I mentioned recently that the Indians broke a single game low-attendance mark in April. With the front office trading away the reigning Cy Young award winner in consecutive seasons (CC Sabathia 2008, Cliff Lee 2009) and star catcher Victor Martinez to the Red Sox, and the team's poor offense, the low attendance can be expected. But it wasn't always this way. Throughout the 90s and early '00s, what was then known as Jacobs Field had a string of 455 consecutive sellouts, and not to mention some great teams. Even as recently as 2007, the Indians were only one game away from the AL pennant. Now it seems that the Tribe is regressing back to their days as the laughing stock of the league. Cleveland was just voted the 6th most miserable sports city in the country by Forbes (Seattle was #1), and the Indians were reported as being the most hated team in baseball by the Wall Street Journal.
So what is this all leading up to? This blog post is titled with a quote from the movie "Major League," the first of two movies that humorously portrayed the atrophy of the Indians franchise. Many of you probably remember the team's colorful play-by-play announcer in the movie, played by Milwaukee's own Bob Uecker. I couldn't help but think of Harry Doyle when Erik sent me this video last week of Indians' television announcer Bruce Drennan going off on how terrible the team was. If I was a player, seeing this would be just the spark I'd need to get going. Either that, or a life-size cutout of Mark Shapiro with peel-away suit sections.
STANDINGS & UPCOMING SERIES AS OF 05.14:
Brewers 15-19, -4.5 (3 v. Phillies, 2 @ Reds, 2 @ Pirates)
Reds 19-15, -0.5 (3 v. Cardinals [Civil Rights Game], 2 v. Brewers, 2 @ Braves)
Twins 22-12, +2.5 (3 @ Yankees, 2 @ Blue Jays, 2 @ Red Sox)
2010 GAMES ATTENDED:
Erik - 9
Peter - 7
So what is this all leading up to? This blog post is titled with a quote from the movie "Major League," the first of two movies that humorously portrayed the atrophy of the Indians franchise. Many of you probably remember the team's colorful play-by-play announcer in the movie, played by Milwaukee's own Bob Uecker. I couldn't help but think of Harry Doyle when Erik sent me this video last week of Indians' television announcer Bruce Drennan going off on how terrible the team was. If I was a player, seeing this would be just the spark I'd need to get going. Either that, or a life-size cutout of Mark Shapiro with peel-away suit sections.
STANDINGS & UPCOMING SERIES AS OF 05.14:
Brewers 15-19, -4.5 (3 v. Phillies, 2 @ Reds, 2 @ Pirates)
Reds 19-15, -0.5 (3 v. Cardinals [Civil Rights Game], 2 v. Brewers, 2 @ Braves)
Twins 22-12, +2.5 (3 @ Yankees, 2 @ Blue Jays, 2 @ Red Sox)
2010 GAMES ATTENDED:
Erik - 9
Peter - 7
touch with baseball when his childhood heroes Robin Yount, Paul Molitor, and Jim Gantner retired but the Great Home Run Chase of 1998 reignited his passion. As a student at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Erik became involved with the campus chapter of Habitat for Humanity. With this group Erik traveled to Portland, OR and Baltimore, MD to work on construction projects and help the group raise $25,000 to partially sponsor a house in Milwaukee. Also at UWM, Erik met Peter Nagel. The two attended their first Brewers game together during Opening Weekend 2003. Despite their failure to ignite the coals at their first tailgate, the two had a blast and were soon making weekly trips to the ballpark. Erik has gone on to several colleges and changed careers several times, and has moved all the way out to New Hampshire, but has always stayed true to his baseball roots by holding part-time stadium usher jobs. To this day he looks back fondly on his incredible cross-country journey.
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