Buffalo baseball fans aren't missing the opportunity to see top pitching prospect Stephen

Strasburg. Tickets are selling fast for the 1:05 p.m. game Thursday against the Syracuse

Chiefs at Coca-Cola Field.

As of Tuesday, more than 9,500 tickets were sold, more than half of Coca-Cola field's

18,000-seat capacity. All of the 100 level special reserved seats, stretching from dugout to

dugout, have been sold.

Ticket sales are already above average for a weekday afternoon game, which normally draws

6,000 to 8,000 fans.

The Bisons are encouraging fans to buy tickets in advance at www.bisons.com and print them

online at home to avoid long lines on game day at ballpark will call windows. For fans who

have already purchased their tickets online, they can use their transaction number to pick up

tickets today. The box office will be open from 9 a.m. until the end of tonight's 7:05 game

and will reopen at 9 a.m. on Thursday.

"You don't want to be in line at the box office if you are here to see Stephen Strasburg,"

Bisons public relations director Brad Bisbing said.

Gates will open at 11:30 a.m. on Thursday, a half-hour earlier than usual.

Strasburg has posted a 3-1 record and 1.27 ERA in five games with the Chiefs. He has

allowed 15 hits and struck out 33 batters in 28⅓ innings. He went 3-1 with a 1.65 ERA

in five starts with Double-A Harrisburg. The 6-foot-4 pitcher boasts a 100 mph fastball and

signed a $15.1 million contract with the Washington Nationals last August.

Syracuse has averaged 11,718 fans in Strasburg's four home starts, twice its average. His

first start May 7 drew a record 13,776 fans at Alliance Bank Stadium.

Turnout for Thursday's game is expected to compare, as fans crowded ticket booths at lunch

time Tuesday and continued to come and go throughout the afternoon.

North Tonawanda resident Ken DeMarco, who purchased his ticket mid-afternoon, typically

goes to three or four Bisons games a year, but said Thursday will already mark his third for

the season.

"I just want to see him throw," DeMarco said. "If he's going to be a big name, I want to

see him when he's just starting out."

For Phil Leone of West Seneca, Thursday's game is a rare opportunity to see someone with

"so much talent."

"It'd be like having someone's rookie card, but only in person," he said.

John Peose of Lake View traded in tickets to another game for Thursday's. He claimed to

have been turned down by Strasburg when he asked him for his autograph in the parking lot

before Monday's Buffalo-Syracuse game.

"He wasn't as tall as I thought," Peose said.

But John Gangloff, a longtime Bison season-ticket holder, has not fallen for the Strasburg

hype. The North Tonawanda resident was buying tickets for friends and family Tuesday.

"I've seen so many, that it's just another game," Gangloff said. "But it'd be nice if this

guy could make something of himself."