God dammit, Rodriguez! Get the ball down! If the Devil Rays win this game, it’s Rodriguez who blew it. Of course, Ordonz lines out to right ten seconds later, and that would have been your ballgame.

Yet another game, yet another shaky performance by Jones. Good thing Comerica Park is so huge.

Rodriguez’s failed sacrifice bunt is causing a cascade effect on the ball club. We would have won and been finished with the game after only 6 pitches by Rodney. Now he’s spent, Jones is in the game, and who knows how deep into the bullpen we’ll have to go.

Okay, we won. I’ll enjoy it, I promise.

Here’s the part that’s getting me, and I don’t know how much this has been discussed (transplanted Detroiter who just graduated college out-of-state): why are there still so many empty seats at Comerica Park? Granted, it’s the Devil Rays (not exactly a top draw), but everybody knows that Detroit loves a winner, and I still maintain that the city gets behind the Tigers more fervently than any other team when things are good (don’t be fooled by the “Hockeytown” pap). So where are the butts in seats? In spite of some glaring issues (bullpen, power from the outfield), this is still clearly a good team that has a decent chance of playing in October. Where are the fans? Are the Free Press, WDFN, etc. making noise about this?

The fans aren’t there because Detroit is not a great baseball town. I’m from Detroit, and I really wish it were a top-notch baseball town, but it isn’t. Everyone says his city is a great baseball city, but sometimes it isn’t true. I don’t want to be one of those people who says it but has no idea. If the people aren’t coming out to watch a team that is 41-23 and 1.5 games up, it is not a great baseball city, period.

I’ve been to great baseball cities, and the people go to the games.

I went to the Saturday night game against the Tribe a couple weeks back it was almost sold out. We are a great baseball city. The Lions worst nightmare is about to happen, the Tigers will be revelant in the late summer/early fall and all the attention the Lions usually get will be on the Tigers.

Ryan,

it was sold out because it was a saturday game. when a team is doing well, weekend games against divsion rivals tend to sell out. In solid baseball towns, when a team is kicking ass, week night games are sold out. Thats not the case in Detroit. I’m from Detroit but live in chicago. If I were back home i would be going to as many games as I can.

All the attention the Lions usually get will be spent on the Tigers? Where is it now then? The Lions aren’t playing or doing anything right now! Is it being spent on Alerican Idol? The team is in first place, and there are thousands of empty seats. That doesn’t happen in good baseball towns.

Talk to someone in Pittsburgh. They will tell you they have a great baseball city but that they’re just having a hard time right now. Ask someone in Baltimore or Seattle or San Diego or Arlington. Everyone will tell you that because it’s what they want to think. Maybe we used to be a great baseball city, I don’t know. Maybe not. I don’t pretend to know because I wait for evidence. The Tigers are 42-23 and they’re not selling out important ballgames.

It’s okay to admit that Detroit might not be a great baseball city. Perhaps it’s all this “Hockeytown” horseshit that has fouled up the city’s identity.

Dan, you are a very angry individual.

Actually, I didn’t mean to sound angry on this last one, except the part about “Hockeytown”. I think calling your city “Hockeytown” is ridiculous. Here in Chicago, they’ve taken to calling it “The Capital of Baseball”. Why do they have to make claims like this? Why can’t they just have their teams and show some humility?

I think a couple factors that are curretnly effecting the attendance numbers:
1. The team has been bad for so long, it might take some fans longer to get back on the bandwagon
2. The michigan economy is in the toliet, people might not have the discretionary income to spend on a ball game

Or you are correct and we are not a baseball town.

You make two very good points, Ryan. Still, I would argue that, despite a pretty healthy history of winning teams, Detroit can no longer be called a good baseball town.

First of all, I didn’t say Detroit is not a baseball town. It is not a “great” or a “good” baseball town. You have a team, and that team has a bunch of great fans, just not as many as real fans as some other places.

Look, Tiger Stadium was filled on its final day but almost never before that. It was easy to get tickets at times when it shouldn’t have been. 1987, 1984, 1993, etc. I know that baseball attendence in general wasn’t then what it is now, but still.

There aren’t that many big baseball fans living in the city. The city is in rough shape. Almost all of the fans are from the suburbs, which is fine as far as the team is concerned, but it is fundamentally lacking as a baseball town when this is true.

The population of Detroit is poor, it is something like 85% African-American and, as we know, baseball doesn’t get nearly enough African-American fans to games. Part of this is due to bad marketing, and it never helps on that front when you build a brand new, taxpayer-funded stadium with much higher ticket prices right next to the Fox Theatre.

If all of your fans have to be people who drive in from Bloomfield Hills, you are not a good baseball town. You are a town that has a baseball team. I love the Tigers, but it’s true.

My point was that people from every single city with a ball team will say that they live in a “great baseball town”. They say it because they remember some glory days, they remember being into it, and they hear people on their local radio station say it over and over again.

The proof is right there. I think the points you make might have some marginal effect on attendence, but the fact is that there is no reasonable excuse for that park to be far from full when the team is in first place at 42-23. ESPECIALLY since they haven’t been good in a while. The people should be extra excited to get to a game.

Boston is a great baseball town. New York is a great baseball town, and St. Louis is a great baseball town. If they are anywhere near first place, the people will be there.