Annual Fundraiser To Raise Money For Nonprofit Gym Facility

The Journey Forward Foundation is currently working with Jason Varitek with his efforts to support them. Journey Forward is a non profit gym that helps people with spinal cord injuries recover. The raffle includes the following prizes;
• Winner and a guest will enjoy 2 tickets (1 each) to the Boston Red Sox March 27, 2010
Spring Training game against the Baltimore Orioles at Ed Smith Field in Sarasota Florida
and 2 tickets (1 each) to the March 28, 2010 game against the Minnesota Twins at
Palms Park Field in Fort Myers, Florida (Game Times 1:05 PM)
• Winner and a guest will enjoy dinner with Jason Varitek in Florida
• Winner will receive $1,500 for travel and other expenses
• Winner and guest will each receive an autographed Jason Varitek 8 X 10 Photo
The tickets for the raffle are only $2 each (min 5) and the proceeds benefit a great cause. For more information or to purchase tickets visit Celebrities for Charity Web Site

Full Press Release:

(Randolph, MA) – March 6, 2010 – The Journey Forward Foundation is putting on an event like no other for one night. Journey Forward will be hosting their annual Casino Night at Lombardos. The night will consist of popular casino games, an auction with amazing prizes, and food and drinks to be enjoyed by all. Tickets for the event are $125. The first event, Casino Night, has a ticket that includes $1,000 play money, drink tickets, dinner, and a great evening. This event will not only be benefiting a remarkable foundation but allowing people to enjoy giving back. For more information regarding the event and to purchase tickets please visit www.journeyforwardevents.org or call 978-749-6700.

The second is a raffle that includes a dinner with Jason Varitek. The raffle closes on Monday, March 22, 2010 at 9:00 AM EDT.

• Winner will receive 2 tickets to Red Sox Spring Training games in Ft. Myers, FL on March 27 and March 28.
• Winner and guest will enjoy a dinner with Jason Varitek.
• Winner will receive $1,500 for traveling expenses during the trip.

The online raffle will take place at www.netraffle.org with tickets costing $2.00 each and a minimum purchase of 5 tickets. This gives every fan a chance.

About Journey Forward

Journey Forward was founded by Dan Cummings who was paralyzed one day while going for a swim with his friends. Dan was diagnosed a C6 quadriplegic and was in ICU for four weeks. Dan fought to live and showed improvement but was told there was a good possibility of never walking again. Dan promised to anyone that would listen that he would walk again and after three years in Boston and four years in California he did. Dan realized that his new mission was to make the program he used in California easily accessible to those in need so he moved back to Boston and began Journey Forward. Journey Forward is a non profit organization that is dedicated to bettering the lives of those who have suffered a Spinal Cord Injury through an intense exercise program. Journey Forward’s exercise program is designed to assists those with Spinal Cord Injuries so that they can achieve basic lifelong functions and receive the benefits.

About the Celebrities for Charity Foundation

The Celebrities for Charity Foundation was established in 1997 to assist charities in obtaining celebrity support for their organization fun raising and charitable purposes. It was also established to support celebrities in fulfilling their philanthropic aspirations. CFC is professionally managed by volunteers and provides celebrities with advice, fulfillment services, state of the art technology and a 501 ( c ) ( 3 ) public charity vehicle from which they can conduct their charitable work. Over the past 11 years Celebrities for Charity has donated $2 million of memorabilia and funds to over 1,000 different causes. www.celebritiesforcharity.org

One of the big questions that seems to be on the minds of people everywhere is what will David Ortiz bring to the table in the way of offense and make impressive strides towards being a team player this year. The answer to this question is simply that “Big Papi” will be a major player in the roster of the Red Sox and as a result I assure you that there will be an improvement in the record of last season.

There have been a lot of off season trades going around to get the big players to sign, including the biggest one of them all Roy Halladay who wound up signing with the Phillies, even Boston at one point was in the deal to get the pitcher from the Blue Jays to sign. In the end though they lost out on the deal. There is a bit of relief in the fact that the Boston Red Sox signed outfielder Mike Cameron to a two year deal that will give the player a reported $15.5 million contract. This is just a drop in the bucket compared to other players and what they are pulling down. Let’s just say that the Boston Red Sox have a salary of $170 million that they will be paying players this season.

In addition to Cameron John Lackey has decided to place his name on the dotted line and sign with the Boston Red Sox. This is a big deal given that Lackey was the most sought after free agent on the market. These off the field accusations have given the Boston Red Sox to believe that this will be the year that they return to the World Series and dare they dream of actual winning the whole thing once again. This is a distinct possibility that is likely to happen without any real trouble. All of the elements are in place on the Boston Red Sox Roster to make this the best season that they have had in quite a long time. There will be a lot of players that will be sure to see where the team will end up at the end of the season and make their decision if they will sign with the Boston Red Sox in 2011 or not. This could be the year that the Boston Red Sox go to the big game and in the end win it all.

Shane Hill is a huge fan of the Red Sox. Check out his Boston Red Sox Watch or his New England Patriots Watch.

Seating Map for 2010

Tickets for September games as well as April and early May (again, excluding the Yankees) are already on sale and are actually quite readily available if you’re willing to take the weather risk.

Yankees games, Monster Seats, and Budweiser Roof Deck seats will most likely be available only by winning an email lottery again this year.

So get comfortable in front of your computer(s) and get ready to start Virtually Waiting.

See you there!

The Virtual Waiting Room - my screensaver for the day

Please wait for us to refresh your browser! I didn’t get through the Virtual Waiting Room until after 3:00 Saturday and didn’t have a lot of hope to get any tickets… but it turns out that there were plenty still available. I managed to get 2 infield grandstands for the Patriots Day Pack (Pack 2) and 4 Bleacher tickets for Pack #10. I also got through later at night for the April/May game on sale and got a pair of uppers for a couple random Thursday night games. Not great seats, but even after the fees, you’re in Fenway Park for less than $20.

I think the reason so many tickets were available so late is because nobody was getting through for a lot of the day. The Red Sox claim their system accommodates 500 people at a time. That may be true normally, but according to WBZ, the Red Sox server crashed at least twice during the weekend. Maybe they can use some of that extra money we all had to shell out this weekend and invest in some load balancing tools… Or better yet, upgrade your servers to allow more than 500 and give me 3 or 4 Saturday mornings per year back.

Tickets are a little bit more expensive this year, with Bleacher tickets rising to $28 (Though the Uppers are still $12) and Infield Grandstand’s up to a whopping $52 per game. Of course, when you buy them over the internet, convenience fees will add probably around $7 per ticket.

I suspect the 4-packs will be more popular since they include Yankees tickets, so its probably wise to go after those first. My favorites are going to be Opening Day, Patriots Day, Splindid Splinter with a Saturday Yankees game in May, and the Extra Innings pack that includes a Sunday Yankees game. There are 2 weekend series on sale as well that will be the best tickets to buy in the general on-sale. This is the Rays on the weekend of April 16 and the Orioles on the weekend of April 24.

Hope to see you there!

2010 Sox Pax are announced, and they look very similar to last year. With the Yankees coming in to open the season, the Opening Day Pack is clearly the most desirable, if for only that 1 game. The Patriots Day Pack looks good too, given that it includes both a Yankees Game and the Patriots Day game. That one, I’m sure, will be the next to sell out.

They have one called the Yankee Pack, which includes an October game against the Yankees, but those last weekend games are always risky given that, more often than not, those games turn in to AAA games while the starters are rested for the playoffs. Still, if it does end up coming down to the last series of the year to decide the division or the playoffs, that may be the best pack out there.

The rest of the packs are somewhat desirable – Packs 7 and 8 also have Yankee games on that last weekend, so if you’re the gambling type, go ahead and go for those.

The one thing I will mention about the Pax is that there really aren’t many tickets available. Even if you are the first customer to break through the Virtual Waiting Room, you aren’t going to get very good seats. The Sox Pax look attractive, but you’re pretty much stuck with the bad seats in Fenway for whichever games you get. This often includes the Right Field Granstand corner seats – sections 1-6, and Bleacher seats that probably won’t be below row 25. Still, it’s a great way to get some coveted Yankees and weekend tickets without having to win a lottery or pay twice the price on a site like Stubhub.

You can check out the dates from the official Red Sox site as well.

I think I am most impressed simply by the fact that he can remember all of these.