Why I’m holding off on Red Sox tickets this year

For the past 20 years or so, I’ve bought tickets to two or three Red Sox games before the season begins. When the tickets went on sale, I’d go online (before online existed, I’d call). And I’d score great seats on the third base line or even behind home plate or the dugout. In the past few years, those tickets have gotten really pricey, over $100 each. But a trip to Fenway with seats close to the action is great experience. You can see players’ expressions, whether they are tense or zeroed in. You can see if a pitcher is nervous and sweating or confident and on his game. The fans are excited and happy. Watching great players at Fenway on a beautiful day or a summer evening is hard to beat.

Of course, it makes all the difference when those players included Mookie Betts, capable of generating a rally with a multi-base hit or making a great catch against the wall.

Or watching Xander Bogaerts knock in the winning run. Or seeing Big Papi approach the plate with men on base. Or back further, Nomar Garciaparra making an extraordinary pick up deep in short to throw out a runner. I have a photo of Johnny Damon leaping high off the grass to make a ridiculous catch in front of the Green Monster.

Like a lot of fans, I have championship tee shirts. I’m partial to my Mookie tee. My dog is named Mookie. My vintage Sox cap is one I see on a lot of guys my age in summers down the Cape and up in Maine and around town. When my son was old enough to sit through a baseball game, I took him to opening day.

No Red Sox tickets for us yet this season. It was bad enough last year watching the Sox give up leads in late innings and leave a million men stranded on base. I thought management would wake up when we finished in last place. Then we watched in horror as Xander, like Mookie, was let go. Not to mention J.D. Martinez, Christian Vasquez and Nate Eovaldi.

There’s a theme echoed by Boston sports writers that the Red Sox Organization takes their audience for granted. With no National League team, the Red Sox are the only professional baseball option in town. And Fenway is a landmark, a must see for tourists with its unique features, its Green Monster, its lack of foul territory and its Pesky Pole. The long, storied history of the team and the way fans are so close to the action — these are all draws.

Maybe we Boston fans were spoiled by the recent success of the Patriots, the Celtics, the Bruins and the Red Sox, but when the Red Sox have the highest price tickets in baseball, they’d better field a winning team or fans like me will just stay home.

According to Alex Cora, Chaim Bloom really cares about the team. Hmmm…