I followed the baseball season fairly closely this year, especially the pennant races and post-season. I picked up on some conflicting sentiments that were attributed to fans on behalf of the media.
First, during the pennant races, I frequently heard about how much fans liked the wild card format that baseball has. Now that there are two wild card teams, the fans like it even better. You see, the wild card format creates extra excitement because there are more pennant races than there used to be, and the wild card format allows more teams to be in it at the end. Their regular seasons have more meaning.
Second, during the World Series I frequently heard about how TV ratings were so low. Fans simply weren't interested in a World Series played between two sub-90 win teams. (Both the Giants and Royals were wild card teams.) They wanted the top teams to face each other.
So, let me get this straight. The teams that the fans wanted to see in the pennant races were the teams they didn't want to see in the World Series? Huh? This may seem kinda simplistic, but you can't have teams making the playoffs that have no chance of winning the playoffs.
Showing posts with label Fans. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fans. Show all posts
Sunday, November 30, 2014
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Shutting Philly Up
This has nothing to do with the outcome this evening, but it is simply amazing just how quickly 46,000 raving lunatic fanatics wearing red can become mute. The deafening roar changes to recording studio hush at the crack of an opponents bat like no other venue in sports. I wonder why that is?
The raucous rooters in Philly were silenced tonight by the Cardinals' rally. It reminded me of the Giants effect on the crowd last year in the 2010 NLCS. The contrast is simply stunning.
The raucous rooters in Philly were silenced tonight by the Cardinals' rally. It reminded me of the Giants effect on the crowd last year in the 2010 NLCS. The contrast is simply stunning.
Monday, February 7, 2011
Foul Weather Fan
I am a self-described foul weather fan. Not a fair weather fan, mind you, but a foul weather one. I'm as much a fan of winning a World Series as anybody else, and I wouldn't trade this one for anything else in baseball. But there's a big cost of being a fan of a winning team. Take the recent trophy tour. The Giants WS trophy was taken on a city to city tour. Thousands of fans waited in line for hours just to get a glimpse of the trophy. FanFest yesterday saw tens of thousands in attendance, and the line from the ballpark extended down The Embarcadero all the way to the Bay Bridge - just to get in. I'll have to wait for the dust to settle and view the hardware sometime during next season when it's (hopefully) on display somewhere within the stadium.
When your team stinks, and attendance is almost lacking altogether, there's an ease to baseball. Show up anytime and get a box seat close to the field. The concession lines are very short, as are the restroom lines, if there are any at all. You almost get your own personal vendor in the stands. Arriving and leaving is easy, and foul balls (and fair!) rattle around in empty sections of the ballpark, ripe for picking. Since the crowds are so small, you can yell loudly and heckle players and everybody can hear you. I remember once sitting in the left field bleachers and yelling at a beer vendor behind the first base dugout. He heard me and came all the way out to the bleachers to sell to me. Autographs are easier to get, and souvenir stands never run out of anything. The fans that are there are more likely to be knowledgeable about baseball and less likely to ask, "Who's number 48?"
Yes, winning it all in 2010 will result in paying for it in 2011 and beyond. But it's a trade off that needs to be done.
When your team stinks, and attendance is almost lacking altogether, there's an ease to baseball. Show up anytime and get a box seat close to the field. The concession lines are very short, as are the restroom lines, if there are any at all. You almost get your own personal vendor in the stands. Arriving and leaving is easy, and foul balls (and fair!) rattle around in empty sections of the ballpark, ripe for picking. Since the crowds are so small, you can yell loudly and heckle players and everybody can hear you. I remember once sitting in the left field bleachers and yelling at a beer vendor behind the first base dugout. He heard me and came all the way out to the bleachers to sell to me. Autographs are easier to get, and souvenir stands never run out of anything. The fans that are there are more likely to be knowledgeable about baseball and less likely to ask, "Who's number 48?"
Yes, winning it all in 2010 will result in paying for it in 2011 and beyond. But it's a trade off that needs to be done.
Sunday, January 16, 2011
All 30 Major League Teams Totally Stink
All thirty teams in baseball are completely lame. Why do I say that? Well, when I take the opinions of the fans of those teams into account, that is simply an easy conclusion. Starting with the obvious cases, the Pirates were going to the World Series, and one pitch to a nobody named Francisco Cabrera took the Series away from them, Barry Bonds became a free agent, and the team plunged immediately into a record 18 consecutive losing season streak. The Nationals suck, too.
Now, there are some other teams that are obvious, but then there are the teams that actually had some promise. The Mariners come to mind. Division contenders flailed, losing over 100 games. The Tigers had the greatest team to do nothing at all. The Mets have the worst payroll-to-performance ratio in baseball. The Brew Crew were supposed to make the playoffs. Supposed to. The Angels vaporized. The mighty Red Sox limped to a third place finish. The Padres, arguably the best team in baseball for 137 games, lost ten in a row and collapsed under the feet of the team they owned all year long. They even took two of three in the last series and still lost to the Giants.
Even the playoff teams were lousy. The Twinks folded under pressure of a Bronx curse. The Reds' bats never left Louisville. The Yankees had the greatest lineup in history, but their pitching was a lead balloon. CC and Mariano were awesome bookends to a lousy pitching library, and they got spanked by Ranger bats. During the NLCS I surfed many a Phillie Phan blog. It was amazing to learn just how awful the Phillies were. Jimmy Rollins was AWOL, Utley was a mere shadow of his former MVP self. Howard had a hole in his bat, and the offense was anemic. How such a pathetic group of clowns managed to compile the best record in baseball on their way to what was hoped to be their third consecutive World Series is hard to imagine. And dammit, why did they not sign Cliff Lee again earlier?
Then there's the Giants, stuck in their wet paper bag. No offense whatsoever, and what little there was was led by the slowest catcher in history. The richest pitcher in history was not even on the playoff roster, and the five slot in the rotation was a question all year. They couldn't hit against anybody, and their 56 year drought was going to be 57 real quick. The GM's of each of these teams are morons and idiots. So are their field managers. It was amazing to see any of these teams win anything at all. They were all lame according to their own fans. But what a year they gave us.
Now, there are some other teams that are obvious, but then there are the teams that actually had some promise. The Mariners come to mind. Division contenders flailed, losing over 100 games. The Tigers had the greatest team to do nothing at all. The Mets have the worst payroll-to-performance ratio in baseball. The Brew Crew were supposed to make the playoffs. Supposed to. The Angels vaporized. The mighty Red Sox limped to a third place finish. The Padres, arguably the best team in baseball for 137 games, lost ten in a row and collapsed under the feet of the team they owned all year long. They even took two of three in the last series and still lost to the Giants.
Even the playoff teams were lousy. The Twinks folded under pressure of a Bronx curse. The Reds' bats never left Louisville. The Yankees had the greatest lineup in history, but their pitching was a lead balloon. CC and Mariano were awesome bookends to a lousy pitching library, and they got spanked by Ranger bats. During the NLCS I surfed many a Phillie Phan blog. It was amazing to learn just how awful the Phillies were. Jimmy Rollins was AWOL, Utley was a mere shadow of his former MVP self. Howard had a hole in his bat, and the offense was anemic. How such a pathetic group of clowns managed to compile the best record in baseball on their way to what was hoped to be their third consecutive World Series is hard to imagine. And dammit, why did they not sign Cliff Lee again earlier?
Then there's the Giants, stuck in their wet paper bag. No offense whatsoever, and what little there was was led by the slowest catcher in history. The richest pitcher in history was not even on the playoff roster, and the five slot in the rotation was a question all year. They couldn't hit against anybody, and their 56 year drought was going to be 57 real quick. The GM's of each of these teams are morons and idiots. So are their field managers. It was amazing to see any of these teams win anything at all. They were all lame according to their own fans. But what a year they gave us.
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Top Fan Moments in History
I enjoy the MLB Network. One of their "top" lists is a show about the top fan moments in history. I love baseball fans and how they fit into the fabric of a game and into the mosaic of history. When I'm at a game, I pay special attention to fans. I'm a people watcher.
As a participatory fan, I love to see how other fans and fans in general contribute to baseball. One of the things I think is most lacking about how baseball is viewed throughout history is the lack of attention paid to fans. We always hear about great players and the Hall of Fame. We hear about great managers, great ballparks, great seasons and pennant races, great personal achievements. And yes, we hear about fans, but only sometimes. We hear about how nasty Yankees fans can be and about how early Dodger fans can leave a game. How knowledgeable Cardinals or Red Sox fans are, or how few Expos fans there are. Or were. But overall, there is relatively little said about fans as compared with other aspects of baseball.
And this is why I really enjoyed a MLB Network countdown on the top fan moments in baseball history. There were some really great ones. Tiger fans pelting Ducky Medwick with fruit, vegetables and bottles in game 7 of the 1934 World Series after Medwick slid hard into 3rd base. Steve Bartman and Jeffrey Maier were also featured. Chris Chambliss' pennant winning home run through the mob on the field. Nickel beer night in Cleveland where the drunken fans went wild, storming the field and causing a near riot, forfeiting the game for the Tribe. A female fan goes nuts after Ichiro reached into the stands for a ball and touched her. Reading her lips, it was easy to tell that she called her mom from her cell phone to tell her all about it. Or the fan in Houston that ducked out of the way of a foul ball at the last second, only to have the ball clock his girlfriend. And of course, the two guys that ran out on the field to congratulate Hank Aaron on his 715th home run during his home run trot. There was a great video clip of a ten year old kid who made a spectacular catch of a foul ball, only to catch a second one a few pitches later in the same at bat.
But the fan moment that took the cake as the most memorable of all time was the Bill Veeck stunt gone bad: Disco Demolition night in Chicago's Comiskey Park. Fans got in for a discount if they brought a disco record to be blown up between the games of a double header. Chicago rock radio DJ Steve Dahl was there to officiate the destruction. A box of the records was exploded, and rock music fans went wild, storming the field and completely destroying it. You could see fans from the upper deck slide down the foul poles to the field. The White Sox had to forfeit the second game of the double header. Yeah, gotta love the fans.
As a participatory fan, I love to see how other fans and fans in general contribute to baseball. One of the things I think is most lacking about how baseball is viewed throughout history is the lack of attention paid to fans. We always hear about great players and the Hall of Fame. We hear about great managers, great ballparks, great seasons and pennant races, great personal achievements. And yes, we hear about fans, but only sometimes. We hear about how nasty Yankees fans can be and about how early Dodger fans can leave a game. How knowledgeable Cardinals or Red Sox fans are, or how few Expos fans there are. Or were. But overall, there is relatively little said about fans as compared with other aspects of baseball.
And this is why I really enjoyed a MLB Network countdown on the top fan moments in baseball history. There were some really great ones. Tiger fans pelting Ducky Medwick with fruit, vegetables and bottles in game 7 of the 1934 World Series after Medwick slid hard into 3rd base. Steve Bartman and Jeffrey Maier were also featured. Chris Chambliss' pennant winning home run through the mob on the field. Nickel beer night in Cleveland where the drunken fans went wild, storming the field and causing a near riot, forfeiting the game for the Tribe. A female fan goes nuts after Ichiro reached into the stands for a ball and touched her. Reading her lips, it was easy to tell that she called her mom from her cell phone to tell her all about it. Or the fan in Houston that ducked out of the way of a foul ball at the last second, only to have the ball clock his girlfriend. And of course, the two guys that ran out on the field to congratulate Hank Aaron on his 715th home run during his home run trot. There was a great video clip of a ten year old kid who made a spectacular catch of a foul ball, only to catch a second one a few pitches later in the same at bat.
But the fan moment that took the cake as the most memorable of all time was the Bill Veeck stunt gone bad: Disco Demolition night in Chicago's Comiskey Park. Fans got in for a discount if they brought a disco record to be blown up between the games of a double header. Chicago rock radio DJ Steve Dahl was there to officiate the destruction. A box of the records was exploded, and rock music fans went wild, storming the field and completely destroying it. You could see fans from the upper deck slide down the foul poles to the field. The White Sox had to forfeit the second game of the double header. Yeah, gotta love the fans.
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Giants Fans Invade San Diego
One of the things I've always hated is to have numerous fans of the visiting team show up and act like they own the place. You know, Yankee fans, Dodger fans, Red Sox fans, Cubs fans. They're big market teams with huge followings, transplants, and travelling fans. Often over the years, the Oakland Coliseum has had many a game where A's fans were outnumbered by Yankee or Red Sox fans, and Giants fans since interleague play started.
Well, the Giants have a national following, too, just not quite as big as the Yankees or Red Sox. But one place we always show up in massive numbers is San Diego. Transplants, college students, and cheap Southwest Airlines tickets. This four game series vs. the Pads was no exception. Thousands showed up and hijacked the crowd noise this weekend. And Padres fans hate it.
You simply can't listen to the game and tell who just made the big play. Today I was fooled by Tim Lincecum's two run single. The crowd erupted in a roar, and I thought, "Oops, the Padres are coming back." No, it was the Giants fans.
I've seen the Giants on the road in LA, San Diego, Oakland, Colorado and Arizona. It's amazing how many show up, and how many cheer all the louder because they know they're on the road. The first interleague game in Oakland between the Giants and A's back in '97 was about two-thirds Giants fans, and it was louder and more rowdy than most every game I've ever seen in San Fran.
Thanks to the fans who showed up this weekend and cheered the Orange and Black to three out of four to tie for first place.
Well, the Giants have a national following, too, just not quite as big as the Yankees or Red Sox. But one place we always show up in massive numbers is San Diego. Transplants, college students, and cheap Southwest Airlines tickets. This four game series vs. the Pads was no exception. Thousands showed up and hijacked the crowd noise this weekend. And Padres fans hate it.
You simply can't listen to the game and tell who just made the big play. Today I was fooled by Tim Lincecum's two run single. The crowd erupted in a roar, and I thought, "Oops, the Padres are coming back." No, it was the Giants fans.
I've seen the Giants on the road in LA, San Diego, Oakland, Colorado and Arizona. It's amazing how many show up, and how many cheer all the louder because they know they're on the road. The first interleague game in Oakland between the Giants and A's back in '97 was about two-thirds Giants fans, and it was louder and more rowdy than most every game I've ever seen in San Fran.
Thanks to the fans who showed up this weekend and cheered the Orange and Black to three out of four to tie for first place.
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Fan Ejected By Ump For Heckling
I'm sure this ain't the first time, but a fan was ejected from a game by umpire Bob Davidson for heckling a player. Sean Ottow, a Brewer fan, was heckling Cardinals' catcher Yadier Molina. Davidson had a mean streak already going in ejecting a number of players and managers that game, so a fan was what was needed to complete the day. Maybe that counts for "hitting for the cycle" in umpire dialect. Maybe ejecting a fan is like that final triple needed.
I found two brief accounts of the incident here and here. One thing the fan claimed is that he never swore at Molina. But, he was cited for disorderly conduct by the police.
I'm wondering what he said and for how long. I've also had extended time periods of heckling players - like nine innings a day over a four game series - and I've never been ejected. But maybe it's like my friend Mike says, we'd be tossed in jail today for some of the things we said back in the 80's. I'm also wondering if his citation was a direct result of being tossed by the ump. Would he have been cited if the ump never tossed him? And since he got a standing ovation from the crowd, one wonders how disorderly he actually was. They all seemed to enjoy him. Now for a serious question. Will he be banned from future Brewers games by management? Loss of season tickets? Could any of this happen to a fan simply because an ump had a bad day? What role can a player have in getting a fan tossed? One time, I was heckling a rookie and he called time out and jogged in to the third base ump and pointed out at me. The ump shrugged his shoulders, and then he really caught it from the whole bleacher section for the rest of the game.
It will be interesting to see if this is the last thing to be heard on this incident.
I found two brief accounts of the incident here and here. One thing the fan claimed is that he never swore at Molina. But, he was cited for disorderly conduct by the police.
I'm wondering what he said and for how long. I've also had extended time periods of heckling players - like nine innings a day over a four game series - and I've never been ejected. But maybe it's like my friend Mike says, we'd be tossed in jail today for some of the things we said back in the 80's. I'm also wondering if his citation was a direct result of being tossed by the ump. Would he have been cited if the ump never tossed him? And since he got a standing ovation from the crowd, one wonders how disorderly he actually was. They all seemed to enjoy him. Now for a serious question. Will he be banned from future Brewers games by management? Loss of season tickets? Could any of this happen to a fan simply because an ump had a bad day? What role can a player have in getting a fan tossed? One time, I was heckling a rookie and he called time out and jogged in to the third base ump and pointed out at me. The ump shrugged his shoulders, and then he really caught it from the whole bleacher section for the rest of the game.
It will be interesting to see if this is the last thing to be heard on this incident.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Phillies Fans Trump Yankee Fans
In my last post I asked about the state of Yankee fans who sit in the box seats. But, now I want to ask about Yankee fans living in other cities. I know all too well growing up with the Oakland A's as an American League team, that Yankee fans show up in droves to see their team play on the road. The very few times they've played in San Francisco shows the same thing.
This year's post season saw Yankee fans show up by the thousands at the Metrodome. And in a complete embarrassment to the Southern California mentality, they appeared to constitute at least a quarter - if not a third - of the total crowd in Anaheim. This is all normal stuff. But something changed in the World Series...
Yankee fans were hardly noticed in Philly. There weren't more than a few hundred, max. Why? My guess is that Philly fans were so hot about the World Series that ticket holders valued being at the Series far more than the market value of the tickets. Philly fans were so fanatic that they shut Yankee fans out of eBay and StubHub.
In San Francisco we had a similar experience for the entire 2000 season, the inaugural season of Pac Bell Park. Giants fans were so excited about the new ballpark that the entire season sold out in February - to Giants fans - so that there were almost no fans cheering for visiting teams all year. Including Dodger fans. So, I must say congratulations to Phillies fans. You really love your team.
This year's post season saw Yankee fans show up by the thousands at the Metrodome. And in a complete embarrassment to the Southern California mentality, they appeared to constitute at least a quarter - if not a third - of the total crowd in Anaheim. This is all normal stuff. But something changed in the World Series...
Yankee fans were hardly noticed in Philly. There weren't more than a few hundred, max. Why? My guess is that Philly fans were so hot about the World Series that ticket holders valued being at the Series far more than the market value of the tickets. Philly fans were so fanatic that they shut Yankee fans out of eBay and StubHub.
In San Francisco we had a similar experience for the entire 2000 season, the inaugural season of Pac Bell Park. Giants fans were so excited about the new ballpark that the entire season sold out in February - to Giants fans - so that there were almost no fans cheering for visiting teams all year. Including Dodger fans. So, I must say congratulations to Phillies fans. You really love your team.
Friday, November 6, 2009
Whither Yankees Fans?
I noticed somthing about Yankee fans this year, and I'm pretty sure the new ballpark has something to do with it. All year long, whenever I've seen a game on TV, the box seats looked half empty. I know the overpricing played a part. But during the post season, the same thing occurred in the ALDS and ALCS. If fans aren't going to show up due to overpricing of tickets, that's one thing. But when large numbers from the box seats are leaving early when the game goes into extra inninngs, then there's a problem.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Those Timid Cardinals Fans
Mrs. Scott and I went to Saturday night's Giants/Cardinals game at AT&T Park. There were many Cards fans in attendance, and as usual, they dress in red. They are one of the NL teams that draw larger numbers of visiting fans (the Dodgers, Mets, Cardinals and Cubs lead the pack, with the Braves lagging behind a bit. The Red Sox, Yankees and A's lead the AL with honorable mention to the Tigers fans). With the red color, they are quite simply the most visible of the bunch.
Yet, they are the most timid in rooting for their team. They know their baseball like no other fans, yet don't really offer cheers, but applause when their team does well. The several instances where a group started with a "Let's go Cardinals" chant quickly resulted in protective Giants fans drowning out their chants with editing of their own. This not merely masked the cheers, but stopped them cold. Mets or Dodger fans wouldn't have let the Giants fans interfere.
In talking with the people behind us, we decided that if all those Cards fans were Mets fans with their typical bravado we would have known it an hour before the game even started. I'm not sure if it is the Midwestern demeanor, but they are an interesting breed. I'd like to watch the Giants play in St. Louis to see how many Giants fans would show and how they behaved themselves.
Yet, they are the most timid in rooting for their team. They know their baseball like no other fans, yet don't really offer cheers, but applause when their team does well. The several instances where a group started with a "Let's go Cardinals" chant quickly resulted in protective Giants fans drowning out their chants with editing of their own. This not merely masked the cheers, but stopped them cold. Mets or Dodger fans wouldn't have let the Giants fans interfere.
In talking with the people behind us, we decided that if all those Cards fans were Mets fans with their typical bravado we would have known it an hour before the game even started. I'm not sure if it is the Midwestern demeanor, but they are an interesting breed. I'd like to watch the Giants play in St. Louis to see how many Giants fans would show and how they behaved themselves.
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Fan Participation Day
My childhood dream of playing in the majors ended in my late teens. One thing was sure. I would be a fan for life. But missing out on playing I was dedicated to still being an active part of the game. I committed myself to the game action by being an ardent taunter and heckler of the opposing teams. My 29th consecutive year of heckling action is starting this month.
During all these years, I've maintained a fortunate position of having seats in either the first, seventh or ninth row from the field. Twenty nine years of being within easy earshot of opposing players, whether directly behind the left fielder in the front row of the bleachers, whether seven rows behind home plate to heckle the batter or on deck hitter (dare I add umpire?), or nine rows behind the visitor's bullpen mound, have been a great joy.
I'm especially looking forward to the first Dodger series later this month when I'll be there with my long time friend Mike where we'll be able to heckle those hated rival Dodger pitchers. With me, every game is Fan Participation Day and I wouldn't have it any other way.
During all these years, I've maintained a fortunate position of having seats in either the first, seventh or ninth row from the field. Twenty nine years of being within easy earshot of opposing players, whether directly behind the left fielder in the front row of the bleachers, whether seven rows behind home plate to heckle the batter or on deck hitter (dare I add umpire?), or nine rows behind the visitor's bullpen mound, have been a great joy.
I'm especially looking forward to the first Dodger series later this month when I'll be there with my long time friend Mike where we'll be able to heckle those hated rival Dodger pitchers. With me, every game is Fan Participation Day and I wouldn't have it any other way.
Monday, February 11, 2008
Giants Fan Fest
Our family attended the Giants Fan Fest on Saturday at AT&T Park. It was free, so we thought we'd go. The kids love taking the trains to the game. First, BART, our rapid transit system. Then we transfer to MUNI, San Francisco's transit system, to a subway train that daylights to surface streets along the Embarcadero on San Francisco Bay. It's a beautiful ride. We took our little one in a stroller, which turned out to be a challenge with all the stairs and steps in the clubhouse and dugout. The only way out for us was up from the field to the main concourse through the stands. A kind man helped me carry the stroller up.
All in all, it was kind of a cattle herd. A line formed for what was called a "self-guided tour" of the clubhouse and dugout. It was not. It was guided by the employees who urged us to keep moving. There was a constant stream of people with little time or space for taking photos. The field was covered a foot deep in dirt from a recent tractor pull. It ruined the whole charm of seeing a diamond prior to the season. Our friend Shelly tells of fan fests in years past, but wasn't able to attend this year. Would we go again? I don't know. The best thing about it was an excuse to get out of the house and see the ballpark.
All in all, it was kind of a cattle herd. A line formed for what was called a "self-guided tour" of the clubhouse and dugout. It was not. It was guided by the employees who urged us to keep moving. There was a constant stream of people with little time or space for taking photos. The field was covered a foot deep in dirt from a recent tractor pull. It ruined the whole charm of seeing a diamond prior to the season. Our friend Shelly tells of fan fests in years past, but wasn't able to attend this year. Would we go again? I don't know. The best thing about it was an excuse to get out of the house and see the ballpark.
Friday, October 12, 2007
United Countries of Baseball
I found a cool site on mlb.com that shows a map of the country divided up, not into states, but according to fan loyalties. The site is called United Countries of Baseball, and the map can be found by clicking here. Fans can help define the areas by filling out the survey stating their favorite team by zip code.
The area covered doesn't necessarily translate into number of fans because of metro area populations. I don't know how accurate this map is, but I wouldn't argue with most of the areas. The Giants take the coast, while the A's, being in the East Bay, go further inland. The big orange knob in the middle is the Sacramento area, even though the A's AAA team plays there. The Cubs take the entire state if Iowa, which figures, since they have heavy minor league representation there. Why the Marlins would take part of Georgia is anybody's guess. Alaska? Hawaii?
The area covered doesn't necessarily translate into number of fans because of metro area populations. I don't know how accurate this map is, but I wouldn't argue with most of the areas. The Giants take the coast, while the A's, being in the East Bay, go further inland. The big orange knob in the middle is the Sacramento area, even though the A's AAA team plays there. The Cubs take the entire state if Iowa, which figures, since they have heavy minor league representation there. Why the Marlins would take part of Georgia is anybody's guess. Alaska? Hawaii?
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
When No Fans Show Up
The Giants just played one of those weird four game weekend series with the last game on Monday. The Marlins scheduled the game as a day game. Monday is the worst attendance day, and a day game on Monday is the worst possible. It was also the first day of school in Miami, and it was extremely hot. I listened on the radio, while Mrs. Scott watched on TV. We talked on the phone, and she was very surprised to see so few fans there. The official attendance (okay, MLB, you really mean tickets sold) was 10,000. But there were a majority of no-shows, and just a few thousand in a huge football stadium looks even smaller.
Mrs. Scott didn't become a baseball fan until the early 90's, which is after baseball's revival here in the Bay Area. She doesn't recall the days of 3000 fans per game (or less) when both the Giants and A's sucked. She asked about what the players thought of so few fans, and many other curiosities.
As I explained to her, the joys of small crowds are merely a memory to me. Those were my favorite games of all. I went on to recount to her the many blessings. There is no parking problem, no lines for food or restrooms. You're guaranteed a great seat. Each fan has personal vendors. And with no crowd, there's no noise. So when you yell, everybody in the ballpark hears you. The chances of getting a foul ball increase greatly (as do the chances of getting a fair ball). Foul balls down the line are great entertainment, because nobody is sitting within ten sections. Kids stream through the seats to retrieve the ball. But because the ball rolls between the rows, it's like looking for a needle in a haystack. Finally, about ten minutes later, somebody finds it and holds it up high. Everybody gives a standing ovation. And at last, there's no traffic when you leave.
Take for example, I told her, the game with the smallest crowd that I ever attended. A's vs. Texas, September, 1986. I counted the attendance myself in less than an inning (1603). The fan in the upper deck left in the second inning. I don't think he went home, he just found a better seat downstairs. Sitting in the bleachers, I got to heckle the left fielder the entire game instead of only when he was in the field. Nobody was there so he could easily hear me from the dugout, so I yelled at him from across the stadium and reminded him that he could hear me. When I finished my first beer, my favorite beer vendor, named Tommy, was on the other side of the stadium, behind the first base dugout. No problem. I just yelled, "Heeeeey, Tooooommmy, I wannanother beeeeeer!" He looked up across the stadium at me and waved. He walked all the way around the stadium to sell me a beer. It's not like there was anybody else to sell to, so it was a good sale. Then, we talked for a few innings because it wasn't like there was anybody else there that wanted a beer. Three home runs were hit that day. And since there wasn't anybody else there, as school was back in and it was a day game, there were no other kids with gloves. Heck, there were only 33 people in all the huge bleachers that day. So I got to take all three home run balls home with me as souvenirs. That might have been my favorite game ever.
Some people just don't know what they missed from back in the day.
Mrs. Scott didn't become a baseball fan until the early 90's, which is after baseball's revival here in the Bay Area. She doesn't recall the days of 3000 fans per game (or less) when both the Giants and A's sucked. She asked about what the players thought of so few fans, and many other curiosities.
As I explained to her, the joys of small crowds are merely a memory to me. Those were my favorite games of all. I went on to recount to her the many blessings. There is no parking problem, no lines for food or restrooms. You're guaranteed a great seat. Each fan has personal vendors. And with no crowd, there's no noise. So when you yell, everybody in the ballpark hears you. The chances of getting a foul ball increase greatly (as do the chances of getting a fair ball). Foul balls down the line are great entertainment, because nobody is sitting within ten sections. Kids stream through the seats to retrieve the ball. But because the ball rolls between the rows, it's like looking for a needle in a haystack. Finally, about ten minutes later, somebody finds it and holds it up high. Everybody gives a standing ovation. And at last, there's no traffic when you leave.
Take for example, I told her, the game with the smallest crowd that I ever attended. A's vs. Texas, September, 1986. I counted the attendance myself in less than an inning (1603). The fan in the upper deck left in the second inning. I don't think he went home, he just found a better seat downstairs. Sitting in the bleachers, I got to heckle the left fielder the entire game instead of only when he was in the field. Nobody was there so he could easily hear me from the dugout, so I yelled at him from across the stadium and reminded him that he could hear me. When I finished my first beer, my favorite beer vendor, named Tommy, was on the other side of the stadium, behind the first base dugout. No problem. I just yelled, "Heeeeey, Tooooommmy, I wannanother beeeeeer!" He looked up across the stadium at me and waved. He walked all the way around the stadium to sell me a beer. It's not like there was anybody else to sell to, so it was a good sale. Then, we talked for a few innings because it wasn't like there was anybody else there that wanted a beer. Three home runs were hit that day. And since there wasn't anybody else there, as school was back in and it was a day game, there were no other kids with gloves. Heck, there were only 33 people in all the huge bleachers that day. So I got to take all three home run balls home with me as souvenirs. That might have been my favorite game ever.
Some people just don't know what they missed from back in the day.
Sunday, May 21, 2006
The Worst Fans In Baseball - And Loving It!
The greatest satisfaction I could ever get from being a bleacher bum - or a heckler in the box seats for that matter - is the knowledge that our heckling has such a negative effect on the opposition as to give a home-field advantage to our team. In 1988 that knowledge was verified.
Authors Bruce Nash and Allan Zullo, who wrote the Baseball Hall of Shame series of books, came out with a book titled, Baseball Confidential, an inside scoop on almost every aspect of the game, in the players' own words. One of the regular bleacher bums, named Kevin, came running down the stairs one game and said, "Hey, everybody, you won't believe this new book! We're in it!" And right there on page 212, in a section that lists the worst fans in baseball, long-time heckling target Kirk Gibson is one of the players quoted as to how bad the A's bleacher bums really are. We were ranked as the third worst [behaving] fans, behind the Yankees and Mets, with the Giants (that's me again!) and Phillies as 4th and 5th. A small excerpt:
Thank you, Kirk, for the rave review. As to who these bleacher bums really are and what they really do for a living I'll discuss in the next few posts. I'm sure the answer would have shocked Kirk Gibson.
Authors Bruce Nash and Allan Zullo, who wrote the Baseball Hall of Shame series of books, came out with a book titled, Baseball Confidential, an inside scoop on almost every aspect of the game, in the players' own words. One of the regular bleacher bums, named Kevin, came running down the stairs one game and said, "Hey, everybody, you won't believe this new book! We're in it!" And right there on page 212, in a section that lists the worst fans in baseball, long-time heckling target Kirk Gibson is one of the players quoted as to how bad the A's bleacher bums really are. We were ranked as the third worst [behaving] fans, behind the Yankees and Mets, with the Giants (that's me again!) and Phillies as 4th and 5th. A small excerpt:
At the Oakland Coliseum, fans bombard visiting players with a constant barrage of verbal garbage. "You hear them no matter where you are on the field," says Mark Gubicza of the Royals... One of the players whom Athletics fans love to hate is Kirk Gibson of the Tigers. "They target not only me, but my mother, my wife, my grandmother, my city, my IQ. I think they pass a sheet of paper out at the beginning of the year so they can memorize 20 nasty things to say to ballplayers. You hear the same kind of thing every inning. One guy will stand up and shout, 'What's the matter with Gibson?' [none other than yours truly!] And then 50 people will stand up and yell, 'He's a bum!' It's all orchestrated. They know that we players hear them. I don't think they're the real career-oriented type of people out there because they're always there at night and during the day. I wonder what these people do for a living because they never seem to be working."
Thank you, Kirk, for the rave review. As to who these bleacher bums really are and what they really do for a living I'll discuss in the next few posts. I'm sure the answer would have shocked Kirk Gibson.
Thursday, March 16, 2006
On Being A Baseball Fan
I am a baseball fan, and have been my entire life. I'm a big baseball fan, a huge fan, intense, hard-core and whatever other synonyms people have used to describe my love of baseball. But I'm not really a fan of the game of baseball in the most general sense. I'm a fan of very specific and narrow bands in the spectrum of baseball.
True, I love baseball as a game, as defined by its rules, but it's only certain rules that I truly love. To finally get specific here, I can say, after much thought on this, that I am a fan of Major League Baseball. But even more specifically, I'm a fan of MLB as it is played on the field during the regular season, post-season and All-Star games. I am also a fan of major league fans; I love fans and how they act at games. I am also a fan of statistics and statistically oriented history. I am a fan of baseball on the radio, team uniforms, and I absolutely love major league ballparks.
Everybody I know knows how big a fan I am, and I am constantly approached by any number of people on the topic of baseball, usually to get my opinion. But quite often they are amazed at my lack of interest in certain aspects of baseball. Just today somebody at work engaged me about the World Baseball Classic. I had no answer because, well to be blunt, I don't care about it. I haven't kept up with any of it, either through the papers or online. "Oh, I thought you'd know because you're such a big fan." If anything I hate it because it's taking ballplayers away from where they're supposed to be; with their major league teams. My brother is coaching a teeball team this year, my nephew's team, and approached me last year about the topic. He was shocked to find out that I have no interest whatsoever in coaching Little League. But, of course I'll watch my nephew play. He's my nephew.
I'm not a fan of Little League, high school, college, the minor leagues, or even spring training. I couldn't care less about Olympic baseball or the WBC. I don't even know who's on team USA except for the exhibition game they played against a Giants split squad last Sunday. I only listened to that game because it was broadcast on the Giants station, and my interest suffered because it wasn't two major league teams. And also, I'm not a fan of many of the perhipheral happenings in MLB. I couldn't care less about the contract between the players union and MLB, I don't care much about salaries (generally), drug testing policies, front office stuff, Rule 5 draft picks, fantasy baseball, gambling, hot prospects playing in some swamp somewhere, mascots, the national anthem, Sandy Alderson, 19th century baseball, video games, to name a few.
I love going to games in other ballparks and will compare how a team's fans will react to a play or player with how other team's fans would react to the same. Dodger fans do this, A's fans might, but Giants fans don't. I love baseball's architecture in its ballparks. I love the roster of the 1985 Pirates and the uniforms worn by the '67 A's. I love yearly schedules, standings, all-time records. I love Topps 1971 baseball cards. I love going to games, drinking a beer, spitting sunflower seeds, yelling at the players, watching the fans, and talking about baseball.
True, I love baseball as a game, as defined by its rules, but it's only certain rules that I truly love. To finally get specific here, I can say, after much thought on this, that I am a fan of Major League Baseball. But even more specifically, I'm a fan of MLB as it is played on the field during the regular season, post-season and All-Star games. I am also a fan of major league fans; I love fans and how they act at games. I am also a fan of statistics and statistically oriented history. I am a fan of baseball on the radio, team uniforms, and I absolutely love major league ballparks.
Everybody I know knows how big a fan I am, and I am constantly approached by any number of people on the topic of baseball, usually to get my opinion. But quite often they are amazed at my lack of interest in certain aspects of baseball. Just today somebody at work engaged me about the World Baseball Classic. I had no answer because, well to be blunt, I don't care about it. I haven't kept up with any of it, either through the papers or online. "Oh, I thought you'd know because you're such a big fan." If anything I hate it because it's taking ballplayers away from where they're supposed to be; with their major league teams. My brother is coaching a teeball team this year, my nephew's team, and approached me last year about the topic. He was shocked to find out that I have no interest whatsoever in coaching Little League. But, of course I'll watch my nephew play. He's my nephew.
I'm not a fan of Little League, high school, college, the minor leagues, or even spring training. I couldn't care less about Olympic baseball or the WBC. I don't even know who's on team USA except for the exhibition game they played against a Giants split squad last Sunday. I only listened to that game because it was broadcast on the Giants station, and my interest suffered because it wasn't two major league teams. And also, I'm not a fan of many of the perhipheral happenings in MLB. I couldn't care less about the contract between the players union and MLB, I don't care much about salaries (generally), drug testing policies, front office stuff, Rule 5 draft picks, fantasy baseball, gambling, hot prospects playing in some swamp somewhere, mascots, the national anthem, Sandy Alderson, 19th century baseball, video games, to name a few.
I love going to games in other ballparks and will compare how a team's fans will react to a play or player with how other team's fans would react to the same. Dodger fans do this, A's fans might, but Giants fans don't. I love baseball's architecture in its ballparks. I love the roster of the 1985 Pirates and the uniforms worn by the '67 A's. I love yearly schedules, standings, all-time records. I love Topps 1971 baseball cards. I love going to games, drinking a beer, spitting sunflower seeds, yelling at the players, watching the fans, and talking about baseball.
Tuesday, June 14, 2005
The Foul-Weather Fan
Everybody knows what a fair-weather fan is. The Johnny-come-lately who only cheers for a winner - while they're winning. And he does so usually in a good deal of ignorance. When it comes to a game I don't like, such as basketball, I freely admit that I'm a fair-weather fan. But...
Contrast that with the "foul-weather fan." This fan shows up no matter how badly his team is or is playing. Or how bad the weather is, for that matter. Unknown to fair-weather fans, the foul-weather fan receives many benefits. No lines for food or beer or restroom. No ballpark traffic. He virtually has his own personal vendors. Great seats bought at the last minute. He can wake up in the morning and say, "it's a great day for a ballgame" and then go. He gets to see a comedy of errors every day. Not only can the visiting left fielder hear his heckling from the bleachers behind him, but the crowd is so small he can hear him when he's in the dugout.
At the time of this post, the Giants and A's, in the midst of long losing streaks, have only about 4 teams worse than they. Attendance is already down, and I'm wondering if it might continue this way. It's been quite a few years since Bay Area baseball had two losers, but if we're heading toward the bottom of the barrel for a few years, I'm ready to have a different kind of fun that I haven't experienced in a long time.
Contrast that with the "foul-weather fan." This fan shows up no matter how badly his team is or is playing. Or how bad the weather is, for that matter. Unknown to fair-weather fans, the foul-weather fan receives many benefits. No lines for food or beer or restroom. No ballpark traffic. He virtually has his own personal vendors. Great seats bought at the last minute. He can wake up in the morning and say, "it's a great day for a ballgame" and then go. He gets to see a comedy of errors every day. Not only can the visiting left fielder hear his heckling from the bleachers behind him, but the crowd is so small he can hear him when he's in the dugout.
At the time of this post, the Giants and A's, in the midst of long losing streaks, have only about 4 teams worse than they. Attendance is already down, and I'm wondering if it might continue this way. It's been quite a few years since Bay Area baseball had two losers, but if we're heading toward the bottom of the barrel for a few years, I'm ready to have a different kind of fun that I haven't experienced in a long time.
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