There were about 10,000 unsold seats for yesterday’s game at Tropicana Field.
From the looks of it, today is the same.
Jesus. I know it’s a weekday game and all, but come on. I’ve defended the Rays’ attendance before, pointing out that there’s a lot of reasons why attendance is pushed down in hat stadium, but… it’s a fucking playoff game, only the second time the team’s ever made the playoffs. Come on, that’s disgraceful.
It is and the team should break the lease and move somewhere useful. Even if it is out of St. Pete and into Tampa but probably somewhere out of Florida.
I would love it if Jon Miller were the broadcaster for all of the big games. I don’t mind McCarver or Morgan (I put up with their stupid comments, because I enjoy some of their anecdotes. And, when you throw Orel into the booth I actually thought Morgan was palatable.) But, I think the younger Buck is a terrible baseball announcer. It really sounds like he doesn’t want to be there. And, everytime I hear Jon Miller’s voice I can hear how much he loves broadcasting the game, and I know it’s going to be enjoyable to hear his call. I’d put Jon Miller up there with Vin Scully as the top two broadcasters working in the MLB right now. Sure, I would take Scully. But, since he doesn’t travel west of the Rockies Miller is an excellent backup. I don’t know who I would take as a color guy, though. Scully doesn’t need one. When I am done wondering why James Woods is talking baseball and figure out it isn’t him - Ron Darling actually sounds pretty good, maybe him.
Not that he cares, but going by Orlando Cabrera’s dumb comments after last night’s game I think he might get some boos in Philadelphia on Friday.
Yeah, I wonder if they moved to Tampa if the Rays attendance woes would be helped. Clearly, their lease sucks and the stadium sucks even worse. But, on top of that from what I understand the stadium is in an awful location and really a pain to get to for most of the population. Oh well. At least they got most of the lower levels filled up. And, really, if they aren’t filling the stadium during the playoffs shouldn’t they be looking at lowering the ticket prices? Not to cut rate levels, but come on now, those upper level sections might fill up if they were ten bucks cheaper.
Tough game for the Twins last night. They had a couple of chances to come back, but they never were able to come through. That Yankees lineup is still a monster.
Thinking about it aside from Halladay and Lee none of the playoff number 1s of last night put in more than an average start. We’ll see how the Giants and Braves come through tonight.
I know it’s a common belief that Pavano robbed ol’ George by taking $millions and then essentially calling out sick for a couple years. But I really never saw any evidence that any of it was intentional. Some people just have very low pain thresholds and can only perform if everything is perfect.
That said, I hope the Yankees remember that he did cost them championship ring(s), which can never be replaced. They must do all in their power to make sure that he doesn’t ever get one.
Yes! Thank you for saying that. It’s a shame, too … Jack Buck was a legend, not only for Cardinals fans but for everyone. I loved listening to him and Hank Stram doing Monday Night Football games on the radio, not to mention his fantastic calls during the 1991 World Series (“And we’ll see you … tomorrow night!”).
I’ve always pulled for li’l Buck, because of his dad, but I just … well, it’s like you say. It doesn’t sound like he enjoys it very much. I think he’ s a little better on football games, but I still don’t really like listening to him much. Too bad.
Joe Morgan, though … does he just make shit up or what?
Joe Buck is pathetic, and this coming from a Cardinals fan. Here’s a little Joe Buck test: Listen to the live play call of this play with your eyes closed.
Texas up 5-0 in the 5th.
Texas takes 2 from Tampa. I didn’t think it would be that easy.
No kidding. I’m amazed Tampa just lost two games at home by a score of 11-1. And that Buck call is horrible. I’m glad I saw that play through the window of a diner instead of being in front of a TV when it happened. 
And Lance Berkman just hit a go ahead double on a one-and-three pitch.
By the way, the announcing is just terrible.
They’ve spent the last twenty minutes on some bizarre ongoing discussion about how Andy Pettite somehow has overcome some sort of personal doubt or massive shortcoming to pitch a decent game. Did Andy Pettite come back from cancer or something when I wasn’t looking?
One thing I’ve really noticed these past few years since Harry Kalas died is that very few announcers are comfortable with silence. Scully doesn’t care, of course; he’ll let it sit. But with these 3 man booths you can almost pinpoint the moments where a silence lasts too long for one of the extraneous analysts and he’ll start a sentence with no idea what the fuck he’s talking about. “Gardenhire’s… squad, they. They’ve got to be inspired.”
Kalas would say the count and then just sit there, sometimes, until there was something to put in the box score.
Let the crowd noise be part of the game. I miss that. It is almost gone now.
Texas is threatening to make this too short of a series. I was hoping that one would go 5.
And the Yanks get both games in Minnesota. Pettitte pitched a gem and the bullpen was almost perfect.
Pettitte’s game is really reassuring. It was what I needed to see.
Texas and the NYY is shaping up to be an epic series…
How about ol’ Kerry Wood?
Great pick up and the one I didn’t even want on the playoff roster really came through tonight. Berkman came up big.
“Disgraceful”? How? Is it “disgraceful” if people don’t come out to the theaters to see a movie you like? Is it “disgraceful” if a good restaurant never finds enough patrons to stay in business?
People thought for years that Tampa/St. Pete would be a great baseball market (and many teams USED the Tampa Bay region to extort new stadiums and concessions from their local governments). We now know Tampa ISN’T a baseball town, and the Rays can’t draw crowds even when the team is very good.
So what? People have no obligation to go to ballgames. The people of Tampa have spoken: they have better things to do with their time and money than watch the Rays. And that bothers me not a whit.
The Rays must now decide whether to stay around or search around for a better market. Good luck finding one.
Lincecum is just awesome…
Joe
Actually the people of Tampa have voted that they have better things to do than go 30+ miles to another city to watch baseball. The team is in St. Petersburg and is a decent length commute from Tampa (particularly the suburbs which is where the people are). I would offer that we still know very little about the actual Tampa market’s willingness to go see a local team. On the other hand we DO know that the Rays have great television ratings.