Nice to see my Cards still selling out all the time 21 years after they last won the World Series. Of course, there’s nothing else to do in St. Louis in the summertime except gamble and sweat.
Roger Clemens story: I was playing golf with a friend of mine from Houston at his country club, and Roger was playing that same day. At the 19th hole, I caught a glimpse of his golf bag, which displayed in prominent white cursive lettering: “THE ROCKET.” Yes, that’s right - he had “THE ROCKET” custom printed on his golf bag. Self-promoting, pompous jackoff.
Good post, Wilson, but I have to object to the following:
You are talking about fans who turn out to games for a team that hasn’t won a title since before their grandfathers were born.
Year after year, we lose to the Yankees. Since the re-organization, we can count on a wild-card spot in the playoffs, maybe, but it’s an annual struggle against the deepest pockets in the league.
We’re used to losing, but we always hope for the next season, because we always get this close.
The other thing you have to consider is that we love the game as much as we love the Sox. It’s baseball, and that’s the only important thing. Baseball.
Yankee fans don’t care about the game, they just care about titles.
We are Red Sox baseball fans. We will sell out every game in a complete dump to watch a baseball game. We love our Sox, and we love baseball. Records and titles don’t enter into the equation, because we aren’t fair-weather fans like you people.
That’s a mighty broad brush you are painting with there, Exgineer.
I know some of it is hyperbole, but not ALL Yankee fans care only about titles. And some (note the some) of the most boorish fans I’ve ever seen have been Boston fans.
Also, if you think Fenway is a dump, have you ever been to Shea? Now there is a stadium with no redeeming features…
And my main point remains - we don’t know what might happen to Boston attendance if they turn really bad for a long stretch. They simply haven’t been bad for a long stretch in a long time.
Finally, to correct something I said earlier - Baltimore hit 3.7 million in attendance in 1997, their last good year. I think that’s the highest season total besides the Skydome. And last year, after five years of being bad, the Orioles’ attendance is down to 2.6 million.
I’m a moron. I forgot about Colorado.
The Rockies drew 4.4 million in their first year, when they played at Mile High. That’s the record, I’m pretty sure. Toronto has been just over 4 million three times.
Colorado has been in the 3.8 to 3.9 million range three times. And Atlanta also hit 3.8 million in '93.
I’ll stop obsessing about this now.
Now, what was my point again? Yes, it is true that the Yankees haven’t had the absolute highest attendance, even when they are winning. And that their attendance drops when they are bad for a long time. But that’s true of almost every team that’s had a prolonged bad stretch, which the Red Sox haven’t had.