MLB players still have to pay for MLB tickets

Ted Berg, USA TODAY Sports | USATODAY

Cincinnati Reds pitcher Mat Latos. (PHOTO: Jake Roth/USA TODAY Sports)

You might assume baseball players get all the free tickets they want, and that life as a Major Leaguer is pretty much puppydogs and daffodils and giant stacks of front-row tickets for all your family and friends. But alas.

Dallas Latos, wife of Cincinnati Reds pitcher Mat Latos, pulls back the curtain at her blog for MLB.com and explains that players get discounted but hardly free tickets:

We are allotted 4 family tickets and 2 friends tickets to purchase at around 40% of their face value, which varies from ballpark to ballpark.

One of my golden rules is to not discuss money with strangers but rules were made to be broken and there's no other way to bring this situation to light. In 2010 (Mat's first full year in the big leagues), we left tickets for every long lost cousin's estranged best friend without even thinking twice. It didn't seem like a big deal and we were just happy and excited to have support in the stands. At the end of that year, it was brought to our attention by our financial advisor that we had spent a collective $14,000 on tickets. Fourteen. Thousand. Dollars. That's a huge insanity pie no matter which way you slice it. It was at that moment and without hesitation that we decided we would never do that again.

OK, I know what you're thinking: Mat Latos makes so much money playing baseball that he should be happy to shell out 14 grand to have family members in the stands regularly. But Latos made about $460, 000 in 2011 – a lot, no doubt, but hardly set-for-life type money. One of the main things about pitching careers is how quickly they can end, so it's impossible to blame the Latoses for being responsible with their income. And don't forget that they have an obligation to take care of their cat, Cat Latos.

Follow Ted Berg on Twitter at @OGTedBerg.