ affiliate Albuquerque Isotopes and the Salt Lake Bees, Guerrero wasn’t able to tag out a runner stealing second base on a throw from catcher Miguel Olivo in the bottom of the seventh inning . Olivo, a 13-year MLB veteran, had just been sent down when A.J. Ellis came off the DL. It was the Bees third stolen base of the day, and a frustrated Olivio confronted Guerrero about the tag during a meeting at the mound.

Their argument spilled into the dugout in the top of the eighth, and that’s when things got physical. During the scuffle Olivio went Mike Tyson on Guerrero’s ear, removing a significant chunk of it with his teeth. Oh, did we mention it was “Kids Day” in Salt Lake City and there were 12,000 elementary school students in attendance?

Hopefully the children weren’t able to see what was quite the bloody mess. According to Guerrero’s agent Scott Boras, his client was immediately taken to the hospital where his ear was reattached by a plastic surgeon. Sources say he will be out for up to five weeks.

Guerrero hasn’t decided whether he will press charges against Olivio. Both players may be subject to punishment from the team.

“We don’t condone it, and we don’t think it’s constructive,” Dodgers’ general manager Ned Colletti said of the incident. “People can have disagreements. When it gets beyond that level, it’s over the limit.”

Olivo has been involved in violent altercations before. In 2007 he escalated a brawl between the Marlins and Mets by throwing a wild punch at Jose Reyes.

As for Guerrero, he’s been raking at Triple-A, boasting a triple slash line of .376/.417/.735. However, his poor middle infield defense and the emergence of Dee Gordon at second base for the big club has put his future in flux. Before his injury, there had been talk of trying to teach him a position further down the defensive spectrum.

No matter what happens, Guerrero is already a big leaguer when it comes to teammate brawls. Just last week on LUF we had a rundown of the greatest teammate fights in baseball history, spurred on by a comparatively milquetoast disagreement between Washington Nationals Gio Gonzalez and Ian Desmond.

You can read about altercations between the likes of Torii Hunter and Albert Pujols and Barry Bonds and Jeff Kent and more here. Although you’ll find none of them come close to Guerrero/Olivo throw-down for guts and gore. Few could.

The Bronx isn’t the only place you will get the Bronx Cheer after leaving a team for free agent dollars. Below we’ve tracked the crowd reaction to the other big money free agent flippers over the last couple of decades.  Not included are players who had been traded right before their free agency. (Think Matt Holliday, C.C Sabithia, Adrian Gonzalez etc.)

Greg Maddux: After winning his first Cy Young in 1992 for Chicago, Maddux signed with the Braves. According to the Hall of Famer, he never got a formal offer from the Cubs. But either the crowd at Wrigley didn’t know that or they didn’t care, because Maddux got a hardy Bronx Cheer. “I pretty much knew it was going to happen,” he said of the booing. Maddux won the game 1-0. He also didn’t harbor any bitterness, because he signed with the Cubs again later in his career.

Barry Bonds: The other big 1993 free agent signing, Bonds went from Pittsburgh to San Fransisco and was greeted with boos and a bucket of fake dollars when he returned to Three River Stadium in April of 1993. He went 2-4 with a double. Bonds got a more mixed reception from the Pirates crowd in April of 2014 when he presented Andrew McCutchen with his MVP award.

Albert Belle: Belle was booed mercilessly, serenaded with his real name of “Joey,” and had fake money thrown at him when he returned to Cleveland in 1997 after signing with the Chicago White Sox. Belle had stunned Cleveland by signing with Chicago, who topped the Indians’ record free agent offer for the slugger. Belle responded by going 3-5 with a home run in the White Sox 9-5 victory. He also flipped the fans the bird on the way off of the field because this is Albert Belle we’re talking about.

Manny Ramirez: Some in the sellout crowd at Jacobs Field brought signs like “Money Ramirez” and “Show My The Manny.” But overall, Ramirez, who had signed with the Red Sox before the 2001 season, got a much kinder welcome back to Cleveland than Belle had. “It doesn’t matter,” Ramirez said. “If they want to cheer me that’s fine. If they want to boo me, that’s fine. My fans are in Boston now so I have nothing to worry about.”

Alex Rodriguez: A-Rod was jeered with Lebron-like animus and showered with fake money when he returned to Seattle in 2001 after signing with the Texas Rangers. “I don’t think it was animosity,” Rodriguez said. “I thought they were loud and not throwing things and supporting their team. I thought it was fun.” Years later, we realize those comments come from a deeply delusional place.

Johnny Damon: He was a beloved “Idiot” for four years, including a World Series title. But the crowd at Fenway made sure to let Damon know how much they disproved of his new digs when he returned as a Yankee in 2006. “The fans aren’t booing me,” Damon correctly surmised. “They’re booing the uniform I’m in.”

Carl Crawford: The Rays were never going to match the Red Sox lucrative offer to Crawford, and that’s why Crawford got a mostly positive response from the crowd at The Trop when he first returned in June of 2011. If he ever comes back as a Dodger, Rays fans should give him multiple standing Os and be grateful their team doesn’t have to pay his terrible contract.

Jayson Werth: Did Philly fans boo Jayson Werth after taking the money and flipping to their division rival Nationals in 2011? Does a bear piss in the woods? They continue to boo him eight to ten teams a year.

Josh Hamilton: The 2010 MVP was booed pretty consistently by the sellout crowd at the Ballpark in Arlington during his April of 2013 return. He had made the situation worse by referring to Dallas as a “football town” after he signed with the Angles. Hamilton should have been used to be being booed by the Ranger crowd; they had already turned on him after a lousy finish to the 2012 season, which ended with him going 0-4 in a loss to the Orioles in the Wild Card game.

Jacoby Ellsbury: He might have helped the Red Sox to a World Series win in 2013, but the Fenway fateful couldn’t got over the center fielder’s pinstripes when he returned early this season after signing with their rival Yankees. Although he was booed before each at-bat, the crowd did have the decency to cheer him during a second inning video tribute to years in Boston.

Albert Pujols: Likely won’t return to St. Louis until 2016. Cardinals fans aren’t boo-ers by nature, and Pujols led them to two World Championships. Also, even with Phat Albert’s recent resurgent, the St. Louis fateful is smart enough to know it’s better Anaheim pay Pujols’ ridiculous salary than their Redbirds.

With their 5-9 start, the league’s worst team has given their few remaining fans little to cheer about. However, the faithful could at least crack a smile this morning when they got word uber-prospect George Springer was being recalled from Triple-A.

Springer, the team’s number one pick in the 2011 draft, exploded in 2013, hitting .303 with 37 homers and 45 stolen bases between Double and Triple-A.  He was off to a great start for the Astros affiliate Oklahoma City this year, slashing .353/.459/.647 while going 4-for-4 stealing bases. He had homered for the second straight game on Tuesday, a grand slam which was part of his 3-4 day. Baseball Prospectus ranks Springer the 20th best prospect in baseball.

Springer is a natural center fielder but has been learning right in the minors this year. He will likely man the corner with the big club since they have Dexter Fowler, one of their few productive players, in center.

“The angles are different, the situations are different, the flight of the ball is not as true,” Springer said of playing center field. “You don’t necessarily have a clean view because of the shift. … I have to adjust to that.”

To make room for Springer, the Astros sent down Robbie Grossman. In a separate move, pitcher Lucas Harrell, who had allowed 14 runs in three starts, was designated for assignment.

Last September, the Astros offered Springer a seven-year, $23M contract. This prompted his agent and the MLBPA to consider filing a grievance; they believe the club was essentially telling Springer unless he signed a team-friendly deal he wouldn’t be called up at the beginning of the 2014, which could push his first free agent payday back a year.

They never did file that grievance, and it would appear that by calling Springer up this early in the season the Astros did give up that year of team control. But the rules of service time are complicated; it’s entirely possible the cost-conscious Astros did wait long enough to delay Springer’s clock. We won’t have a clear answer to that question until Super-2 status is determined later this year.

This in mind, it will be interesting to see if the news of Springer’s recall is followed by news of a deal — maybe a bit more lucrative than what had been reported last September.

That’s what happened in 2008 when the Tampa Bay Rays recalled their top prospect Evan Longoria, and the contract Longoria entered the league with currently ranks as the second best in the Majors.

The best belongs to Mike Trout – the player Astros fans would like squint really hard and compare Springer to. Although he’s still being underpaid, Trout made a nine-figure fortune by not discussing any kind of buyout of arbitration and pre-arb years until he posted the best ever combination of rookie and sophomore years.

Trout’s tale suggests Springer would be wise to hold off on a deal.  On the flipside there have been quite a few players of Springer’s minor league pedigree who have completely flopped. Somewhere in the neighborhood of $30M in guaranteed money could be mighty tempting.

As for fantasy baseball, Springer provides a solid opportunity for steals and home runs. He might not hit for the same type of average in the show, but his power and speed are pretty elite at any level, and he will certainly be getting a lot of playing time for the hapless Astros.

The minor leagues consists of independent leagues, foreign leagues and development leagues for MLB teams.

For the purpose of this article we are going to focus on the developmental leagues, which are made up with what commonly called “farm” teams.  (Because they are “growing” players for the parent club.)

There is a hierarchy of these minor leagues which runs from Rookie to Triple-A. Get the lowdown on the different minor league classification below.

Rookie
Rookie is the lowest level in the minor league system. Rookie leagues play a 60 or 75 game schedule between mid-June and early September. The rookie level starts soon after the baseball draft and is made up of the high school players who were just selected, as well as foreign signees and players developed through the big leagues club’s foreign academies.

There are actually two types of rookie leagues in the minors. The first are called “complex” leagues, which play at their parent club’s spring training complex. No admission is charged to these games and if there is a crowd it is made up of team officials and the players’ families. The Gulf Coast League and Arizona League would be classified as Complex leagues.

Then there are the “Advanced” rookie leagues, in which the players compete in front of paid crowds and there are fewer off days. (These are the Rookie leagues that play the 75 game schedules.) The Appalachian and Pioneer leagues are the two Advanced Rookie Leagues.

Class-A Short Season
Class-A Short Season leagues have the same mid-June to early September schedule as the rookie leagues do, and play 75 game seasons. There are eight Major League parent clubs who don’t have Class-A Short Season teams, instead opting for one complex league rookie team and another advanced league rookie team.

The teams that do use Class-A Short Season use it to place the college players they just drafted, as well as rookie league participants from the year before who were good enough to advance but just not to full season baseball.

Since it is loaded with just drafted college players, Class-A Short Season allows composite bats as a way of helping along the transition from aluminum bats to wood. It is the only classification in professional baseball to make this concession.

The two short season leagues are New York-Penn League and Northwest League.

Class-A
With a 140 game schedule and few off days, Class-Al gives players their first real taste of the demands of Big League baseball. These leagues are mostly players who have graduated from short-season ball, but the occasional college pick will be assigned directly to Class-A mid-season.

The two Class-A leagues are the South Atlantic League and Midwest League.

Class-A Advanced
Often called “High A,” the level of play in Class-A Advanced leagues inches closer to that of the majors. Almost all Class-A Advanced players are in their 20s, and if a 20 or 21 year old puts up good numbers at this level they have made themselves a serious Big League prospect.

The California League, Florida State League and the Carolina League play at this level.

Double-A
Double-A is the level at which hitting weaknesses are exposed and pitchers need a plan, not just raw stuff, to get by. It isn’t uncommon for a prospect to skip from Double-A directly MLB. Although Double-A doesn’t have as many players with Big League experience as Triple-A does, it can be argued it is just as competitive since prospects typically spend more time at Double-A than Triple-A.

The Eastern, Southern and Texas League play at the Double-A level.

Triple-A
Triple-A is the last step for minor league player development. It’s also the parent club’s taxi squad, so it is full of players in their late 20s and early 30s who are no longer prospects but could fill in on the big club if there is an injury or demotion. Many of these “Four A” players have had major league experience and make a decent amount of money playing Triple-A baseball.

Playing against these older, battle-tested baseball lifers can be a good learning experience for the prospects that do get assigned to Triple-A.

Going to the ballpark and taking in a Major League Baseball game is a great way to spend a summer evening. But you know what’s even better? Seeing a Major League Baseball game for cheap.

Yes, watching baseball can be expensive. The average price to buy a seat for a MLB game is twenty-eight dollars. And you can expect to spend at least that much on parking and refreshments when you take yourself out to the ballgame. You can, of course, cut down on the parking expense by not driving to the game and spend less on the concession stand by not ordering that second beer. You can also cut down on your ticket expense by using a few simple steps.

First, you should try to find a discounted ticket online. There are many places you can buy a baseball ticket on the Internet from your favorite team’s website to Stubhub, the online marketplace owned by eBay. But the best place to look for a cheap baseball ticket is on a ticket search site such as SeatGeek.

The way these website work is that they cull data from sixty online secondary ticket markets — including Stubhub, TicketNetwork, TicketsNow and Razorgator — essentially giving you search of all the secondary ticket markets in one search.

You can imagine how this benefits anyone who wants to buy a cheap baseball ticket. Right there, on your screen, is the entirety of the market for ticket at that moment. All you have to do is take out your credit card and buy the least expensive.

There are, however, still other ways to get a cheap baseball ticket. In fact, you can probably get the cheapest baseball ticket possible by doing a little legwork and finding yourself an old-fashion ticket scalper.

While there is no doubt online markets have cut into traditional ticketing scalping, there is still a time period — right before the game begins — in which the best place to buy a ticket is from that shady looking guy standing outside of the stadium. The closer to game time the better because if he doesn’t sell the ticket by the first couple innings it becomes totally worthless.

The drawbacks to buying from a ticket scalper is it might not be technically legal. However the chances you would get in trouble for this buying a scalped ticket astronomically low.

Even better than a cheap ticket is one that doesn’t cost you any money at all and the Internet provides a couple venues in which you can get a baseball ticket without ponying up any cash.

The first is to simply make an appeal on your social media network for a ticket. If you have enough friends on Facebook and Twitter it stands to reason one of them might have season tickets they are not going to use on that particular day and would be willing to give them to you for nothing or a nominal fee.

Another suggestion is to go on Craigslist and offer up an interesting barter for game tickets. A good trade for a free or cheap ticket would be a ride to the game or a nice home cooked meal.

There is also another completely different tact to take when you want to get a cheap baseball ticket: Don’t go to a Major League game. There is minor league baseball in driving distance of just about anywhere in America. And not only are minor league tickets a fraction of the price that charged by their parent clubs, but they also charge a lot less for parking and concessions Cheaper still would be a trip to your local college baseball stadium.

As you can see, there are many ways to get cheap baseball tickets. A lack of funds should never stop anyone from taking in America’s Pastime.