Feb 28
Tom Jones of the St. Pete Times, who writes the blog “Tom Jones’ 2¢,” names the teams he believes have the most and least supportive fans in the major sports.
And who gets the honor of the “Least Supportive” fans in Major League Baseball? St. Pete’s own Tampa Bay Rays…
Least supportive: Tampa Bay fans set records for watching the Rays on television, but the criticism fans get for not showing up at Tropicana Field is deserved. Blame the economy, blame stadium location, blame whatever you want. Bottom line: The Rays had the second-best record in baseball last season but played to only 52 percent capacity. The other teams that played to less than 60 percent capacity last season were the Marlins, Mariners, Nationals, Royals, Pirates, Diamondbacks, Orioles, Indians, A’s and Blue Jays. Of those teams, only one had a winning record. And that was the Blue Jays, who finished fourth in the American League East. It also included all six of the majors’ last-place teams.
First of all, why use “percent capacity” as a measure of fan support? Would the Rays suddenly have the most supportive fans if the Trop’s capacity was only 20,000?
And second of all….what the eff Brutus? We have to read this crap from national writers all the time. Writers that always fail to mention the economy and the TV ratings. You mention that stuff and still bash the attendance. The same attendance that has shown steady growth in recent years despite the economy.
2¢ for this? We want our money back.
Feb 28
Joe Maddon joined Raheem Morris of the Buccaneers and Guy Boucher of the Lightning for a round table discussion of their profession. It was a five-part series, and you can see all the videos at this link. [TBO.com]
Feb 28
Back in June, 2008, James Shields plunked Coco Crisp after Crisp had slid a little too hard into second base in a previous game and then mouthed-off about the incident.
In an interview with David Laurila of Baseball Prospectus, Crisp offers a rare insight into the makings of a baseball brawl and the events that led up to it.
Crisp seems to blame the entire situation on Jason Bartlett who blocked second base with his knee, breaking an “unwritten rule.” But more importantly — and this shows just how nuts Crisp is — Crisp was apparently most upset about what happened when he got up and yelled at Bartlett…
So I got up and had some choice words for Jason Bartlett. He didn’t even look at me…My next at-bat, I get up and I’m like “I don’t care how I get on, but I’ve got to get on.” If he covered the bag, I wasn’t going to slide. I was going to do the dirty, you know, take him out. He didn’t want to say anything to me, fine. You play it dirty, I can play it dirty too. You’ve got to nip stuff right in the bud when it happens.
He then goes on to describe the brawl in great detail, even noting who did what in the scrum… Read the rest of this entry »
Feb 28
The GBT – The Good, The Bad and The Telling sandwich, where The Bad is nice and lean and the The Telling is ripe.
click above image for boxscore
THE GOOD: Robinson Chirinos. We have described Chirinos bat as being similar to John Jaso but with more pop. Well, that pop was on display yesterday when he hit a home run. Sure, it came in the 9th inning off of a guy that might not be big leaguer, but you have to like what you have seen early on from Chirinos…Alex Torres. The prospect was given the all-important role of first reliever (gets to face big league hitters) and responded with 2 scoreless innings allowing just 1 baserunner, a single…Pena Who? Casey Kotchman put his gold glove caliber on display with a couple of great defensive plays.
THE BAD: James Shields. Maybe his nickname should be “Big Blast.” Shields, who led the AL in home runs allowed last year (34), gave up another one in his first inning of the spring. Is he unlucky? Joe Maddon doesn’t think so, saying the home runs are “on him.” And it is something he needs to fix if he is going to be more productive this season…Bootcheck and Bayliss. Chris Bootcheck and Jonah Bayliss are both non-roster invitees trying to win spots in the bullpen. Their first outings did not go well. The two combined to give up 4 runs on 7 hits and a walk in just 2 innings.
THE TELLING: On travel day, Matt Joyce and Kelly Shoppach were the only players in the starting lineup that will likely be on the opening day roster, although Casey Kotchman and Felipe Lopez certainly have a shot…Felipe Lopez started at third base a position he started at 52 times last year…Manny Ramirez will start in left field today. The other starters will no doubt be on high alert.
THE JUNKYARD DOGS WEBTOPIA…
Tom Jones of the St. Pete Times, who writes the blog “Tom Jones’ 2¢,” names the teams he believes have the most and least supportive fans in the major sports.
