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Indians Fans... Claim they are the best, but are they?

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aurorabuckeye13

aurorabuckeye13

Heisman
Indians fans claim that they are the best fans in baseball, which they support by showing the amazing stat of 455 straight games being sold out. This was in the 90's when the team regularly won the Central and made runs at pennants regularly (although they never got one). There is the legendary John Adams who has beat the drum in the bleacher seats for the last 32 years the Tribe has played. Now that is one of the best fans in baseball.

Now all of the other Tribe fans out there, I'm not so sure about. After the streak of sellouts ended, so did the winning. No more were the days where the Indians were a lock for a playoff spot like in the mid 90's. Fans started ignoring them, not paying attention to how they were doing. Less fans started showing up to games as they were going through the rebuilding stages. Suddenly these diehard "best fans in baseball" started not showing up to their team's games. I can understand that these fans are frustrated with the lack of winning, but this season, the Tribe has finally started to show signs of rebirth and winning. So has that brought fans back to the ballpark? No it hasn't, which further leads us to see that we are not in fact the best fans in baseball.

As of the day I am writing this, the Indians are 34-30 and are on a six game winning streak. They had just gotten back from a long roadtrip and put up a respectable record of 7-5 on the trip. You think fans might start to be getting excited huh? That must be why only 17,000 showed up the first game back from the trip. Here's another stat... The Tribe has an average attendance this year of 18,998 people per game this year through 27 games, that is third lowest in all of Major League Baseball. We have a winning record and are 3 games out of the wild card. The lowly San Francisco Giants who are doing miserably this year, are drawing 38,745 per game WITHOUT their star, Barry Bonds. They are in second to last place in their division, and are ten games below .500, but they still draw almost twice what we do. Best fans in baseball huh?

I was driven to write this, because of something I heard on the radio yesterday that just made me sick and it made me ashamed of Indians fans. A guy called in on the radio after the game yesterday and said that he was at the game. It was in the eighth, two outs, two strikes and Arthur Rhodes was pitching, Indians up by one with a runner on second for Colorado. The fan who called got to his feet and started clapping and cheering like any good baseball fan would at a time like this. The guy behind him told him to sit down and started cursing at him. To make it even worse, an usher told the guy cheering that he had to sit down. Well the guy got so pissed off at this like I did when I heard it and he left. It was an absolute disgrace.

I myself am an Indians fan, and these guys deserve more support, especially by the way they are playing. So if by taking this 20 minutes to sit down and write this, I get 10 people here to go to a game and be "the best fans in baseball" then I have accomplished something. Because obviously, right now, Indians fans are some of the worst fans in baseball.

Go Tribe
 
I've been an Indians fans since I was 11 (1968), and so I've gone through a lot. I think our fans are as good as most, but I wouldn't proclaim us as the best. The fact that the end of sellout streak just happening to occur when the Tribe stopped being championship caliber shows that.

The fiasco with the usher telling a fan to sit down during a pivotal moment in the game is absolute bullshit. The usher should be fired and the "fan" that whined about it should be thrown off the stadium wall...
 
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aurorabuckeye13: "This was in the 90's when the team regularly won the Central and made runs at pennants regularly (although they never got one)."

They actually won TWO pennants in '95 & '97. Winning the 'pennant' doesn't mean winning the World Series. You win the 'pennant' when you make it to the WS.

"Fans started ignoring them, not paying attention to how they were doing."

What do you expect? This is typical of every baseball city in America. In 1991, coming off a last place finish, the Yankees drew 1.8 million. Last year, coming off 9 years of excellence, they drew 4 million. Same ballpark, same capacity, etc. The Mets are the same way, so are the Dodgers, etc. A bad baseball team is not gonna draw a lot of fans - cept for the Cubs & Red Sox, whose fans go more for the Ballpark than the team.
 
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The Tribe quite honestly has been a bit of a letdown this year. Many people had them as a "sleeper" team in the American league, but they got off to a very sluggish start, and have only recently started looking like a team that could be competative. Give it a few more weeks to show that they are for real and I have a feeling we'll start seeing more people going out to the Jake. We have some talent to get excited about, especially Grady Sizemore. I know if I still lived in the area, I'd be at my share of games. But alas, I have to settle for Cardinals games (who by the way, have probably the most obnoxious fans in baseball :mad1: ). GO TRIBE.
 
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It has been a handful of years since I have been to an Indians game at Jacobs Field. The fans are good and loyal, but not to the level of Cubs' fans. As much as Clevelanders love their Indians the number one Cleveland team will always be the Browns.

I am, however, wearing my Indians polo shirt at work today. Go Tribe!
 
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Sloopy45 said:
aurorabuckeye13: "This was in the 90's when the team regularly won the Central and made runs at pennants regularly (although they never got one)."

They actually won TWO pennants in '95 & '97. Winning the 'pennant' doesn't mean winning the World Series. You win the 'pennant' when you make it to the WS.

"Fans started ignoring them, not paying attention to how they were doing."

What do you expect? This is typical of every baseball city in America. In 1991, coming off a last place finish, the Yankees drew 1.8 million. Last year, coming off 9 years of excellence, they drew 4 million. Same ballpark, same capacity, etc. The Mets are the same way, so are the Dodgers, etc. A bad baseball team is not gonna draw a lot of fans - cept for the Cubs & Red Sox, whose fans go more for the Ballpark than the team.
Click to expand...

First off, thanks for the correction on the pennant thing... Secondly, Yankees fans are the biggest bandwagon bullshit fans in the world so any rise or drop in attendance is not surprising, and also, what do you call the Giants this year? They suck. My point was that the Indians have only beat Kansas City and Tampa Bay who are both totally worthless in attendance. The F***ing Rockies who absolutely suck and are in the basement of their division bring in more fans than we do!
 
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aurorabuckeye13: "Secondly, Yankees fans are the biggest bandwagon bullshit fans in the world so any rise or drop in attendance is not surprising"

Hate to break it to you (you might be old enough for this), but if we're talking 'bandwagon' fans, I seem to remember a certain Cleveland Municipal Stadium (aka "The Mistake by the Lake") not being able to sell-out Opening Days when the Indians were horseshit. And as soon as the winning started, you couldn't get a ticket.

Remember the stadium in the begining of Major League & in the end? I wouldn't stand in a glass house & throw stones if I were you.

"what do you call the Giants this year?"

That's one team. Pac Bell is becoming that cushy-who cares if our team wins-Ballpark like Wrigley or Fenway. All the crappy teams aren't world-beaters in terms of attendance.
 
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I don't know about best... but you also have to remember that the beginning of the sellout streak also coincided with the opening of the Jake... (more or less... the first year there got a little cut short... which actually made the Indian fan's heart grow impatient to get back to baseball and kick some ass) the genesis of a varied group of "once in a lifetime Offenses" (that 95 line-up was jsut Filthy)...and with that offense the ability to rally from any defecit at any time... I think they had some 21 or 24 wins in their last at bat. So couple that all together and you had some real excitement that picked up a lot of momentum....

Now... you have a team that really lacks every day star power... Obviously Sabathia and Cliff Lee are growing into very good pitchers... but Until Grady Sizemore emerges as the Superstar I beleive he's going to be... I don't know if the fans are going to warm to this offense right away (No offense to Martinez and Hafner intended)... to the casual fan.. pitching isn't that exciting.

BUT... Keep one thing in mind... The Indians DID sell out that series at the end of August last year vs the Twins (I think August) where they were just a game or two back before the meltdown came that put them out of the race...

So... if they get into this thing... the fans will show... (Also... its been a crappy spring in OHio... they had something like one game start at a Temp above 65 degrees through May15th... And they've been on the raod a lto unitl this past week)...

If the bats get goign some (and they are underacheiving, even now)... they can win some games... the pitching has been borderline filthy the last 2 weeks... so jsut find some offense any where... and they can make a run at at least the Wildcard...
 
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AKAK: "the genesis of a varied group of "once in a lifetime Offenses" (that 95 line-up was jsut Filthy)"

I thought (statistics aside) that the '97 Indians line-up was better than '95. The '97 Indians were so frickin' deep that the opposing pitcher never got an Inning off. It was a struggle to turn that line-up over every single time.

"but Until Grady Sizemore emerges as the Superstar I beleive he's going to be... I don't know if the fans are going to warm to this offense right away (No offense to Martinez and Hafner intended)... to the casual fan.. pitching isn't that exciting."

I think this offense has the potential to be the best in baseball someday. And someday soon.
 
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I am a lifelong Indians fan and I am sick of everyone that claims we are the "best fans". We are not even close. Before this past homestand we were 2nd to last in attendance (per game) with only Tampa Bay being worse. There is no excuse for that at all! We are a .500 club and can't outdraw the freaking Kansas City Royals... THE FREAKING ROYALS!!!

Those that bring up that streak was all just a matter of timing. The Browns were gone, the Cavs stunk and the Indians were clicking on all cylinders. Also a part of that was the economy was very good. Companies bought tickets and gave them to workers, people had extra cash with the good economy and no Browns tickets to spend their normal entertainment dollar.

As soon as the Indians cut payroll all the "new" fans wondered why. They became disenfranchised and the timing was perfect for a freefall. The Browns were back and the economy went down the drain. Now with the Indians getting better they also had to compete for something else. The Cavs with LeBron. With Cleveland still in the dumps economy-wise the money went to the Browns first, Cavs secons and then the Indians.

Now about the usher telling them to sit. He didn't say where he sat did he? If it was the lower area or the club seats I can see why the people did this. This is where the Indians get their money still and they don't want to piss of their current customers. It pisses me off too, but when you only have 15,000 at games, a few standing cheering fans will get yelled at like this. But when you get back to 30,000 you will be able to get louder because you won't be alone in standing and cheering.

Goes back to the stand or sit thread in the football forum. If you are the only one standing it is the proper thing to sit down. The more numbers that come the more likely these people will want to stand and cheer and you will be allowed to stay up. Pathetic I know, but that is how it works unforunately.
 
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I've been an Indians fan for a long time. I too see the games on television and think it's shameful that they are playing so well yet there are so few fans in the seats. I don't follow them closely enough to know how long some of these guys are signed up but when Victor Martinez comes up for a new contract will Dolan be willing to put up the money necessary to keep him? How about Sizemore if he develops like I bet he does(I agree with AKAK. He's going to be a good one. He isn't too bad right now.)? How about C.C? Cliff Lee? Hafner? Shapiro is a great GM but Dolan is going to have to get off his wallet to keep some of these guys in Cleveland. If they are close this year I'd actually like to see them add a starter before the trade deadline.
 
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IIRC, Hafner and Martinez inked long-ish term deals this off-season. (Somewhere between 3 and 5 years, I think.)

edit for actual numbers:

Martinez: 5 year deal through 2009 with club option for 2010
Hafner: Signed 3 year contrat on April 14.
 
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