My NC$$ Manual is at home, but I wonder if anyone else can explain the
rule being applied here.  I'm going to guess it has something to do
with SAs receiving "benefits" that other students do not get, such as
getting into the game for free.  However, it seems to me that since
anyone can be asked to throw out the first ball, and that this
decision does not have to be made based on athletics, then such a rule
should not apply.
 
As well, what happened in 1989 with Harvard?  Were they forced to pay,
and were only the seniors allowed to participate?  I don't recall such
a controversy then.
 
The difference between this and a visit to the White House is probably
that admission is required to a baseball game and not the White House.
On the other hand, admission is presumably not required for people
involved in game ceremonies, but I am not sure.  And just as private
donations can pay for a team's trip to Washington, I suppose the
Friends of BU Hockey could come up with the money to get BU into
Fenway.
 
I'm led to think about all of the other times I have seen players at
games, pro or otherwise, and I wonder whether they paid to get in or
not.  In fact, I can tell you that several times I have walked into
certain college rinks behind players from other teams who simply said,
"We're with <School X, not playing that night>," and they were let in
without a ticket - this was through the press entrance, where no
tickets are collected, and they were wearing their "School X" jackets,
too.  Whether the players got in for free or the cost of their tickets
was paid later by the team, this seems to be a benefit not available
to other students.  I suppose it's possible that they were charged for
the tickets later, but that would seem to be a strange way of doing
things.
 
However, I should point out that this season, Heather and I ran into
Merrimack's Matty Adams about a half dozen times at various non-MC
games (Beanpot, HE championship, NC$$ final four) and I *know* that
Matty paid.  Merrimack hasn't attained that kind of status yet. :-)
---                                                                   ---
Mike Machnik                                            [log in to unmask]
Cabletron Systems, Inc.                                    *HMM* 11/13/93