Phillies Extra

ATLANTA - It was a fine gesture when Florida Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria stopped Roy Halladay in a tunnel underneath Sun Life Stadium to tell him he was having the pitching rubber dug up for Hallday to keep after his perfect game.

But now, Florida has taken commemorating the perfect game one step further.

On Tuesday, the Marlins sold more than 3,000 tickets for Halladay's perfect game. Yes, tickets for a game that already had been played.

See, since only 25,086 (cough, cough) actually paid for tickets to the game, the Marlins have plenty of unused stubs left over. And, well, they're going to make some money off them.

Florida is selling all of the unused tickets at face value on the team's website. Marlins president David Samson told reporters the majority of those 3,000 who bought tickets were from the Philadelphia area.

So if your friend magically displays a ticket from the perfect game in his house, don't automatically assume he was there to witness history.

The tickets sold after the game will even count toward the official paid attendance.

A lot of people have been critical of the Marlins' profiteering, but why not? It's a good chance to make some dough and provide fans with a souvenir.

"I certainly would not have expected that a team doing its job - we are a team with a low revenue . . . trying to raise revenue, I would not have expected this to get any attention," Samson told reporters on Tuesday.

Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. laughed when asked whether he would buy a few tickets of his own. He sat in the stands with his half brother, also named Ruben, for the majority of Halladay's perfect game. His brother already had Halladay sign a few tickets.

"I'm holding onto those bad boys," Amaro said.