The Nats are one game away from the World Series. The game starts in less than two hours. You have a ticket. But it's nowhere to be found.
A diehard Washington Nationals fan's heart sunk when his ticket disappeared Tuesday night before the Nats' final NLCS game versus the St. Louis Cardinals.
As luck would have it, News4's Shomari Stone found the ticket. Hundreds of retweets and less than a half-hour later, the fan was headed to the game.
As Stone was preparing to be on air at Nats Park at 6 p.m., he spotted an envelope near the front gate. There was a ticket to the game inside, for $144, paid for by a man named James.
Stone asked his more than 143,000 Twitter followers to help.
"WOW. I just found a great ticket to the Washington @Nationals game on the sidewalk, a block from the front gate," Stone wrote. "I hope the owner is on Twitter. I’m tagging #NATS fans in hopes of finding him. His first name is James. James, I’m located at the front gate. #NLCS #STAYINTHEFIGHT."
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Before long, a man in a Nats vest barrelled down the street looking distressed. It was Rich McAvoy. He said the ticket was a gift from his boss, James Kontzamanys.
"I was about to pay four hundred dollars — whatever it took to get in there," he said.
"Well, here's your ticket," Stone replied.
McAvoy hugged him twice and offered to buy him a beer, which Stone had to decline. He said he was happy to help.
"If I lost my ticket, I would want someone to help me," he said.
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CORRECTION (6:36 p.m., Oct. 16, 2019): An earlier version of this article said Kontzamanys got the ticket back from Stone, but it was his employee Rich McAvoy.
