Cleveland Indians closer Chris Perez criticized the team’s fans over the weekend because they have not been flocking to Jacobs Field to watch the Indians, who are off to a good start, the way they did back in the 1990s.

Does anyone else find it a little annoying for someone making $4.5 million a year to be telling someone who might be making $50,000 a year to pay inflated prices to watch a baseball game?

I don’t have a drawer full of 1990s-vintage Indians ticket stubs to compare with today’s prices, but I did find one from a 1996 trip to Fenway Park. I sat in the field boxes, seven rows from the field, between home plate and the third-base dugout for $23. That same ticket costs $135 this year, if you can find one in that location. If the price had risen at the same rate as inflation the last 16 years, that ticket should cost $34 today.

Maybe if Perez looked at the dollars and cents, it would make sense to him why there are so many empty seats.

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