http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/sports/stories/2010/04/14/record-low-crowd-watches-indians-stumble-against-rangers.html?sid=101

Shocker. The team sucks.. Only a handful of players that are even worth anything..

Seriously though, this team is missing a few pieces from being a "GOOD" team.. Right now, they are bad.

Our OF is solid with Brantley, Grady, and Choo.. The middle of the IF with Druby and Valbuena is solid (imo, I really like what Valbuena could develop into), our 1B is pretty good and could develop into a very good player.. LaPorta has already flashed some good leather over there, but he needs to get the bat going.

Jhonny Peralta is garbage. Both catchers are garbage. Our pitching, outside of Carmona, Masterson, and Westbrook is garbage. I hate our bullpen and I hate the back end of our rotation. Now, I'm not saying everybody in the bullpen is bad, I do like Laffey and Chris Perez, but after that what do we really have?

We just don't have all the pieces to compete for anything more than 3rd place AT BEST.

We do have some solid prospects, mainly Carlos Santana waiting to come up anytime now, so that'll help offensively in the future at least.

Minor league like numbers for a minor league like team.

No surprise here.

Who really needs to go?......The Dolan's they are horrific owners.

And they were in the ALCS just a few years ago.

It didn't take many of the fans very long to jump ship.

Not that many really jumped ship completely. People just aren't going to waste their money to watch a bunch of triple A guys play major league baseball. People just understand the product and are content staying put and watching it on STO

ts1227 wrote: Not that many really jumped ship completely. People just aren't going to waste their money to watch a bunch of triple A guys play major league baseball. People just understand the product and are content staying put and watching it on STO

Some people on here have made comments before about Pittsburgh fans being frontrunners because of the Pirates' attendance. I think after nearly two full decades of losing.....poor attendance is understadable. The Indians were on the doorstep of the World Series a few years ago.

Just sayin'.

killer_ewok wrote:

ts1227 wrote: Not that many really jumped ship completely. People just aren't going to waste their money to watch a bunch of triple A guys play major league baseball. People just understand the product and are content staying put and watching it on STO

Some people on here have made comments before about Pittsburgh fans being frontrunners because of the Pirates' attendance. I think after nearly two full decades of losing.....poor attendance is understadable. The Indians were on the doorstep of the World Series a few years ago.

Just sayin'.

And there IS a reason for this. Just like the Pirates, the Tribe has basically come out and said "oh...we'll field a baseball team but we really don't care if we win or not." That's why people aren't showing up. Ownership doesn't care so why should the fans?

Here is what it really comes down to. The Tribe's REAL fan base is small. From 1994-say 2008 most people at the Jake/Prog were nothing but a bunch of front runners. I remember as a kid and young man 1970's - mid 1980's going to the old stadium with like 5,000 other fans on any given day during the season.

The Indian's move into the Jake and get good. Then you start seeing people getting Chief Wahoo tattoos, wearing the gear, car flags, everything Indian's. I would go talk to them about the Indian's, and they were the Tribe's biggest fans, I would ask them how they liked the Jake compared to the old municipal stadium. They had never been to the old ballpark. So what does that tell you?

Now that the team talent and expectation level has droppd to pre-jake levels you are seeing all those "Indian's biggest fans" jumping off the ship, and the only people left at the stadium are the true Indian's fans.

As long as there is consistency and people aren't changing their tune now that it's going on in Cleveland as well.....I don't have an issue. FWIW, it wasn't any of you who posted on this thread who said that before. I just remember attendance being cited (by an individual) as the way to determine if fans in a particular city are frontrunners.

THE4RINGZ wrote: Here is what it really comes down to. The Tribe's REAL fan base is small. From 1994-say 2008 most people at the Jake/Prog were nothing but a bunch of front runners. I remember as a kid and young man 1970's - mid 1980's going to the old stadium with like 5,000 other fans on any given day during the season.

The Indian's move into the Jake and get good. Then you start seeing people getting Chief Wahoo tattoos, wearing the gear, car flags, everything Indian's. I would go talk to them about the Indian's, and they were the Tribe's biggest fans, I would ask them how they liked the Jake compared to the old municipal stadium. They had never been to the old ballpark. So what does that tell you?

Now that the team talent and expectation level has droppd to pre-jake levels you are seeing all those "Indian's biggest fans" jumping off the ship, and the only people left at the stadium are the true Indian's fans.

As someone who has followed the Tribe since 1974-75 the whole "Jabobs Field thing" really pissed me off. Watching yuppies on cell phones trying to get "face time" on TV because the Jake was the "place to be" kinda burned my britches.

Obviously, with time comes change, but I kinda liked the old Muni over Jacobs Field. Nothing beats sitting behind a beam or standing in 6" of urine to relieve one's self.

I understand the "small market" thing but I think the Tribe went from "trying and we WANT to win" to "I don't give a shit and it's all about the money."

I remember having seats at muni for a Sunday double header back when Frank Robinson was the manager, and our seats were right behind an 8" vertical steel beam. Great seats, I wonder who won the game because I couldn't see a thing. Good news is, we got our first taste of warm P.O.C. beer when my friend's dad went to the pisser and left his beer.

The Jake thing pissed me off when you couldn't get tickets to games. You could no longer just walk up before the game and get tickets, it was like planning the D-Day invasion getting to a Tribe game. Now all those people who were hoarding my tickets are bandwagoning on the CAVS.

I think the Clippers had almost 10,000 at a game earlier this week.

killer_ewok wrote: As long as there is consistency and people aren't changing their tune now that it's going on in Cleveland as well.....I don't have an issue. FWIW, it wasn't any of you who posted on this thread who said that before. I just remember attendance being cited (by an individual) as the way to determine if fans in a particular city are frontrunners.

I think a lot of fans just got LIVID when they trade back to back Cy Young winners, Victor Martinez, Ryan Garko (at least he could hit 280 in the MLB), etc. They traded away guys who were under-paid for their talents and didnt have expiring contracts yet. They basically said, "Fuck Cleveland fans. We know we could win next year, but we are gonna gut the team to try to save a buck."

CC was expiring and that trade could prove to be alright, but they didnt even attempt to sign him. They low balled him with the offer they made really.

No other team can compare to what Cleveland has GIVEN AWAY the last 2 years....

I'm an Indians fan(however not a big fan of baseball), but I don't attend games because the team SUCKS. I'll still watch them on TV, but I'm not going to pay money for a bad product.

Now for the Browns on the other hand, worth it.

how quickly they fall...seems like only yesterday it was like pulling teeth trying to get tix....

btw, The Toledo Mud Hens averaged 8K last season

I asked a guy at work if they'd draw less than 15,000.....they beat that by almost 5,000 fans.

I think that record might be broken again sometime soon.

April baseball is not fun, and another slow start wont do much in May, June, July.

Why not just offer any seat in the upper level (other than view box) for weekday games for $5? Gets people in the park and buying concessions.

vball10set wrote: how quickly they fall...seems like only yesterday it was like pulling teeth trying to get tix....

I remember when you couldn't give away Cavs tix. I got freebies 5 rows behind the bench in the pre-Lebron days.

Can we just admit that Cleveland is no longer a city that can support 3 professional teams? Certainly not 4....but seems to be a Browns town, and then whoever is better between the Cavs/Indians.

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 biggest issue is the Tribe would get people from all over Ohio a few times a year. Now they are drawing strictly from the City. No one from Ohio is going to drive that far for a shitty team with bad gas prices etc. I am in Toledo, and will probably make it to 2 Indians games this summer. But I used to try to make it to about 6-8 a year when it was tough. I feel I am one of the few who will make a trip at all to see them outside of Cleveland.

Put a quality product with quality players in the building, and people will come.

I may drive up sometime in the next few weeks from school just to get off campus. Can't beat getting into an MLB game for $8

They had a neat deal....8 tickets...2 to Akron, 2 to Lake County, 2 to Cleveland (bleachers) and 2 to Mahoning Valley for like $75.

Works out to $9.25 per ticket.

You could throw in a 5th game with 2 tickets to Columbus for around $95 total.

RedRider1 wrote: They had a neat deal....8 tickets...2 to Akron, 2 to Lake County, 2 to Cleveland (bleachers) and 2 to Mahoning Valley for like $75.

Works out to $9.25 per ticket.

You could throw in a 5th game with 2 tickets to Columbus for around $95 total.

And, unfortunately, after all of those trips, you STILL wouldn't know which one is the major league team.

It's a catch 22. Tribe fans want the Indians to spend money, but they don't want to show up to the games either because the product is bad. If I was an Indians fan, and I lived in town I'd be going to several games a week, if nothing else just to see other teams play.

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?

I like the talent Akron has and Columbus could be solid this season depending what players are not moved from Columbus to Cleveland back to Columbus.

I will be listening to more Kinston games later and then the lower level minor league teams to see what they have. The K-Tribe have not been good so far.