Here’s a neat four-bagger for ticket collectors: three ducats from the historic 1973 National League Championship Series and a gleaming 2014 All-Star Game ticket from Target Field in Minneapolis, all four in remarkably pristine and thoroughly unperforated condition. The juxtaposition of the four full tickets unintentionally shines a startling spotlight on the economics of Major League Baseball, eyeballing the jump in the cost of planting your fanny in a box seat of two marquee events spaced four decades apart. We'll start with the three handsome tickets to Shea Stadium for that tumultuous 1973 affair, a three-ticket panel of 6 ½-by-7 inches that would have ushered the bearer to a $7 Box Seat for Games Three, Four and Five of the NLCS. The tickets are easily Ex-Mt to Near-Mint, with no discernible issues, and boast superb color and gloss. As serious fans know, that Game Three turned into one of the great postseason brawls in history after the scrawny and beloved Metsies All-Star shortstop Buddy Harrelson tussled with that big meanie the Cincinnati Reds’ Pete Rose, the 1973 National League Batting Champion, as Pete tried to break up a double play in the top of the fifth. Benches emptied and the usual WWE pantomime ensued, with the aggravation heightened for the Flushing Meadow Faithful by the horrific images of the hefty Rose beating up on our Little Bud. With no ejections assessed, Rose rumbled out to left field for the bottom of the inning and the fans objected loudly. Fair enough, but then they started throwing stuff, half-empty cans of Rheingold Beer at first, but when a whiskey bottle (obvious contraband) narrowly missed Petey doing his best gymnastics, Reds Manager Sparky Anderson pulled his club off the field. With National League President Chub Feeney warning of a possible forfeit, Mets stalwarts Willie Mays, Yogi Berra, Tom Seaver, Rusty Staub and Cleon Jones hustled out to left field to calm the agitated. “Look at the scoreboard,” a pleading Mays insisted. “We're ahead, Let ’em play the game.” Order restored, the Mets won and wrapped up the Series two days later, only to collide with the Oakland Athletics Dynasty in the World Series later than month. But we're not going to talk about that. No such rowdiness would mar the 2014 All-Star Game in Minneapolis, won by the home American League, 5-3. The victory came near the middle of a hideous streak from 1988-2022 when the Junior Circuit put up an obnoxious 26-6-1 log over that span. I'll stop now. The elegant 9-by-8-inch tri-ticket features three unperforated elements boasting all the modern glitz and glamour. The elegant ticket provides for admission to All-Star Sunday, the Home Run Derby on Monday and the All-Star Game itself on Tuesday. The cost is $75, $275 and $295 respectively, making that raucous NLCS from a mere 41 years earlier look like a pretty sweet deal.