The Baltimore-Washington area celebrated major league baseball like it hadn't in years -- or generations -- when the Orioles and Nationals brought playoff games back to the area last week.
The teams haven't exactly returned that love to their fans, refusing to hand back the service charge collected on ticket deposits for the league championship series.
Both teams lasted five games before getting eliminated from their respective division series, and both took deposits in advance for the next round. Heck, some box office workers might have started licking stamps before the Nationals' ninth-inning collapse.
But while the cost of the tickets themselves have been refunded since both teams' elimination, the $6 service charge on each ticket order has not been returned. Since the New York Yankees were forced to return 90 percent of those fees after initially declining to do so in 2002, most teams give full refunds.
The fresh smell of peanuts and popcorn in October at Nationals Park and Camden Yards appears to have turned to one of greed.
- Craig Stouffer
