What An Embarrassment

[tvz1997]

It's a Catch-22, but if more O's fans showed up at these games, I'd be more likely to attend them as well.

As it is, attending these games is a futile exercise in self-flagellation. I simply have better things to do with my time. Sorry.

I'll be totally honest. I'll be going to the game tonight and praying that we jump out to an early lead. If Hernandez gets knocked around in the fifth or we have no offense through six or seven, I'm outta there.

I can remember even a few years ago when the MFY fans would keep it down a notch or two until they went up by three or four runs. Now, we can be up 5-2 and if they get a man on-base, they get loud fast. Until proven wrong, they believe it is only a matter of time until they come back and beat our brains in.

I sat through the 30-3 game and the second game of that double-header, but I hate getting kicked around by the Yankees and having it rubbed in my face by the MFY fans who surround me. I have better ways to spend my time.

[NewMarketSean]

You don't make the ticket prices astronomically high. You just do it in such a way that they have to also pay for tickets to other games. For instance, what if they made it to where the ONLY way to get a reserved ticket to a Red Sox or Yankees game at Camden Yards is by purchasing a bundle of tickets that includes seats to Royals and Oakland games? Idiot Yankees and Red Sox fans will probably still come to the games but now the O's have made more profit in the long run. My idea is not perfect but I do think there is a better way to capitalize on the demand.

Then you are screwing O's fans too.

[NewMarketSean]

Boy some Baltimore Fan you are. Why don't you change your name because Baltimore Fan your not.

Fan Police Alert!!! WooooooHooooooo!

[OrangeJerseys]

Living out on the west coast I've been to about a dozen O's games at OPACY since '92. Mostly all against the MFY's and Red Sux, with maybe two games vs Oakland. I was completely appalled at what I found from about '98 on to the present. I remember section 34 at Memorial. I grew up going to game after game there. I was blown away. Where'd everybody go?

I understand the "good product" argument, but to me that treads into fair weather fan territory.

I will still go when I get the chance, doesn't matter who they're playing, because that's my chance to see my team. Who knows what I'd think if I lived 10 minutes from OPACY, but I"d probably go just to make it as unpleasant an experience for them as they make it for me.

I also agree with whomever said that most of these fans are not actually driving down to OPACY, they are already here. They will come back to the O's after the O's bandwagon gets running again.

[Enjoy Terror]

I understand the "good product" argument, but to me that treads into fair weather fan territory.

There are people who don't attend games because they don't know what's going on right now with the Orioles, don't care whats going on right now with the Orioles, and really only care that if they go to a baseball game that the Orioles win that game and then not think about them for the rest of the year. Then, when the Orioles are sufficiently good enough to make headlines, they tell everyone they were a fan of the Orioles for years.

Then there are people who don't attend games because they know everything about the Orioles-- the players, the coaches, the "plan", the W/L record, and they know why the Orioles are an awful baseball team and know that going to a Yankee/O's game at home is a miserable experience for an O's fan. A lot, if not all OHers fall into this category and it boils down to whether they can tolerate that experience or not.

There is a huge difference between these two types of fans.

[Mike B]

We'll just have to disagree. I haven't seen nearly the Steeler invasion that it once was and I've never missed a Steelers game in Baltimore and only 5 total games since they have come to town.

I agree. I have not missed a Ravens home game ever and the amount of Squeeler fans has decreased. Now do not get me wrong there are still arund 7 to 10 K there but at that it is 6 to 1 Raven fans. Steeler fans are the worst, but that is because the atmosphere is more charged for football. Like I said, I attended about half the Red Sox and Yankee games in 08 but I can not take it anymore. It is a miserable time especially when the outcome is so predictable.

[freelancer]

Then you are screwing O's fans too.

Why would that be screwing O's fans too? Don't they want to come to games anyway? Heck, the per game price would probably be less than they would normally pay.

[BaltimoreTerp]

I don't know if this was addressed yet. I read through about half the posts that were made since last night, but decided I really wanted to make this point.

One refrain that has been repeated is the idea that people don't want to pay to support a bad product. My question is, what about all the other support they give to that product?

Watching the games on TV. Searching out information from various sources online. Purchasing licensed products with the team logo on them. Paying for the right to post in discussions on how they won't pay to support the team they support.

All of those things show support for the team, most of them directly.

It's a very hypocritical attitude in my opinion, and one that really undermines the argument.

[frankpembleton]

I agree. I have not missed a Ravens home game ever and the amount of Squeeler fans has decreased. Now do not get me wrong there are still arund 7 to 10 K there but at that it is 6 to 1 Raven fans. Steeler fans are the worst, but that is because the atmosphere is more charged for football. Like I said, I attended about half the Red Sox and Yankee games in 08 but I can not take it anymore. It is a miserable time especially when the outcome is so predictable.

Even this is an extremely high estimate. I'd say it is 7k in the absolute worst years. There is no way there were more than 3k Steeler fans in the stadium last year. I've been to every Ravens/Steelers home game ever in the new stadium and it's never been more than 10% with most years being around 5%. That's hardly embarassing.

In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if there were nearly as many Ravens fans in Pitt last year for the playoff game as there were Steeler fans for the reg season game. Especially given the way Ravens fans actually travel.

[byrdz]

Told my friend that I was flying out for a weekend series but that I would avoid a Skanks or Sux series. This is just based on what I hear on this site and see and hear during the games.

Sounds like it'd be similar to going to Vegas, take everything I'd spend on the game and put it on black, lose it all, and then have my friends laugh at me for making that choice in the first place. At least I had a better chance of winning in that case.

If I lived in Bmore again then things would be different and I wouldn't care as long as I got a good seat.

[frankpembleton]

I don't know if this was addressed yet. I read through about half the posts that were made since last night, but decided I really wanted to make this point.

One refrain that has been repeated is the idea that people don't want to pay to support a bad product. My question is, what about all the other support they give to that product?

Watching the games on TV. Searching out information from various sources online. Purchasing licensed products with the team logo on them. Paying for the right to post in discussions on how they won't pay to support the team they support.

All of those things show support for the team, most of them directly.

It's a very hypocritical attitude in my opinion, and one that really undermines the argument.

Because baseball is pretty boring when nothing is on the line year after year. It's still a great sport to follow, but the actual event of watching baseball when it is a meaningless game gets old.

[BaltimoreTerp]

Because baseball is pretty boring when nothing is on the line year after year. It's still a great sport to follow, but the actual event of watching baseball when it is a meaningless game gets old.

So you don't watch these games on TV?

And that still doesn't address the other aspects of supporting a losing and miserable franchise.

[Hans Moleman]

I don't know if this was addressed yet. I read through about half the posts that were made since last night, but decided I really wanted to make this point.

One refrain that has been repeated is the idea that people don't want to pay to support a bad product. My question is, what about all the other support they give to that product?

Watching the games on TV. Searching out information from various sources online. Purchasing licensed products with the team logo on them. Paying for the right to post in discussions on how they won't pay to support the team they support.

All of those things show support for the team, most of them directly.

It's a very hypocritical attitude in my opinion, and one that really undermines the argument.

Watching games on tv is pretty much free or can be viewed for free on the internet, or for cable customers in the MD-area the MASN fee is already added into their bill.

Seaching out info on the team on the internet is free or should I say I highly doubt that people are getting their internet JUST to look up O's stats. Plus, Angelos doesn't get any money from internet companies.

So people can still support the O's without putting money in Angelos' pocket. I think that's the major thing, people are sick of giving the ambulance chaser money for a sub-par product.

Also, the only O's gear I've purchased in a long time has been an Adam Jones jersey-tshirt I got at the O's/Sox wild-come-back 11-10 win and a older Cal Ripken jersey that was on-sale for like $10 in some Burlington Coat Factory in Greenbelt.

As for paying for the right to post in discussions, that ain't happening for me.

With that said, when I lived in MD during the O's current run of ineptitude I'd still go to around 5-10 games a year, but that was down from when the front office did put a watchable/winning product on the field.

Finally, I'd like to add that threads like this really amuse me, when some people get up on their soap-boxes and declare who is and isn't a fan by their standards. I think it's safe to say that if you're here talking about the O's, after this past decade, than you're pretty much and O's fan, most likely for life.

[byrdz]

So you don't watch these games on TV?

And that still doesn't address the other aspects of supporting a losing and miserable franchise.

There's a bigger financial and especially emotional investment at a game than going out and buying a cap.

[rolliefingers]

I don't know if this was addressed yet. I read through about half the posts that were made since last night, but decided I really wanted to make this point.

One refrain that has been repeated is the idea that people don't want to pay to support a bad product. My question is, what about all the other support they give to that product?

Watching the games on TV. Searching out information from various sources online. Purchasing licensed products with the team logo on them. Paying for the right to post in discussions on how they won't pay to support the team they support.

All of those things show support for the team, most of them directly.

It's a very hypocritical attitude in my opinion, and one that really undermines the argument.

I have no problem supporting a bad product - I'm not one of those people who thinks Angelos is maniacally pocketing all the team's revenues and refusing to improve the team.

I do have a problem with being disrespected in my own park, and having nobody - not ushers, and not other fans - backing me up.

Capisce?