Five dollars.

That is the cheapest professional sports ticket a St. Johns County reader can drive to. It is on the Jumbo Shrimp’s own price page. It is good for two more nights.

Then the baseball season is over.

The Jumbo Shrimp have two home games left. Tonight at 7:05. Saturday at 6:35.

Both against Gwinnett, both at VyStar Ballpark, 301 A. Philip Randolph Blvd. in Jacksonville.

After Saturday the club plays six on the road at Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. That is the year.

The drive

Downtown St. Augustine to the ballpark is 40.9 miles. That is 54 minutes on clear roads.

The football stadium sits a few hundred yards away. That drive is 41.3 miles and 56 minutes.

There is no traffic in that number. There is always traffic.

The club’s directions page, for anyone coming up from the south, says take I-95 north to Emerson Street, exit 347, right on Emerson, over the Hart Bridge, exit Sports Complex, left on Duval, sharp left on Gator Bowl Drive.

One warning about that page. It still calls the football stadium next door TIAA Bank Field. The Jaguars’ own schedule page still calls the Houston stadium Reliant Stadium.

Use both pages for the turns. Not for the names.

What a baseball ticket actually costs

The whole ladder, from the club’s ticket page. Advance price first. Assurance price second.

  • Primrose Little Sluggers Lawn: $5 / $9
  • Outfield Reserved, sections 118 to 120: $7 / $11
  • Power Alley: $15 / $19
  • Field Reserved, sections 101 and 114 to 117: $17 / $21
  • Dugout Reserved, sections 102 to 113: $21 / $25
  • Shrimp Boats: $30 / $34
  • VyStar Crustacean Corner: $35 / $39
  • Wheelhouse Captain’s Chairs: $42 / $46
  • PNC Bank Home Plate Club: $125 / $129

The second column is the exchangeable one.

The page says it can be swapped for a ticket of equal or lesser value to a different game in the same regular season, based on availability, and the swap has to happen at least 24 hours before first pitch, by phone at 904-358-2846 or at the box office.

Two games left. That column is worth less than it was in May.

Anyone with a valid military ID can buy an $11 Dugout seat or a $7 Field seat at the box office for any game, subject to availability. The same page says so.

The box office opens three hours before first pitch. It stays open through the end of the game.

Parking is the other ticket

The club states it plainly. It does not control any parking inside the sports complex.

Street parking, lots run by ASM Global, private garages and the Jacksonville Fairgrounds are the options its page lists, at $5 to $20 a vehicle depending on what else is happening in the complex that night.

One person, one lawn seat, one cheap space. The floor is ten dollars before gas.

Outside food and drink are not permitted at VyStar. The exception is a medical disclaimer.

Clear bags are allowed up to 16 by 16 by 12 inches.

Where the season stands

Jacksonville is 70-70. That is a .500 winning percentage, sixth in the ten-team International League East and 14.5 games behind Rochester, which is 84-55, off the league’s own standings.

Gwinnett is 73-68. Fifth in the West.

Wednesday went 8-0 to Gwinnett. Thursday went 10-2 the same way.

The schedule lists no promotion attached to either remaining home game.

The club’s weekly specials page describes standing ones: wear red to the box office on a Friday and the page says you save a dollar on a ticket, or you can donate that dollar instead, and every Friday home game gets a postgame fireworks show.

On Saturdays the first 2,000 people through the centerfield gates get a giveaway item. Gates at 5 for a 6:35 start.

Both games go out on Bally Sports Live and MiLB.TV, with internet audio on both the home and away sides.

That is the version without I-95.

Twenty-nine men, sixteen of them pitchers

The active roster the league publishes has 29 names on it. Sixteen are pitchers.

That leaves three catchers, two shortstops, one second baseman, one third baseman, one first baseman and five outfielders to cover eighteen innings in two nights.

Triple-A in September is a bullpen league.

Tonight’s probables are JR Ritchie for Gwinnett and Karson Milbrandt for Jacksonville. Saturday it is Cedric De Grandpre and Patrick Monteverde.

The catcher hitting eighth is the one working hardest. Nobody is going to put his name on the video board.

Sunday, football, and a price nobody prints

The Jaguars open the regular season Sunday at 1 p.m. against Cleveland at EverBank Stadium, 1 EverBank Stadium Drive. Television is CBS47 and Paramount+. Radio is 1010XL, 92.5 FM and 99.9 FM.

Neither the Jaguars’ tickets page nor their single-game tickets page publishes a price for a single seat at a single game.

Both route you to season tickets, group tickets, premium seating, London packages and the NFL Ticket Exchange.

There is no number here because there is no number there.

A Triple-A club puts nine price tiers on one screen. The NFL club puts a button.

Parking at the football stadium, and the bus that gets you in

Stadium-operated lot passes are sold out for the 2026 season. That is the team’s own parking page.

It names Tailgaters Parking Lot, the Sports Complex Garage, the Arena Garage and Old Cypress as cash lots within walking distance.

It does not publish their prices either.

The Farah and Farah Game Day Shuttle runs free from Lot S, Lot X, Lot Z, Met Park and Old Cypress for every home game, starting three hours before kickoff and running until an hour after the finish.

The JTA does publish a price.

Gameday Xpress is a round trip from a secure lot to the stadium and back. Parking is included in the pass:

  • Downtown lots, Kings Avenue Parking Garage at 1201 Kings Ave. and FSCJ Downtown at 900 N. Laura St.: $10 single game, $60 season
  • Suburban lots, the Beaches Lot at Wingate and the Northside Armsdale Park-n-Ride: $15 single game, $80 season

It is cashless. Passes have to be bought on the MyJTA app, and the JTA says buy before game day.

For Sunday, boarding starts at 11 a.m. for the 1 p.m. kickoff. The last bus back leaves an hour after the game ends.

You can carry two factory-sealed 16.9-ounce water bottles into EverBank.

There are refill stations at the fountains. Free cups at the Guest Services booths.

The clear bag rule there is tighter than at the ballpark: a clutch no bigger than 4.5 by 6.5 inches, a one-gallon clear plastic bag, or a clear bag no bigger than 12 by 6 by 12.

If you do not have a car

This trip is built for one.

The Sunshine Bus charges $2 a one-way trip, $1 for students and seniors and riders with disabilities, $4 for a day pass and $30 for a month, per its fares page.

Its site says it offers regional connecting options to Putnam and Duval County transit systems.

Its published schedule carries nine routes and 65 stops.

The northernmost stop is the Publix at Palencia, at latitude 30.0123. VyStar Ballpark sits at 30.3253.

Its service calendar runs Monday through Saturday. No Sunday service at all.

Tonight and Saturday are at least theoretically reachable by transfer.

Sunday’s football game is not reachable by county bus at any price.

The home dates worth writing down

At EverBank, from the schedule page:

Sept. 13, 1 p.m., Cleveland. Sept. 27, 1 p.m., New England. Nov. 1, 1 p.m., Indianapolis. Nov. 29, 4:05 p.m., Tennessee. Dec. 14, 8:15 p.m., a Monday, Pittsburgh. Washington is listed at home with no date and no time.

Two more games list the Jaguars as the home team. Neither is in Jacksonville.

Oct. 11 against Philadelphia is at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Oct. 18 against Houston is at Wembley. Both kick at 9:30 a.m. Eastern on FOX30 and NFL Network.

Do not trust the week numbers on those two. The schedule grid calls them Week 5 and Week 6. The paragraph underneath the grid calls them Week 4 and Week 5.

The dates match in both places. Use the dates.

The Jaguars list one long snapper on the roster page: Ross Matiscik, No. 46, 6 feet, 240 pounds, out of Baylor.

One job. Every special teams snap. And if Sunday afternoon goes the way it is supposed to, the broadcast will not say his name once.

Tonight’s first pitch is 7:05. The lawn is five dollars.