Over the weekend, there were reports out of various MLB ballparks, including in Boston, New York, Washington and Baltimore, that fans could not access tickets through the MLB Ballpark app.
Anecdotally, I heard reports that this spilled over into Monday at Wrigley Field.
Late Wednesday, the Cubs sent this email to fans:
As we continue to enjoy the excitement of baseball at Wrigley Field, we wanted to bring a small but important matter to your attention.
Over the past few days, there have been a few instances
where some account holders have noticed unrecognized transactions on their MLB Ballpark ticket account. In light of this, we wanted to reach out to you personally before your upcoming Cubs game(s) at Wrigley Field. We encourage you to review your account and ensure all tickets appear as expected.
Out of an abundance of caution, we recommend all fans reset their MLB account passwords. You can do so by visiting https://www.mlb.com/forgot-password, entering the e-mail address associated with your account, and clicking “reset my password.”
While reviewing your account, if you notice any resale or ticket forward activity you did not initiate, please contact us at fanservices@cubs.com or 1-800-THE-CUBS. Our team is here to help and will respond promptly with a resolution or next steps.
Thank you. We look forward to seeing you at the Friendly Confines.
The Cubs operate a Facebook group for season-ticket holders. There have been multiple postings in that group from fans who said that their MLB Ballpark app account had been hacked and that, as noted in the email, “unrecognized transactions” were made. This Reddit thread indicates similar things have happened to fans of other teams.
If you attend Cubs games — or any other MLB games — the advice in that email is sound. Go into your MLB.com account via the link noted in the email, or in your Account Settings, and change your password. My recommendation is to do this on a computer and not on your phone. The password will automatically update in the MLB Ballpark app once you’ve done this.
MLB didn’t ask me, but if they did I would also give them this advice: They should enable two-factor authentication for the MLB Ballpark app (and perhaps also for MLB.com accounts in general). For season-ticket holders like me, there can be thousands of dollars worth of tickets in the app. Using 2FA would put another layer of protection for fans who have purchased those tickets, whether season-ticket holders or any others who have purchased tickets.
Anyway, thought you’d all like to know.
