A die-hard Cubs fan is auctioning off her extra ticket to Saturday’s Game 2 of the National League Division Series at Wrigley Field to the person who donates the most money to the Mayo Clinic for research on esophageal cancer, the disease that killed her uncle and best friend’s father.
Anna Patras, a 24-year-old Cubs fan whose sly tactics to follow games during class landed her several middle-school detentions, hopes the extra ticket she snagged during the postseason ticket lottery will help raise a good chunk of money for the Rochester, Minn.-based clinic, a nonprofit medical practice and research group.
Patras announced in an online posting
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Tuesday that bidding for the Section 233, Row 11 seat will be open until 6 p.m. Friday, and the highest bid will be donated to the clinic. The online posting links to the clinic’s philanthropy page.With tickets for Saturday’s game listed between $137 to $20,000 on the secondary market, Patras advertises the opportunity as what could be “your only chance at getting a seat in Wrigley during this historic season.”
Patras is a lifelong fan who in middle school got in trouble for listening to games on a Walkman device during class. She said she wore all black in the days following the 2003 game against the Florida Marlins, when Steve Bartman, then a 26-year-old fan, entered Cubs folklore by trying to catch a foul ball that left fielder Moises Alou hoped to catch with the Cubs five outs away from their first National League pennant in 45 years.
After growing up in Crystal Lake, Patras moved to Minneapolis to attend college at the University of Minnesota. She stayed for two years after she graduated, flying between Minneapolis and Chicago to attend postseason Cubs games.
She recently moved back to the Chicago area and is living near Wrigleyville, working in health care consulting.
When Patras discovered she was among the lucky fans able to buy tickets through the lottery, she logged into the website, saved her credit card information and mentally prepared herself for the moment when she would clear the online queue.
“I went for four tickets on Saturday because we could make a whole day of it. Then it said it wasn’t available. I melted. I broke down,” she said. Then, she realized she didn’t have to get four tickets and took a shot at three seats in a row. That worked.
“I didn’t even see how much it was, I just put it through. After the fact people were asking me all these questions, but I didn’t know the answers. It was all a blur.”
For Patras, it was a given that she would go to the game with her older brother, who introduced her to baseball as a child and has never been to a playoff game. But the third ticket presented a dilemma. Patras, who didn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings, wasn’t sure whether to give it to one of her two sisters or a friend.
“Then I had an epiphany — to donate the ticket,” she said. “Whoever donates the most gets the ticket.”
The auction is Patras’ second fundraiser for esophageal cancer research in two years. Last year, she helped raise more than $5,000 by encouraging about 30 runners in Chicago and Minneapolis to run in each city’s Monster Dash, with participants and spectators making “donation bets” during the race. For example, someone could bet $50 on whether a runner could finish the race within a certain time limit, Patras said.
Patras said she hopes to keep organizing annual fundraisers for esophageal cancer research and try to find some sort of Cubs theme to go along with each one. It’s always fun to “get people involved instead of just asking for money,” she said.
Twitter @marwaeltagouri