It was May 2 when I hit rock bottom in my frustration with the baseball fans in this town. The Indians had started 9-15, and they hadn't looked good doing it, so the city wasn't responding to them by buying tickets. Yes, it was April, and it was cold.
What will be their excuse next week when the Tigers come to town with the Tribe in a pennant race and the temperature around 80? I'd be surprised if more than 25,000 people are there Monday night. The mid-90's are a distant memory. And people wonder why the Indians don't play all that well at home.
I was on my way to the Browns game tonight when Grady stole home in the first inning with 2 outs, and an 0-2 count on Hafner, so I still haven't seen the film of it, but it sure seemed to stoke the team. Hafner hit the ball out to the centerfield hotel a couple of pitches later, and they didn't look back. (Yes, I was listening to the Indians on the radio at the Browns game).
They arrive home Monday with the best August record in major league baseball, and a real chance to be playing in October. Let's hope some people in Cleveland remember what that can be like.
**More on the Browns game later, but the award for most creative new T-shirt tonight goes to......the "Kellen Knievel" model, with the tight end's face on Evel's red, white and blue jumpsuited body. It's OK to laugh at that, isn't it?
UPDATE 8/29: The announced attendance for tonight's comeback win was 22,713, although 5,000 of those were giveaways. Not good.
Posted by dan at August 27, 2005 01:37 AMI have to disagree with you regarding the indians attendence. I was there in the 90's, and the 80's and the 70's for that matter (I have the ticket stubs to prove it). Why I won't go now is because of ownership. I love this team, I think they are fun to watch and we have some real tallent.
When I hear the owner say the only way we can increase payroll is if attendence rises, I vowed I would not step foot into the Jake until that line of thinking stops.
I've paid my dues, I've bought the tickets, I've bought the over priced beer, I've taken clients to the games and spent thousands. Now, when I'm older, have kids, a mortgage, a less vibrant economy, I have to hear, we will not improve the team unless you come and spend MORE. I won't go, out of principle.
I listen to every game (radio is much better than TV for baseball), I have season Browns tickets, I too was listening in my seats in section 119. I have enough indians garb to dress in red white and blue for a month. Don't tell me I have to spend more to get a quality product.
I think the difference in the ownership is traced back to the the owners occupations. Jacobs was a businessman, he knew he had to gamble, spend money to make money. Dolan, he's a lawyer, more calculating and less opportunistic. Also alienating.
I don't want to sound too over the wall, but in my opinion Dolan has to EARN my attendence, his remarks have pushed me away and I'm a long way from coming back.
Posted by: tadvent at August 30, 2005 01:50 PMThanks for stopping to comment. Actually, there isn't too much we disagree about. I am no Dolan fan, much less someone who thinks he has "earned" or deserves the unquestioning support of the fan base.
Jacobs was fortunate enough to preside over the lucky convergence of Cleveland's sleeping giant awakening with a young exciting team with at least two future Hall of Famers on it, and a beautiful new ballpark opening. Of course he had much to do with the team coming around, but he wasn't without a few strokes of old-fashioned luck either. (He also insisted on an 8% operating profit from John Hart throughout his tenure from what I hear.) He certainly had the magic touch when it came to business. Who can blame him for getting out at a time when he saw the only way the franchise could go was down. We can romanticize the Dick Jacobs years, but he charged 4 bucks a beer too, and squeezed every possible dime out of what was then an eager buying public.
Dolan has yet to prove he is serious about spending competitive money to sign major league talent, including retaining his own. I guess we'll see what he's made of when we see if he's competitive in trying to sign Millwood. I remain a skeptic.
You're absolutely right that Dolan's got it back asswards when he says that if and when the fans show up, then he'll spend what it takes to put a competitive team on the field. Until very recently I was still convinced that IF and WHEN the club put a competitive, playoff-contending team on the field, the fans of the city would flock to the Jake in droves.
Well the team is here, and the fans are staying away, at least by 90's standards, and by current MLB standards. And to Dolan's credit, he has stepped up to sign the "core" players like Martinez, Hafner, Westbrook and Sabathia etc. to multi-year deals.
It has been speculated that the Dolans all lost tens of millions of dollars in the market dip in the early 00's with Cablevision etc, and that he is in over his head with a MLB franchise. I don't know, but I sure wouldn't mind a change there, based on what I've seen so far.
All that said, I can't let a tone-deaf owner dissuade me from going to games after all these years. I don't doubt that there are others like you who are avoiding buying a ticket on a "principle" involving your distaste for things the owner has said. But if you think about it, this owner has produced a team that has won 74 games in 2005 with a payroll of $45 million. George Steinbrenner has produced a team that has won 74 games in 2005 with a payroll of 210 million. Who has done the more impressive job?
I'd like to think that most people who are staying away are doing it for reasons other than distaste for the public utterings of Larry Dolan. As a fan, I think this team deserves big, loud crowds on the merits of their play and competitiveness, and regardless of the identity of the current caretaker of "our" franchise.
I know I run the risk of appearing an elitist or something by wishing out loud that people would do like I do, and go to ball games. And I know some people can't afford it. But you can sit in the bleachers for the cost of three packs of Marlboros or a handful of lottery tickets. I make the choice to buy Indians tickets instead of things that other people spend their entertainment dollars on, like weekends in Atlantic City, hunting trips, amusement parks, horse racing, you name it. I'm not "rich" and though I've probably said it before, I don't really think I'm "lucky" to be able to go to games. I go because I choose to. No corporation buys my seat.
People are choosing to spend their dollars elsewhere these days. I am simply lamenting that reality. The lust for winning baseball was somewhat sated in the mid-90's, and the novelty of the ballpark has worn off.
It's too bad. That's my point.
Just don't let me hear this "best fans in baseball" crap. Because it doesn't wash anymore...if it ever did.
Posted by: dan at August 30, 2005 11:27 PMIn rereading my answer to the commenter, I realized I contradicted myself somewhat when I first said that Dolan "has yet to prove he is serious about spending competitive money to sign major league talent, including retaining his own."....and then later credited him with signing core players like Martinez and Hafner and Sabathia to long-term deals.
What I meant was that he hasn't yet competed with other clubs to sign top major league talent, and shown he would pay "open market" value.
Posted by: dan at September 1, 2005 02:12 AM