Has anyone ever been to a Lake County Captains game? I have been to a few Aero's games mostly due to the fact it is closer to me than Lake County. Just curious if it is worth the drive from Wooster to head out and watch the Captain's play.

jordo212000 wrote:
I can understand the fans not wanting to go, but it is the epitome of front running. If you turn that around... the people not going because they suck insinuate that they will go when they are good. What's that called when you do something like that?

There's a difference between sucking when you're TRYING to win but the Tribe, with their actions, has pretty much said "we suck...we don't care...deal with it."

Little Danny wrote: 10,000 fans, eh. I bet the Marlins would take that kind of attendance any day.
I saw where Baltimore has had its lowest crowds at Camden Yards this year as well.

Frankly, attendance is down in all cities except for the cities that truly compete-- ie New York, Boston, Philly, Chicago and LA. It is really sad it has come to this as some great fan bases just do not come out to the park anymore. Given what the teams are offering up I don't blame them.

The system is BROKEN.

Except for those few wealthy franchises, basically nobody else has much of a chance to win the World Series.

So why should fans go and support any franchise that has basically given up before the season even starts?

They shouldn't.

I'd like to think if enough of these cities like Cleveland, Seattle, Miami and others simply don't attend games, baseball might rethink the whole parity issue and come up with some type of salary cap.

Given the idiots who run the game, however, I'd expect them to work to contract the league before they'd consider forcing the powers in charge to play by the same rules as everyone else.

Except for those few wealthy franchises, basically nobody else has much of a chance to win the World Series.

Actually, of the 4 major sports I think Baseball had the most different teams win the championship through the course of the last decade.

I have to agree in with WriterBuck. Bud Selig is an absolute idiot. He has ruined baseball.

To my knowledge, all teams play by the same rules.

I guess I am in the "frontrunner" section of Indians fans. Growing up and till about 4-5 years ago they were my favorite team. After the 1990's I have never really felt an attachment to the guys the club has had outside of CC, Grady, and Victor. Couple that with Dolan who I really can't stand and my interest in the major league team has become almost non-existent. I still like to watch the big name prospects and the only time of the year I make it a point to watch them is when a top prospect is called up.

I now follow the Rays and that may be a weird choice since they are a small market team with owners who don't pay as well. I think they run a smart organization and they don't pretend to be something they are not like Cleveland. The Indians front office will make almost humiliating offers to their top players and lose them. Tampa hasn't even made an offer to Crawford or Pena this year and is resigned to trading or losing them this year. The fan base knows this and so when it happens it won't be such a shocker like every year when the Tribe gets rid of a big star they were "trying" to work out a deal with.

The organization needs to stop bullshitting Cleveland fans and just say what is known by now. Dedicate more staff to scouting and make it so when we lose a star there is a young guy ready to step in and not have a major drop off in talent. That is going to happen in Tampa with Desmond Jennings taking over for Crawford and already happened with Wade Davis replacing Kazmir. But the past decade (maybe more), the Indians drafting abilities have been abysmal.

Hey, what's really sad is the 3,000 people that were at the Globetrotters game in Columbus the other night.

Maybe people aren't just spending money on tickets for a weeknight game anywhere right now especially for a so-so performance

I agree the economy plays a part in attendance. I mean I have six kids and if we all wanted to go see a ballgame that would cost us nearly a mortgage payment. Couple that with that fact that my industry (commercial construction) is slow right now, and we will probably only see the Indian's on television this year. It's not the we are not devout supporters of the team, we just need to have priorities with our money.

IggyPride00 wrote: Actually, of the 4 major sports I think Baseball had the most different teams win the championship through the course of the last decade.

Yeah I've tried to explain this in other threads.

Since 99-00 the Spurs and Lakers have represented the West 9 out of 10 years. Yet people want to talk about the Yanks and Sawks

dat dude wrote: To my knowledge, all teams play by the same rules.

Nobody is claiming that rules have been broken. Ihe problem relates to having very little revenue sharing between high market teams and low market teams.

THE4RINGZ wrote: I agree the economy plays a part in attendance. I mean I have six kids and if we all wanted to go see a ballgame that would cost us nearly a mortgage payment. Couple that with that fact that my industry (commercial construction) is slow right now, and we will probably only see the Indian's on television this year. It's not the we are not devout supporters of the team, we just need to have priorities with our money.

Usually I head up to Cleveland once per year and go to a game or 2 and make a weekend out of it, but I won't be going this year. With the new Huntington Park here, how crappy the Indians are, and just overall being a cheap ass, I have no desire to make that trip this year. Granted, the only baseball I watch each year is probably the 1 or 2 games I go to, but still, I'm an ass in a seat for that game that they will be losing this year.

mucalum49 wrote: I guess I am in the "frontrunner" section of Indians fans. Growing up and till about 4-5 years ago they were my favorite team. After the 1990's I have never really felt an attachment to the guys the club has had outside of CC, Grady, and Victor. Couple that with Dolan who I really can't stand and my interest in the major league team has become almost non-existent. I still like to watch the big name prospects and the only time of the year I make it a point to watch them is when a top prospect is called up.

I now follow the Rays and that may be a weird choice since they are a small market team with owners who don't pay as well. I think they run a smart organization and they don't pretend to be something they are not like Cleveland. The Indians front office will make almost humiliating offers to their top players and lose them. Tampa hasn't even made an offer to Crawford or Pena this year and is resigned to trading or losing them this year. The fan base knows this and so when it happens it won't be such a shocker like every year when the Tribe gets rid of a big star they were "trying" to work out a deal with.

The organization needs to stop bullshitting Cleveland fans and just say what is known by now. Dedicate more staff to scouting and make it so when we lose a star there is a young guy ready to step in and not have a major drop off in talent. That is going to happen in Tampa with Desmond Jennings taking over for Crawford and already happened with Wade Davis replacing Kazmir. But the past decade (maybe more), the Indians drafting abilities have been abysmal.

Tampa Bay has been a perrenial God awful franchise with the exception being 1 maybe 2 years.

They will be right back to where they were..it's just a matter of time.

Footwedge, I disagree and don't believe they will be a flash in the pan. As I mentioned about Crawford and Pena the reason they don't mind giving them up is for the draft picks they will get when they sign elsewhere. The core was built through their drafting abilities once they got new ownership and stopped signing the likes of McGriff and an aging Wade Boggs.

The owner and GM have been in place since 2005 so I would recommend using that as a point of reference for this club because that is when I would say the old ways were broken and they realized that dedication to scouting for the draft was the only way for them to be successful. Since they took over, the core of the Rays were brought in/drafted.

Edit: I know this is an Indians thread so to tie this in my point is that they should stop pretending to play with the big boys and take notice of other small market teams that build through the draft, smart trades (Delmon Young for Garza/Bartlett comes to mind but I think Blake for Santana compares), and signing of affordable vets like Burrell and Blalock (the Indians do this with Pavano, Millwood, and now Branyan).

Footwedge wrote: Tampa Bay has been a perrenial God awful franchise with the exception being 1 maybe 2 years.

They will be right back to where they were..it's just a matter of time.

According to who? You? Obviously you haven't been paying very close attention. The Rays already have Carl Crawford version 2.0 waiting in the wings (Desmond Jennings) and their minor league system is packed with nice talent they can use/trade.

I'm with LJ. I usually go to 3-4 Indians games per year. I have no plans to go this year, but I will be at Huntington Park quite a bit. Partly because of the economy and partly because it is no fun driving 4 hours knowing we probably won't win.

justcompete wrote: I'm with LJ. I usually go to 3-4 Indians games per year. I have no plans to go this year, but I will be at Huntington Park quite a bit. Partly because of the economy and partly because it is no fun driving 4 hours knowing we probably won't win.

Definitely. Enjoying some Citty BBQ and a beer watching some baseball in such a nice park, then not paying for a hotel room and having a long ass drive home. Plus my banker usually gives me 2 or 3 games worth of free tickets, another perk of banking with huntington.

Thought this article was interesting: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writers/tom_verducci/04/16/struggling.sluggers/index.html?eref=sihp

Honeymoon's over for O's, Indians, Jays

Within three days this week, the Orioles, Indians and Blue Jays all drew the smallest crowds in the history of their current ballparks. It was a cold reminder that the halo effect of a beautiful new ballpark, like the smell of a new car, is not a lasting one.

Toronto's Rogers Centre (nee Skydome), which opened in 1989, was an architectural marvel and tourist attraction unto itself. Baltimore's Camden Yards, which opened in 1992, began the retro-ballpark building boom. And Cleveland's Progressive Field (nee Jacobs Field) was the template of how a ballpark could be the economic and emotional engine of a downtown revival.

Back in 1995, even after the ill will of the two-year players' strike, you could have found no better baseball cities than Baltimore, Cleveland and Toronto. They ranked 1-2-3, respectively, in AL attendance. By last season, they had plummeted to 13-9-12, respectively, and this season shared the ignominy of sinking to rock bottom in their ballparks' history in the same week.

10,071 for the loss and that was followed by 10,198 to see the win yesterday.

Interested to see what this weekend's numbers look like. Logically should be good numbers. First weekend home stand of the season, these numbers could be the tell tale sign of attendance this year.

THE4RINGZ wrote: Interested to see what this weekend's numbers look like. Logically should be good numbers. First weekend home stand of the season, these numbers could be the tell tale sign of attendance this year.

Unfortunately for Cleveland, after being 70-80 all week, it'll be more like 50 during the weekend, which really sucks for them as far as potentially having good attendance. Going out to see a bad team playing in good weather = still a fun time, hammer some brews and soaking up rays. Going out to see a bad team playing in not-so-good weather = hell on earth.