The night before last one of our children came home from school in tears. This is a confusing moment for any parent, and it is even more confusing when the child has trouble talking through their tears. You see there was a message sent out from that school about a Norfolk Tides baseball game and how to purchase tickets. Both my wife and I had missed it.
Being a big baseball fan I jumped on the opportunity to go with my family to a baseball game. I got on the phone and purchased the tickets through some third party website that I was under the impression was set up to resell the group tickets the school had purchased. It linked to my Ticketmaster account and made me sign in to the Tides website before I could use the tickets. I learned the latter part of this standing at the gate trying to get in.
Eventually we did get in. I was able to load the tickets and walk into the stadium. Because I am me we were the first people from Linkhorn Park to arrive or at least we were the first in our section. A tiny little section all the way down the left field line. Really not the best view and tickets that sold for $12 in 2024 and that I purchased through some third party that I have no idea who they are connected to anymore for $23.
It wasn’t until later in the night that I learned the true horrors of automation. It was when the music teacher showed up in our section around the 4th inning to tell us we were in the wrong section or that she had no idea why or how we were sold tickets in a section one level and seven sections away. Automation is how. After dealing with Google on my Google reviews I know the horrors and signs of over automation. No person had a hand in this.
Fast forward to the seventh inning of the first game. The kids were scheduled to sing the anthem before the second game of a twin bill, and because it is minor leagues the games are shortened to seven inning affairs. So the music teacher said bring the kids over during the seventh inning. Unfortunately the seventh inning saw Gwinnett bat around to the tune of seven runs in an inning most coming from two multi-run home runs.
At first I was waiting behind the section but as the inning went on and on and on the ushers started to become a little aggressive towards the parents and for the first time in my entire life of going to baseball games the ushers actually tried to control the children. I first went to a baseball game when A-Rod was on the Mariners and I have never seen ushers every try and control children. The normal procedure is to let them run around like crazy yelling, “Ball, ball, ball,” at any baseball player they see.
There is more to the story but my timer is up and I am ready to start the day, but I have made my point about automation, the loss of paper tickets, and how that all trickled down to a moment where I wanted to knock an ushers head off for something I’ve wished ushers would do for a very long time. All of it could have been avoided with a stack of paper tickets sold directly to the PTA, a paper form sent home with ways to pay for the tickets, and either the tickets being sent home with the kids or parents being able to pick up from the office at designated times.
Instead we got sales from a mystery third party site, group sales scattering the group all over the stadium, and absolute chaos in trying to get the kids where they needed to be to sing the anthem while the baby Orioles got their heads caved in. As automation spreads people and businesses need to remember the point is to make life easier and when it doesn’t it shouldn’t be automated.
David Huzzard Writes 