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What An Embarrassment


PrivateO

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It's disgusting. If it's killing us as fans you have to wonder what it's like for the Oriole players. The biggest problem is there is no real fix for this, because MLB will never be able to offer competitive balance. It's not just that Yankee fans all get in buses and drive down to Baltimore because it's cheaper than going to a game in NY. It's also just a reality that Yankee fans are everywhere because they are always good. This wasn't a problem when the Yankees sucked in the 80's and the Orioles played at MS. But now they are always good because while we're signing Cesar Izturis, Mark Hendrickson, Ty Wigginton and Adam Eaton, they're signing Mark Teixeira, CC Sabathia and AJ Burnett. Even with a fantastic job by AM, we're hoping for a stretch of years where we can manage to compete by catching lightning in a bottle with player development. But all the while the Yanks will have national appeal. Why do you think there are so many Duke fans out there? It's a small snobbish school. But their recruiting budget is off the charts and they are almost always good. People hitch their carts to winners.

And I'm with those who say "why would I pay money to be a part of a miserable experience". Which means I am part of the problem. But the real culprit is competitive balance in baseball. There is none. And while people will always throw out the argument about how such and such smaller market teams made the playoffs last year, this to me is the real illustration about what is wrong in baseball. This is exhibit A for what happens when you have created a system in which the richer market teams dominate the sport, and all the other teams are the Washington Generals....pawns for select few.

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It's a tribute to Baltimore....not an embarassment. There is not a place around that can entertain a family all day and go to a great stadium at night, all within a couple square miles. It is a place of refuge for all the Yankee fans to get a great seat for 10% of what the ticket would cost them in NY. It would have more embarassing to have only 10,000 fans there for the game. Let the Yanks and Sox(but I hate Sox fans) fans come, but if this team gets better, there should be O's fans in the remaining 20,000 seats.

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People also need to take into consideration that yesterday was the first day of school for Baltimore City and Baltimore County.

And before people try and tell me that kids in the city don't follow the Orioles - well they weren't on my three busloads of kids last year.

Good point, school doesn't start in NY until after Labor Day, but runs through almost all of June. NY families can still travel to Baltimore and most Baltimore parents are very busy with their kids getting into the routine.

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I was sitting behind home plate (section 38) and all the people kept talking about was how these same seats in Yankee stadium cost $1200, but at Camden are $53.

This is my second Yankees/Orioles games this season, seeing Pettitte both times. I wanted to leave so many times tonight because it wasn't enjoyable. But then it is a catch-22, I want to support my team and have 2 less tickets available for the dweebs from New York, but I don't want to be annoyed the entire time.

I hear this theme here about being annoyed by Yankee/Sox fans. Do they do things to you personally to get your goat, or are they just smug fans cheering on their $200M team while making our team look minor league-ish? Maybe you could help me understand what exactly they do...

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I go to as many games as I can throughout the year, which is usually about 15 or so. I get to more early in the year, as my summers tend to get busy with work, class, and boozing with my friends.

I don't avoid Yankee and Red Sox games, and I probably actually seek them out a bit more than other games, but I don't feel compelled to go to the games just to even out the crowd. The crowd will never be even until the O's start winning consistently again. That's just the way it is, most sports fans are fair-weather at best. They only really pay attention when the team is good. We here are the exception, not the rule.

I disagree completely with people that are saying that going to Sox/Yankee games are worse than other games. The Orioles fans that do go to those games are always much more riled up than your typical game, mostly I think because they want to show the foreign fans that do come that not everyone has abandoned the O's. It does suck when we lose and there are a ton of opposing fans in the stadium, but it also makes the winning better. All the Yankee and Red Sox fans at Camden Yards do is make it more interesting, in both good and bad ways. But ultimately, once the team starts winning, those fans will diminish greatly. There will still always be large contingents of Yankee and Red Sox fans, just like there were in '96-97 (moreso Yankees than Sox) but the O's fans will definitely outnumber them once things get better in the standings.

This may have answered my question I just posted to CrazySilver. If that's the case, it's more poor loser mentality at play than horrible foreign fans. If this bothers you, you probably shouldn't goto these games. We suck as a team and have sucked for a long time. This is part of the rebuilding process. Personally, I'd rather see 25,000 fans there 30% of which are from the home team, than to see 9500 of all hometown fans.

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I go to as many games as I can throughout the year, which is usually about 15 or so. I get to more early in the year, as my summers tend to get busy with work, class, and boozing with my friends.

I don't avoid Yankee and Red Sox games, and I probably actually seek them out a bit more than other games, but I don't feel compelled to go to the games just to even out the crowd. The crowd will never be even until the O's start winning consistently again. That's just the way it is, most sports fans are fair-weather at best. They only really pay attention when the team is good. We here are the exception, not the rule.

I disagree completely with people that are saying that going to Sox/Yankee games are worse than other games. The Orioles fans that do go to those games are always much more riled up than your typical game, mostly I think because they want to show the foreign fans that do come that not everyone has abandoned the O's. It does suck when we lose and there are a ton of opposing fans in the stadium, but it also makes the winning better. All the Yankee and Red Sox fans at Camden Yards do is make it more interesting, in both good and bad ways. But ultimately, once the team starts winning, those fans will diminish greatly. There will still always be large contingents of Yankee and Red Sox fans, just like there were in '96-97 (moreso Yankees than Sox) but the O's fans will definitely outnumber them once things get better in the standings.

This. I'm usually pretty quiet at games, but not so when the O's play the Red Sox or the Yankees? Why? Cause I have a compelling reason to: to defend my home turf. It's not just the team's. It's all of ours, and quite honestly, we try and come up with excuse after excuse to not go to the games.

Don't make your excuse the ticket price. That may be the worst in this discussion, and I've seen it 4 or 5 times. I already told a guy:

That was unnecassary.....

How about shell out a $15 ticket ($6 on Student Night, $8 on Tuesdays) in upper reserve, move down to the lower concourse, and bring in a soda and food from the vendors outside the stadium?

Like how I do every Friday.

Going to the game can be done relatively cheap. REALLY cheap compared to other teams' ticket offers. The greatest thing is, and I'm sure a large majority of you will agree with me on this, is that the greatest win that you can imagine is beating one of the Yankees or Sox, and getting to watch them all leave the Yard dejected.

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Thank you, Mr. Firestone. And even if though I have my own thread, I'll say it here again.

For all those using the "I'm be there when they're good" excuse, guess what? That is the shear definition of a bandwagon fan. Whether you like it or not, by saying that, that is what you have become.

Do you know how many empty seats there were last night? Tons. All in the upper deck. If you're going to tell me that some of the people here couldn't go, and bring a couple of friends to make it that much more crowded with O's fans, you're absolutely crazy.

I agree with you, it's disgusting, inexcusable, and just embarrassing.

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The distance traveled and money spent by Yanks and Sox fans isn't as significant when you consider a) all of the local bandwagon fans and b) the number of displaced Yankee and Sox fans who now reside in the DC-Bmore area. I'm not making excuses for Os fans NOT going, but it's not like everyone of those visiting fans travels all that far.

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If the front office is going to declare that "It is not about now, its about the future' by trading Sherrill, Huff and Zaun you can not expect the fans to pay hard earned money to watch an undermanned team get killed by playoff teams.

YOU CAN'T BLAME THE FANS for making a decision to spend their entertainment dollars elsewhere when the O's management has made the decision to put an overmatched team on the field.

I think the O's fans have supported the team pretty well considering the years of losing, currently overmatched team and the state of the economy. Roy, maybe your loyality to the team drives you to want to be in the stands when the O's chances are winning are about 20%. But most people want to feel something uplifting for their entertainment dollars. They are not coming to the park for a downer when they have other choices. Heck many of us die hard fans consider the O's unwatchable at times. I have read your posts that say as much.

O's management has made the decision to build. It is the right decision. They know what the fans response is likely to be. The payroll next year may be cut by $30M. Do you think the ticket prices will be cut in half also. I doubt it.

Fair is fair. When the O's put a quality product on the field the O's fans will return in mass. Mainly because the O's will be offering value for the fans entertainment dollars.

What he said.....

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The guilt I feel for only attending a game or two per season = zero.

It's not a matter of "waiting until they win." I have followed this team religiously (from my home) since 1979.

I don't go to games.

If people find that disgusting or embarrassing, well, I don't know what to say about that. It just seems silly.

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If the front office is going to declare that "It is not about now, its about the future' by trading Sherrill, Huff and Zaun you can not expect the fans to pay hard earned money to watch an undermanned team get killed by playoff teams.

YOU CAN'T BLAME THE FANS for making a decision to spend their entertainment dollars elsewhere when the O's management has made the decision to put an overmatched team on the field.

I think the O's fans have supported the team pretty well considering the years of losing, currently overmatched team and the state of the economy. Roy, maybe your loyality to the team drives you to want to be in the stands when the O's chances are winning are about 20%. But most people want to feel something uplifting for their entertainment dollars. They are not coming to the park for a downer when they have other choices. Heck many of us die hard fans consider the O's unwatchable at times. I have read your posts that say as much.

O's management has made the decision to build. It is the right decision. They know what the fans response is likely to be. The payroll next year may be cut by $30M. Do you think the ticket prices will be cut in half also. I doubt it.

Fair is fair. When the O's put a quality product on the field the O's fans will return in mass. Mainly because the O's will be offering value for the fans entertainment dollars.

Brilliant post. Absolutely agreed.

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I get so tired of hearing this every time the Yankees and the Red Sox are in town. I've gone to games this year (and in years past) vs both the Red Sox and Yankees, and with the exception of the opening series they've been miserable.

I love the Orioles. I spend more money on them than I probably should. But I'm not going to pay money to be miserable. If the Orioles want people to go to their games and show some loyalty, they need to put a product on the field that can compete with the Yankees and Red Sox. I KNOW, they're getting there, but they're not there yet. I work hard for the little bit of money I have and I'm not going to spend it having one of the most awful evenings I can imagine.

I also find that more often than not this argument is made by people who aren't local fans (not in the case of the OP, I know, just generally), people who haven't been to games vs these teams every single year.

Baseball is entertainment. If it ceases to be entertaining then I'm not spending my money on it. I don't feel that I owe anything to a team that hasn't fielded a competitive team in over a decade.

Great post. I live about 5 hours away and go to 2-3 games a year, including Opening Day. Attending a Yankees or Red Sox at OPACY game does not feel like an O's game to me; it feels like a dentist appointment (one exception being this year's Opening Day, where O's fans were plentiful and enthusiastic).

One of the great things about attending sporting events live is the shared sense of purpose in the stands. At this stage in the Orioles' development -- when seeing a loss is more probable than a win -- give me a matchup with A's or the Angels or the Tigers.

At least then, on the good chance that we lose, we're all miserable together. Nothing is more of a downer than hearing the stadium erupt when the O's are closed out in the ninth at Camden Yards. My presence alone can't drown that out. So I'll just pass, thanks, and spend my buck another day.

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