Sports Baseball
posted by on August 7 at 9:57 AM
OK, with Steinbacher gone, time to slog more sports (and no, I don’t consider Fantasy Football a sport, I consider it a form of masturbation—not that there’s anything wrong with that).
From the comments thread on my last Mariners post, from Eric F
If the reward of fans who never stop packing the ballpark no matter how bad a team gets is 99 years (and counting) between MLB championships, I’d rather be the fair-weather variety.
This assumes that the only reward for going to the game is winning it all, in which case every year all the fans of 29 teams are deluded. (And by the by, the Cubs only started selling out all the time after the 2003 NLCS run.) The game itself is the reward: I’m a Cubs fan, but a die-hard fan of the game of baseball, and will watch it anywhere I can, any time I can. In a five-day span between August 20 and 24, I will go to six games in five parks (the Cell for the M’s-Sox, then the Cubs that night and the next day, then A-league games in Appleton, Wisconsin, Clinton, Iowa and Peoria). Going to these games isn’t just about the win-loss record of the home team, it’s about the game itself.
And at RonK who claims that the Cubs and White Sox cannot match the M’s average July attendance of 26,000+: what kind of crack are you smoking? Just follow the link provided by Jane, and you’ll see that the White Sox are about 500 “fans” per game ahead of your M’s, while the Cubs average 40,000. Try to bone up on the old math skills, buddy. Percentage-wise it’s even worse, as the Cubs sell 99% of their tickets, the White Sox 73% and the M’s 61%.
Finally, I see no notice for a Slog Happy this month, when I’ll finally be in lovely Seattle for the Second Thursday. If one isn’t officially organized, let’s have an ad hoc one someplace with a ballgame on the tube.
Or we could all just go to SIFF Cinema and watch Contempt, it seems apropos for SLOG, and then see if there are any bars near Seattle Center showing the Olympics with drink specials.
Musing: Do they have drink specials at the Olympics? Most Chinese tend to drink at banquets but mostly just then.
Shut the fuck up, Will.
Chicago, the only thing more irritating than a Red Sox fan is a Cubs fan, and that only since the Sox won it all. And your analysis of their attendance is flawed; the Cubs have been perennial top-five, even though they play in a bandbox, for most of their history. Here you go, 1947, 69-85, 6th place (out of eight), third in attendance. There is no evidence that Cubs fans even know the difference between winning and losing.
CF,
Have a great time on your minor league swing. A friend and I did it over a decade ago, and it is the BEST! Being from Wisconsin, I have taken in a couple of Rattlers games. the stadium is a great little park. We went to Clinton as well, and that was a weird little experience into small town America, and my friend and I am both from pretty small towns. Never been to see the Chiefs, but they are pretty good at MMA these days. PLEASE let us know how the trip goes. You may not see the greatest talent in the game, but you will see some serious hustle. Those guys are damn sick of riding buses and staying in shitty motels.
Right on Chicago Fan. Only one in my circle of friends likes baseball. The rest look at me like I'm an alien when I tell them I truly enjoy watching it, even on tv. I went to the game yesterday with my dad who's in town for the week, and I'm glad he instilled this love of baseball in me very young with many trips to the Kingdome. Sitting behind homeplate, rooting for your team, and enjoying the sun is one of my great pleasures in life.
PS going to see Ichiro the Great at the Cell on the 18th. Banzai!
Oh, the delicious irony in picking a baseball fight on a blog frequented by bitter queens, angry bull dykes and celeb-worshipping twinks!
You've earned a place in the Hall of Futility*, alongside Mudede and Graves' sad attempts to elevate the level of intellectual discussion on the Slog.
*there's also a delicious irony in putting a Cubs Fan in the Hall of Futility
I am in your camp.
Ever since the M's season tanked in ... March ... my roommate makes constant comments about how it's all pointless, if they win it's 'too bad the season was over long ago' and when they lose it's 'that's why the season was over long ago.'
I'm not even a huge fan, I don't pay attention to the league beyond the current M's line up.
I just like to watch.
I think $50 is a lot to ask to watch a team that has only a 38% chance of winning and a ownership or management that is unwilling or uninterested in putting together a competitive team (even if it's a long term goal).
It's not clear whether C.F. most needs to bone up on math, reading comprehension, general reasoning, or general deportment, but my claim was that Mariners annual attendance exceeded American League average annual attendance in each of the 12 preceding seasons (which happens to be true).
I further observed that neither Cubs nor Sox could match this record, i.e., in their respective leagues, in the same 12 seasons (which also happens to be true).
Whether this resolves the "fairweather fan" question is a matter of judgment ... but it certainly weighs against C.F.'s position.
Is it a decisive figure of merit, for instance, that the (division-leading) Sox draw 500 for fans per game than the (27 games off the pace) Mariners? Or does this render the Sox followers "fairweather" relative to the Mariner faithful?
Hi Mr. Savage, I'm not saying I deserve a championship. (I don't, I'm a lousy fan.) But I don't think undying loyalty is helpful to poorly run teams that play for shit. The fair-weather fan (assuming that means guys who don't go to games when the team sucks, rather than guys who stop being fans of the team when they suck) is giving his or her team incentive to get better. The loyal fan is saying, suck all you want, you lovable losers, I'm here for you.
I agree with Eric. Why should a team spend money trying to win and making good roster choices if everyone turns up anyway? It's positively reinforcing bad behavior. Fuck that.
All I need to have fun at a baseball game is good weather, good food/drinks, and a bunch of friends with which to play the betting game (everybody picks a player -- you get $1 from each friend if your player gets a single, $2 for a double, etc; you pay out $1 if you player commits an error).
Winning is irrelevant to me. So, I'm neither a loyal fan nor a fairweather fan. Since I live about 4 blocks from Wrigley, it's my impression that many of the people that go to Cubs games fall into my category (baseball is a fun day) as opposed to the die-hard fans category. I'll bet a greater percentage of Sox attendees are die-hards...
Actually, Julie, you sound just like a Mariners fan.
Eric F -- The loyal fan isn't saying suck all you want, I'm here for you, they're saying please, for god's sake, do what you have to do right now to help your team win. The difference between statistically good and bad teams is the frequency of that occurring.
Anyone going to see the "Lowly Rays" come to pay us a visit? Chuck giving any interviews on a tale of two franchises? I remember being at the game last year where they slammed the door on the last flicker of M's post-season hope.
Oh, and Will, yes, please (for god's sake) go fuck off. I'm rooting for ya, man.
I go to Mariners games because deep down I really, really want to pay $8 for a beer.
Steve Garvey owns your ass, motherfucker!!!
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