Apologies to anyone who dropped $1,600 to go to Game 3 of the World Series, because Nic Peischl is going for 42 bucks.
Yes, tonight the Philly-area native is making the two-hour trek to Nationals Park to claim his seat in section 304. There, he’ll join DC’s most financially secure in rattling their diamond bracelets in support for the home team, all for less than the cost of five domestic beers at the ballpark.
“How did Peischl game the system?” the non-Kalorama-elites may ask. Simple: he believed in his team. Using a platform called Lunatix, Peischl bet $42 in mid-September that the Washington Nationals would play in Game 3 of the World Series. If they made it, he’d get a ticket to the game.
Though the Nationals were performing far better in September than in their abysmal start of a season, making it to the Series was still a long shot for a Wild Card team that would have to unseat the top-ranked LA Dodgers.
“Up until the 8th inning of the Wild Card game when they came back, it wasn’t looking good for [my bet],” Peischl says.
He also gambled on tickets for Game 4 and 7. The $126 he dropped in September has given him a return worth roughly $3,325 for Games 3 and 4, and closer to $4,300 if there’s a Game 7.
But if anyone deserves to go to the Series on the cheap, it might be Peischl. A man who rejected his hometown Phillies (respect), he became a Montreal Expos fan when he was seven despite having no ties to Canada. When the franchise was relocated to DC in 2004 to become the Nats, Peischl continued to root for his childhood Canadian idols, happy to have his game-day drive shortened from eight hours.
“All along I had a feeling this year that this was the year…even though I feel that every year,” Peischl says. “There’s something special about this year’s team. After watching them for 21 years, there’s something intangible in the camaraderie of this team; they’ve got a great mix of veteran guys and young studs who are all hungry. They’ve suffered so many heartbreaking losses, it’s just their time.”
Jane is a Chicago transplant who now calls Cleveland Park her home. Before joining Washingtonian, she wrote for Smithsonian Magazine and the Chicago Sun-Times. She is a graduate of Northwestern University, where she studied journalism and opera.
