Its that time of the year again - baseball fever is spreading like wildfire, and tickets are selling faster than hotdogs. So, your team is playing, and you have to be there. What are your options for buying World Series tickets before there are none left to buy?

First the traditional method. Pick up the phone and try to purchase tickets from the team during the scheduled sale period. The bad news, of course, is that these tickets usually sell out within 30 minutes flat. Solution? If the ticket agency or team provides multiple phone numbers to call, get all your friends and family organized to call as many times as possible across the multiple numbers.

Another way of getting your hands on those precious tickets is to identify those among your network of contacts (friends, family members or coworkers) who are season ticket holders for one of the teams. Season ticket holders usually get an option to buy tickets at the face value price. See, it pays to keep in touch!

Alternately, you can surf the Internet. Log on to the tickets section of the team's website but lets be honest, hoping that the team is going to have tickets on sale is a total shot in the dark.

Besides the team website, other sites, such as Tickets 4 U, offer World Series tickets. This is how it works - season ticket holders who, for whatever reason, are not able to make it to the game, post their tickets for sale on the site. As a result, these sites often sell the best seats in the house. Of course, playoff tickets dont come cheap. But you can also find tickets for more affordable sections on these sites.

And then there are always the ticket broker websites from where you can purchase tickets. Your ticket may be just a google click away.

A word of caution please do buy tickets ONLY from reputable agents / brokers / intermediaries. You dont want to buy a ticket and then not get to see the game because what you bought was a scam ticket (yes it does happen), do you?

So how does reputable translate on the net? In webspace, the site that you are conducting the transaction with should be secure, first of all. Second of all, they should have a past history that vouches for their integrity in dealings with customers. Tip - a seal of approval from the Better Business Bureau, Verisign or other such authorities is a good sign.

Remember if you buy your World Series tickets well in advance of the game (before opponents are finalized), there is a good chance of getting tickets at better prices. At this point the demand for tickets will be lower so the chances of finding exactly the seat you want from a site like Tickets 4 U is all the better.