I don’t think fans react much to free agent signings at all, especially not when, in the case of Votto, it’s not even an addition to the team, just what is, to the fan, a purely theoretical decision.
What brings the fans out consistently is winning. You can have Joey Vottos all over the field but if you lose people get bored, and if you win with nobodies the fans come out in hordes and make them somebodies (adjusting for the strength of the market; a strong crowd in Tampa Bay is still not a sellout.)
Cincinnati just isn’t a big market - it is less than half the size of Toronto, and is one of baseball’s smallest markets. Aside from the flukey playoff spot in 2010 the team has been unremittingly bad for a long, long time; 2010 was the only winning season they’ve had in the last ten years. As much as that city has a wonderful baseball tradition there is a limit as to how many fans you can get to buy expensive tickets in a smaller market when you’re not serving up a good product.
I mean, I think the good folks of Cincinnati are great fans and will happily support a good team, but I ain’t gonna blame them for not showing to a cold ballpark for the season’s least-attended game when they’re not being provided with winning baseball.
I agree completely, Rick, that fans don’t react to signings, or even star players (unless they’re chasing personal records like McGwire/Sosa). That’s why I kind of wonder what the Reds are up to with spending so much on Votto and now BP. Maybe they are expecting much larger payroll in the future or maybe Walt Jocketty knows he’s retiring soon and doesn’t care who’s left holding the bag.
And yeah, I always forget how small Cincy is - for some reason in my mind it’s a mid-market. I’m sure they’ll do better when it gets warmer as long as they stay in the hunt. It’s just shocking to me whenever a decent team has an empty stadium, I guess. Probably because I’ve never been to a game with less than maybe 30k over the last 150 or so games I’ve been to at Busch III, including all sorts of frigid nasty weeknights against terrible opponents. But the team has been competitive for almost all of that stretch, so I’m sure that explains it.
In cold weather climates, there is often a day off after the scheduled Opening Day in case Opening Day is rained/snowed out. That way Opening Day can be made up the next day.
Jonathan Broxton of the Royals just hit two Oakland batters in the bottom of the twelfth, ending the game–Cespedes to load the bases after they’d already scored the tying run, then Gomes to drive in the winning run. Makes me wonder if there’s ever been a game that ended on two consecutive hit batters before.
(The whole inning included two walks, an error, and the aforementioned two HBs. No hits, but two runs.)
You know, as a die-hard Dodger fan, I’m not exactly wishing ill upon Broxton, but I’ll be damned if I didn’t laugh at this post. Good luck with that, Royals.
It just seemed clear to me after Phillies Playoff Collapse Part Deux in ‘09 that Broxton didn’t have a closer’s mentality (even though I wouldn’t argue that he didn’t have the talent). And so it went from him being the second coming of Eric Gagne (“Game Over!”) to having to cringe any time he came into a game with less than a three-run lead. I was at the game he blew against the Yankess, which really destroyed a lot of fans’ confidence in him, and from then on, he started to hear boos from the stands at home games. I don’t think he ever recovered from it, but I got the impression the Dodgers were just making excuses for him, talking about various lingering injuries he’d have.
I feel bad for the guy, honestly, and I thought he might do well to be in a new environment, but I’m glad he isn’t our problem anymore. And, unfortunately, it looks like he’s picking up where he left off.
Tim Lincecum is really struggling. Take the last part of 2011, plus Spring Training and his two starts this year and his ERA is nearly 10. He got shelled in Colorado tonight. 2.1 innings, six earned runs, two BB’s, a run-scoring wild pitch and a couple of lineouts to end innings with runners in scoring position.
Boy, the Jays known how to play some exciting ballgames if nothing else. Yesterday’s game was boring but a great pitching matchup today.
Jose Bautista’s really off; his leg kick timing isn’t in synch. Indeed, the team isn’t hitting well at all. It’ll be interesting to see at what point they start to get worried about Arencibia, Lawrie, and other young guys who are certainly talented but whose lack of command of the strike zone is now obviously very well known to American League scouts.
Mariners pulled out a great come-from-behind, 4-3 win against the Rangers last night, scoring one in the 8th and then three more in the 9th off of closer Joe Nathan
Not particularly. The Phillies were good, and he was being overused in the post season the first time. The second time maybe he choaked a bit, maybe not, but he pitched well that season, in other post season games, and the following season and a half (until the Yankee game).
