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09/28 2010

Players Have A Right To Complain About Poor Attendance

Posted by Dan Levy.

Basically my morning consists of going to MLB.com to check the late results (gonna miss you, regular season) and then clicking over to whatever Dave Brown has written for Big League Stew. Usually the Answer Man is good for a cackle or two — perhaps even the occasional guffaw — and a few head nods. Yes, I’m usually right in line with Dave’s thinking on things. But today, my head was nodding…sideways, which was surprising that I completely and utterly disagreed with his take on Evan Longoria and David Price calling out the Tampa Bay fans for being so terrible.

First, the particulars. Here’s Longoria’s quote, via the St. Petersburg Times:

“We go out there and play hard for 162 games,” Longoria said, “and for the fans to show the kind of support they’re showing right now, you kind of wonder what else you have to do as a player.”

Now, here’s Price’s comments, via Twitter:

“Had a chance to clinch a post season spot tonight with about 10,000 fans in the stands….embarrassing”

Now here’s Brown’s commentary which had the head going side to side instead of up and down:

No matter their good intentions, no matter their honesty, no matter if they have reason to be upset — even if they were 1000-percent correct — what Longoria and Price did was a mistake.

Criticizing the fan base is wrong. It’s stupid. It’s ignorant. It won’t get you what you want. It makes you look entitled, spoiled, narrow-minded and short-sighted.

Brown linked to even more pointed criticism from Rays Index, which we have as well by clicking the previous words “Rays Index” that are emboldened. Brown also noted that Price has since given a half-hearted apology to those who may have been offended.

But here’s where Brown is wrong. Longoria and Price have every right to complain about a lack of support. The Rays are a great baseball team in a market that didn’t have great baseball for a long time until they came around. Since 2008, Tampa baseball is relevant and it shouldn’t be too much to expect a few thousand fans to show up for really important games. Well, a few more thousand than already are.

The Rays are not the Yankees. They don’t have generations of history with the city. But the players on this team were farm grown, and have come up through the system to give the city a contender. The players aren’t upset that the stadium was at 80-percent capacity. The stadium was almost empty. Price is right, it’s embarrassing.

Brown, and other people screaming “don’t get mad at the fans for not showing up” are missing one important point: the stadium will be packed when the playoffs start. If all those people are going to be hopping on the bandwagon with their brand new t-shirts and Rayhawks (or whatever this year’s bandwagon gimmick is) why not show up a week earlier when regular season games actually matter just as much? Sure, it’s not the Yankees in town, but fans should want to support the local team in a big game. That was a big game. Getting a home series against Texas or a road series against Minnesota is way more important than home field against the Yankees in the LCS. Winning the division or not could make the difference of whether or not the Rays even get to the LCS. These are all big games.

And yes, this is easy for me to say, living in Philadelphia where the team sells out every night and the stadium is a fantastic place to hang out and watch a game. I understand that the Trop is a dump. I understand that the front office has already said the team will be reshaped next year. That’s probably rather disheartening to any fans who are thinking about becoming longterm die-hards. But the team is good NOW. They can win it all NOW. They are one of the four best clubs in the sport and they’re averaging less than some minor league or college clubs can draw.

I’m not trying to tell fans how to spend their money (okay, fine I am a little) but to admonish the players for saying it’s embarrassing isn’t fair either. It is embarrassing. Why would players want to stay in a town where the fans don’t even bother to show up when they’re good? So what’s wrong with the players taking pride in their work and calling the fans out when they aren’t holding up their end of the deal?

More from Brown:

It’s just bad policy, scolding people for not paying their own money to watch you.
It’s as if Longoria and Price are saying, “Well, I’d pay to watch us play. What’s wrong with you?”

That’s exactly what they’re saying. They’re saying WTF to 12,446 fans showing up to a game that could have seen them clinch a playoff spot, the day after 22,301 on Sunday — 600 below their season average — while 61,036 showed up to watch the Buccaneers get smoked by Pittsburgh.

They should be upset. They’re good. It’s not too much to ask for fans to show up and support them, because THEY HAVE before. That’s the thing…if the team never had fans in the building then you could make the case it’s just a terrible baseball town and nobody will ever show up no matter how good they get. But they’ve been to the World Series, just two years ago, and the place was all Rayhawked up. So why not now?

To me — obviously to me, I’m writing this — Price and Longoria weren’t calling out the fans who are there every night. Sure, they were lumping those into “the fans” but the season ticket holders (the Dick Vitale’s of the world, baby) know the players weren’t talking about them. It’s the rest of the people who will show up in two weeks and ask where the nearest bathroom is while wondering if Wade Boggs is going to come in at third. They are the ones getting called out, and they should be.

Players who complain about those fans should be applauded by the other fans.

And media, Dave.

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Posted on September 28, 2010 at 11:44AM

 

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  1. Jason D
    09/28 2010

    Plain and simple ……players that make MILLIONS are complaining that people that are barely making in this society can’t show up. On top of that, the Rays have no allegiance to this area………they are always whinnnnnnning about moving or not staying, or wanting more……..who wants to support a bunch of people who whine about making MILLLIONSSSSS of dollars and who don’t want to be in St.Petersburg….geee i wonder why people aren’t there…hmmmmmm

  2. On the DL with Dan Levy » Blog Archive » DL444: The Answer Man Dave Brown Talks Rays, Fans, Playoffs, Joey Votto, Uncle Cholly & Vin Scully
    09/28 2010

    [...] Dave Brown of Yahoo’s Big League Stew joins the show to talk about many things baseball. Brown wrote a piece yesterday on David Price and Evan Longoria complaining about the lack of fan support. I then wrote a rebuttal to Brown’s column. [...]