What An Embarrassment

[BaltimoreFan]

Milwaukee outdraws Boston. The Cubs average 4O,000 a game.The Mets 38,000 a game. Even the Giants are drawing well.

You can't actually be serious. . .

Do you really think that those numbers even in the least support your argument? I mean honestly?

That has to be a joke.

[NewMarketSean]

Do people pay money to sit in traffic? No.

For the life of me I dont understand this expectation that O's fans "must take back the yard". It really is one of the funniest sayings on the OH.

We will "take back the yard" when the Orioles give us a good product.

[Crazysilver03]

I realize there is another thread on the same subject. I know there are strict rules about duplicate threads, but please bear with me because I want to say this as a fan who does NOT live in Baltimore, so technically its a slightly different thread.

The idea that Yankee fans and Red Sox fans can so outnumber Oriole fans at home is so abhorrant to me I must call it inexcusable.

Heres why:

The distance traveled and money spent by Yankee and Red Sox fans dwarfs the distance and money spent by Oriole fans. Dont make excuses that the ticket prices are too high... not any more they arent.Dont blame the weeknight or traffic or the cost of concessions.

Dont blame the level of play either. The Orioles have a young, rebuilding team that, despite their horrendous record, has many attractive players and these players deserve to see and hear support from its fan base.

True, the Orioles havent been good for a decade, but tons of other fans in other cities support inferior teams and uplift them when they are down.Milwaukee outdraws Boston. The Cubs average 4O,000 a game.The Mets 38,000 a game. Even the Giants are drawing well. You tell me those are great teams?

Its a huge cop out to say "I will be there when they compete".

MEMO:THIS IS THE COMPETITION.RIGHT NOW.

When players around the league hear or see the drowned out fans at OPCY by other fans, they can only dismiss the franchise as a loser market. They wont ever want to come to Baltimore as a Free Agent.

YOU HAVE NO OBLIGATION TO GO TO THE GAME. I GET THAT.

But as a fan, I believe if I were in Baltimore, I would make it my business to attend as many Skanks and Sux games as I could. The mere idea that these fans outcheer, and outspend and outsupport(is that a word?) our fans is a hugely dissapointing reality. Its depressing to even watch it and hear it on TV and radio some 3,000 miles away.

As corny and ridiculous as it sounds..a crowd of 35,000 cheering Oriole fans might have uplifted these players tonight. It raises adreneline levels. its proven.

Simply put. How do you think our guys feel when they hear the cheers for the Yankees all night long?

It stinks.

Dont blame anything on the Orioles this time. Get off your butts and put your butts in a seat at OPCY.And scream your butt off. Even if we lose we outnumber them.Thats a small victory. And from small victories...larger ones arise.

GO O'S.

Don't really understand why you think your opinion is so much more important then everyone else's and deserves its own thread.

Your post is littered with non-facts from someone who has never experienced a game.

First, the money spent by Yankees and Red Sox fans to travel and buy tickets at OPACY is CHEAPER then at their own ballparks. I was sitting behind homeplate (cost = $48), when someone behind me said these same seats cost $1200 at Yankee stadium.

Second, a lot of teams outdraw Boston because Fenway is so small. Likewise with Chicago Cubs. Milwaukee will never sell out on a consistent basis because the stadium is to big and the quality of the team not as good.

Third, of course the Giants are drawing well, they are in the playoff race.

Fourth, Yankees and Red Sox fans buy up the tickets before Orioles fans consider getting the tickets a lot of times. Last night, there were easily 15,000 Yankee fans there, so to even match them, you would need to have 15,000 Orioles fans. Mind you, it was a Monday night and school has already started so that doesnt help the Orioles increase attendance.

And what sucks the absolute most is that all the vendors (INSIDE and outside the stadium) are selling Yankees gear.

[Crazysilver03]

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...

There wasn't anything directly intimidating, but you feel like you are at an away game. Cheering every five seconds for something a Yankee player does.

Even sitting behind home plate, there were more Yankees fans than Orioles fans. "Lets Go Yanks" started at least 10 times. I tried to start "Lets Go O's" but it never took off because the only Orioles fans in my section (about 25 of them) were all over the age of 50. Plus the Yankee fans were looking at me like I was crazy, you know, for actually being a home town fan.

[AlbNYfan]

This is neither here nor there, but,

I remember reading in SI during the O's glory days, an article, interview with MacPhail, Cashen about the O's...at that time, they projected 1,000,000 as top attendance in Baltimore and even with those great teams they had trouble selling out WS games. Of course, there were no Yankees, or Sox fans loading Memorial Stadium.

Times change....that's a constant, if you don't accept change you become extinct. Deal with it.

[Why Not?]

I've stopped going to Yanks and Red Sox games for the most part. I've got three kids, so my schedule isn't terribly flexible. When I DO go, it's often Junior Orioles games, which are vs. less-popular teams.

But the biggest factor is that I don't want to be in that environment with my kids. Drunken fights, people screaming at each other, general douchbaggery; is that a fun time out at the ballpark? If I wanted that, I'd go to an NFL game.

[MuhladaOs]

I've been to a total of six games this year, maybe even more, I stopped counting to be honest. I always show verbal support for the team and I also invest close to $50+ every time with purchases of food & beer.

However, as much as I love going to the games and making fun of Yankee and Redsox fans and getting into immature heated arguments with them.

The reason why I haven't been going to even more Home games at OPACY is that dude I love watching MASN HD on my big HDTV.

I spent darn well near $2,500 in everything for my entertainment system and in this day in age with the economy the way it's been and the price of beer at OPACY or at any ball park. I love watching the Orioles win or lose on my crystal clear high definition TV while drinking cheap Natty Bo.

Sure, it's no excuse not to support my young O's especially against the Yankees or Redsox, but I'm just saying that watching baseball on HD is a lot of fun too, hehe. Anyone else agree?

[Fan4Life]

There wasn't anything directly intimidating, but you feel like you are at an away game. Cheering every five seconds for something a Yankee player does.

Even sitting behind home plate, there were more Yankees fans than Orioles fans. "Lets Go Yanks" started at least 10 times. I tried to start "Lets Go O's" but it never took off because the only Orioles fans in my section (about 25 of them) were all over the age of 50. Plus the Yankee fans were looking at me like I was crazy, you know, for actually being a home town fan.

Thanks. I understand your feeling the way you do, but you can't fault the Yankee fans or their team, can you? It's really just circumstances... Your pain in your home stadium is part of the rebuilding process. It's something we have to live with for awhile longer. Hey, I think there's room for venting the frustration, but not at any specific group in this situation.

[rolliefingers]

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.

Right, this is the thing that all you guys need to understand. I've pretty much sworn off going to Red Sox or Yankees games now, and you know why?

It'd be one thing if O's fans were outnumbered, but we had a 50/50 chance of winning. Then, at least you'd have the possibility of walking out of the park taunting THEM for once. But as it is, there's a 100 percent probability of being annoyed to the point of wanting to punch entire sections worth of fans, and maybe a 10 percent possibility that you'll get to throw it back in their faces.

Great odds, right?

I consider myself a diehard fan, and I refuse to see either of those two teams. Why? Because I don't want to be arrested for assault.

[rolliefingers]

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.

...

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.

Stacey FTW

[BaltimoreGhost]

Thank you.

I can't believe that Matusz and Tillman and Wieters are sitting there in the dugout, looking around at what goes on there, and people here are making excuses about how it's all somebody else's fault. I can't believe that fans want the young guys to come up and begin their ML careers as Orioles, only to discover that that's what happens in Baltimore when BOS and the MFY's come to town. People are real good about talking about pride until it requires them to get off their butt and do something, and then they have their excuses all in a row. Do they really want the young MiL talent to finally get here and have this be their introduction to Baltimore? I cannot imagine anything more lame than justifying that...

Until the Birds give me a glove and bat and uniform and give me a few at-bats, I'm going to blame it on the guys that actually play the game.

We are actually about a .500 team at home. So we already do much better at home as it is. Don't make it out that Oriole Park is that bad on the O's. I blame poor ownership and management for neglecting the fans. If they had of given us a good product, ala the Ravens, we would be packing that place every night. But they hand the keys of the franchise to clowns like Syd Thrift and Jim Beattie/Mike Flanagan etc. MacPhail has us on the right track, but we are still miles away.

If you remember optimism is always high in the early season and our fans really do come out for the first few series when we are still in the hunt. In 2005 I remember coming to a Yanks/O's game when the O's were in 1st in late May and it was absolutely electric on a student night. That will happen again if you give the folks in Baltimore a reason to get off their butts and spend their hard-earned money on watching a game. Look at the Ravens. Its not the town but the team.

Yea there is hope and bright spots now, but its still an abysmal team that makes little league blunders on the base paths. Don't blame players not knowing how many outs there are on whether I'm at the stadium or not.

[BaltimoreGhost]

I've been to a total of six games this year, maybe even more, I stopped counting to be honest. I always show verbal support for the team and I also invest close to $50+ every time with purchases of food & beer.

However, as much as I love going to the games and making fun of Yankee and Redsox fans and getting into immature heated arguments with them.

The reason why I haven't been going to even more Home games at OPACY is that dude I love watching MASN HD on my big HDTV.

I spent darn well near $2,500 in everything for my entertainment system and in this day in age with the economy the way it's been and the price of beer at OPACY or at any ball park. I love watching the Orioles win or lose on my crystal clear high definition TV while drinking cheap Natty Bo.

Sure, it's no excuse not to support my young O's especially against the Yankees or Redsox, but I'm just saying that watching baseball on HD is a lot of fun too, hehe. Anyone else agree?

Yea Beer prices are ridiculous. Other great points too.

[rolliefingers]

I completely agree. I live just outside of Bluefield so I get to see the little O's play but only get to see Baltimore twice a year. Those two times are the highlight of my year. It kills me when I hear that Oriole fans in Maryland don't want to go to the ballgame.

Well, I live 2 miles from OPACY, and I can think of roughly 65,023 things I'd rather be doing in Baltimore on a given night than giving myself a hernia trying to keep from punching some a-hole who doesn't have the human decency to act like the guest that he is.

[Crazysilver03]

Thanks. I understand your feeling the way you do, but you can't fault the Yankee fans or their team, can you? It's really just circumstances... Your pain in your home stadium is part of the rebuilding process. It's something we have to live with for awhile longer. Hey, I think there's room for venting the frustration, but not at any specific group in this situation.

It is circumstances, and I know I have been unlucky to catch Pettitte both times I went to games this season, but I don't think I want to go to another game until I think we have a fair chance of winning.

The other game I went to was Student Night back in May, where it was probably 25K Yankee fans to 15K Orioles fans, but even then, the Yankee fans were just as loud and drowned out the Orioles fans.

I dont want people telling me I should keep going to the games, such as Roy, when said people have never experienced the environment first hand.

[rolliefingers]

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.

Did you watch last night's game (and tons of others like it)? The OP put the ratio at 80/20, and I think that's about right. You can't honestly believe what you just typed.