Where are the Birds of Birdland??
Another year of sold out games at the ballpark they call Fenway. The Red Sox fans broke the record for most consecutive sellout crowds last Thursday with a 456th consecutive sellout. Red Sox nation is real and perhaps at a high point.
I only bring this to the attention of you Orioles fans because of one thing that seems to me to be a consistent pattern here in the city of Baltimore. I see and hear no shortage of people in the area who root, root, root for the home team.
There are plenty of sedans and SUV's with a script 'O', some faded to a yellow, some stained with the residue of several seasons of travel on the beltway.
I even see kids at the skate park with Markakis t-shirts. The only place I don't seem to see a lot of O's fans is, well, at the park. This is Birdland, but there sure aren't a lot of 'yard birds'. And I'm not talking about Clapton, Beck, and Page.
And I'm not talking to the 25,000 of you that on average show up to the ballpark. I'm talking to those of you who show up on the nights when there is a packed house. Through seventy home games, only twelve times this year has the crowd at the yard exceeded 40,000 fans.
Meanwhile, there have been 14 nights where the 'announced' attendance has been below 15,000. There were a few of those 10,000 fan nights where gate attendants must have been doing laps through the turnstile counters. (Editor's Note: Major League Baseball counts the official attendance as paid attendance, not turnstile attendance, at all 30 MLB ballparks.)
I know you're out there. Like I said, I see you on the roads, at the grocery store, at the skate parks, and at the office. You have one of the most beautiful ballparks in Major League Baseball and you used to go to it. Even in 2002, when the team only won 67 games, the attendance for Camden still ranked higher in the A.L. (3rd) than the team ranked in the A.L. East (4th).
You can get a ticket to a game for a freakin' dollar right now. But attendance for the third straight year will rank 10th or lower out of the 14 teams in the American league. (And that's with all the jerks from Boston invading for the weekend series to watch the Sox play in what we like to call 'Fenway South') Night after night, the folks here in the 'cheap seats' look at the screen and don't see many people sitting in the actual cheap seats. Or the medium priced seats. Or the, well, you get the picture.
I have no numbers in front of me, but I assume a lot of you who don't go to the games instead tune into MASN and take in the ballgame on the couch with a reasonably priced beer in one hand (and perhaps even an under four dollar hot dog), and the remote ready in the other hand for games like this Saturday's double header disaster. And I don't blame you one bit.
However, I think what we have here is a little bit of what Fat Bastard would refer to as 'a vicious cycle.' While people complain about the Red Sox and Yankees and their spending sprees to bring in any talent that they want, they sometimes ignore the fact they have the revenue to do so because people pack the park, in the case of the Red Sox, every night. They can land the big free agents.
They can charge $80 for a bad seat. (Try even getting a seat at the bar at the Cask' n Flagon for a dollar, let alone an upper deck seat.) And people will pay whatever it costs to go to a Sox game because they have good players and a contending team. And they get good players that make a contender because they have the money to do so...because people go to the games and buy merchandise. Big wheel keep on turning.
I can see why as an Orioles fan you would say, "I wouldn't even pay a dollar to watch this pitching staff toe the rubber." I watch them every night. I feel your pain. But, without the fan support, the team will struggle to rebuild. Support is more than that O's sticker on your car. It's more than showing up on promotion night.
I'm not trying to sugar coat a bitter pill here when I say there are still reasons to go to the park and see this team. The Orioles outfielders are a young talented group. This team has three guys on it with a shot to hit 50 doubles in a season (Huff, Roberts, and Markakis). No team has ever had that.
Roberts makes some great plays at second and Melvin has had a hell of a second half at the hot corner and been hot at the plate. And with the number of pitching changes, you get more game for your dollar. Literally, your dollar.
Beyond that, it's baseball. It's supposedly America's national past time. (Granted when Cabrera starts, it's more like a way to pass time). It's a game regulated in a fashion that keeps its history alive by keeping the game you're watching today, and its statistics and feats, comparable to a game that may have been played 40 years ago.
It may be 14 to 2, but watching your son catch his first foul ball may be all you'll remember. You can eat peanuts, leave the shells wherever you please, and chase them down with $6 beverages. It's the ballpark. It has its own smell, its own personality (Like that roommate you had freshman year).
Television gives you a lot of angles and fancy things like pitch track, but there is no comparison to seeing with your own eyes the resulting arc of the perfect meeting between power and timing: A Homerun. You can appreciate it more when you hear the pop of the mitt after seeing a 96 mph on the corner.
See a ball travel in not that graceful arc, but in a frozen rope like path from the hand of Nick Markakis to the glove of a shortstop for another outfield assist. Watch the jump Adam Jones gets on a ball before he turns up the speed and turns that double in the gap into a routine fly out.
The point I'm trying to make is that this town doesn't seem to lack interest in the Orioles. This team has a history of winning, a beautiful venue in which to play and to be a fan. But unfortunately, the 'Thundering Roar from 34," no longer refers to the section, but the amount of people sitting in it. Red Sox Nation is real.
Fans are committed to the team and are invested in it. Many other teams are trying to create that atmosphere with their own 'nations' and such. (A personal favorite is the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs 'Crustacean Nation'). But these are just hollow slogans unless the fans have the same commitment. It's not just about the money.
It's about going out to the park and creating an atmosphere that people can be a part of and enjoy. Create an atmosphere where visiting teams get nervous about playing in Camden Yards. Create an atmosphere where free agents want to come play. Create an atmosphere where Ramon Hernandez gets his lazy behind down the line, because people will cheer for it and boo him when he doesn't.
Yeah, it's even okay to be a 'boo bird.' As long as you get out and be a Yard Bird. Get out there and start building a true 'Birdland.'
Am I wrong? Am I right? What's Birdland think about the state of Birdland? Drop us a comment.
Mahalo- Frenchy
Going back to 1986, 23 years including this year, the Red Sox have ranked in the top 5 in attendance a total of 17 times. Seems Sox fans have been going to the park consistently for more than just the last five years. The last time they finished in the AL East basement the Orioles now inhabit, back in 1993, they still ranked 4th in attendance.
I feel like there's more to life than just winning. Sure, it's more fun to watch a winning team, but look at Tampa Bay's attendance - they've been a winning team all season, and they still can (1/2) fill their park! So really, we have the fan base, as this article suggests - we just need to show up & support our O's more regularly. I've been a loyal Orioles fan since '95, and try to get to as many games as I can. Of course I'd rather see them win, but I'll be there no matter what. Good article.
456 sellout games equals 5.6 seasons, so the Red Sox have only been selling out since 2003 - right about the time that they got really good. Where was the "Nation" before that?
Travis,
I agree with you 100%.
Travis, are you serious??
"Where I come from it's called a rip-off to pay the prices we're asked to pay to see non-competitive baseball."
You do know that tickets are $1 right???
How in the world is that a rip off? If that is too much money to see these guys play, then take your dollar to McDonalds and buy yourself a double cheeseburger, maybe that is more worth your buck.
Go O's!
My point is, "Don't let the team take advantage of you." You deserve better. The modern fan/player wants to win. That's why there are so many New York/Boston fans, and that's also why every free-agent at least considers them.
So based on Travis's comment, you should start supporting a team when they start winning. That's why this whole bandwagon stuff gets me steamed. Just like we complain that players are only loyal to the highest bidding team, fans have become loyal to whoever ESPN tells them to be loyal to. Win and We're In!
No one is telling you to write a check so the owner can use your money instead of his to rebuild the team. Being a fan (a real fan) means you support your team. You can get pissed and raise hell when they make a move you don't like. You can call a talk show or make a comment on a message board when they lose 10 straight years. But you don't make your statement by walking away until their good again. That's bogus!
You man up and support the team (go to games, or watch on tv, or listen to the radio) WIN or LOSE! That's a fan.
Travis proposes that we start going to games when the team finally winning. We'll that's the point this blog post was making to begin with.
We ask players to be loyal to their teams and not walk away when the money is bigger somewhere else, and yet we do the same thing when they aren't winning.
There was no "Red Sox Nation" until Boston began to produce on the field. I'm twenty-seven years old, Boston's was mediacre for the first seventeen of those years. Everyone is a Boston/New York fan now... because they win. Don't give me, I should go see a team to help them generate money to field a competitive team. It's the owner's and general manager's responsibility to put a good team on the field. Show me something, don't expect me to blindly buy season tickets no matter what the team plays like. Where I come from it's called a rip-off to pay the prices we're asked to pay to see non-competitive baseball. Bottom line, produce and people will come.
100% agreed! Red Sox Nation was the awakening of the Boston bandwagon and not some 100 year movement.
Orioles fans talked a good game when DC fans invaded the park in the early 90's and now complain that the yankee and boston fans have taken over. Go to the park and support your team and they will have the resources to compete in this division.
Otherwise don't complain if the park is empty or full of visiting team fans.
Create an atmosphere where Ramon Hernandez gets his lazy behind down the line, because people will cheer for it and boo him when he doesn't.
that statement right there is very very true...he is so freakin slow!
but it is true...very true everything you said. sure i have been to 13 games so far this year, next year im going to way more. but the fact is, just like you said just because you have a sticker in your house or on your car doesnt mean anything. the true fans are the ones that go out to the yard and show their support. I rememeber growing up and playing games, that when my parents weren't there I thought I wouldn't play my best, and normally I didn't because I didn't have them there cheering me on, but when they were I did my best. It also goes for the big guys, even though they don't know you personally..doesn't mean that they don't care, they get pumped hearing all the fans cheering for them and when they hear you booing (Mr. Chubs aka Ramon Hernandez) normally they change it around and try harder.
So all those O's fans (that do come to the yard)and so called O's fans (the ones that don't move off their couches to come to the yard) get out and get your butts to the yard and cheer on your guys! I better see those seats piled high with fans on the 23rd!
~your dedicated Orioles fan, Becky
Last summer, the Nation formed a sea of orange and black - 70,000 strong - at Cooperstown the same weekend that the Yankee fan invaded and took over the yard.
The Nation is alive and well, and it really all comes down to winning. The fact that attendance really started going south 5 full years into this miserable streak of losing seasons is to our credit (I'm responsible for about 1 fan per year since I've moved out of the Baltimore area). We tend to forget that the Fenway streak started just when the Sox got really good. Yankee fan only cares when the Bombers are winning - but they've been good for a long time.