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Sunday, June 28, 2009

Piniella vents about clubhouse leaks and Sox attendance woes

“Look, things get a little heated in the clubhouse at times,” Piniella said. “I don’t think what happened is right. I mentioned it in a nice way to the (visitors’ clubhouse employees). But, look, it happened. What can you say? A lot of things happen.”

Piniella was told by a Sox official that no one from the clubhouse leaked the “piece of (expletive) comment.” Only Piniella, Bradley and some Sox employees were eyewtinesses to the incident. On Sunday, Piniella said he wasn’t sure where the leak came from.

“I’m not going to accuse anybody, because I just don’t know,” he said. “And if I don’t know, why should I start accusing people? If I knew who it was, I would take care of that. The person who wrote the article, he knows who gave him the information. They should ask him.”

...So the Sox need the Cubs to help them draw fans? White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen was asked why attendance was so low at the Sox-Dodgers series, and said: “Because our fans are not stupid like Cubs fans. They know we’re (expletive).”

Guillen said Cubs fans will go watch any game at Wrigley Field because “Wrigley Field is just a bar.”

Thanks to Nubby.

Repoz Posted: June 28, 2009 at 07:04 PM | 25 comment(s) Login to Bookmark
Tags: cubs, white sox

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1. TerpNats Posted: June 28, 2009 at 07:14 PM (#3235868)

Care to bet Ozzie's favorite fairy tale is the one where the kid says the emperor has no clothes?

2. i'm not STEAGLES and you shouldn't be either Posted: June 28, 2009 at 07:28 PM (#3235876)

i still freaking love ozzie.

pinella and bradley seem to be pretty standup about this incident. no apparent harm done.

3. Sox Machine Posted: June 28, 2009 at 07:28 PM (#3235879)

The real reason for the pisspoor attendance: The Sox deemed the Dodgers series a "premier" one, thus raising the price of every ticket around the stadium by $14. Couldn't get in the stadium for less than $33, and couldn't sit anywhere in the lower deck for less than $47 (before charges/fees).

And the only guy in the stadium who cares about the Dodgers is Jerry Reinsdorf.

So there you go.

4. Dan The Mediocre Posted: June 28, 2009 at 07:42 PM (#3235892)

The Sox are on pace to have about 400,000 fewer people attending compared to last year. They're currently 8th in attendance per game, compared to last year's 6th.

EDIT: I don't know attendance patterns, so it may very well be that teams always have lower attendance in the first half of the season and higher attendance in the second half.

5. Fred Garvin still has outstanding warrants Posted: June 28, 2009 at 07:49 PM (#3235898)

So the Sox need the Cubs to help them draw fans? White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen was asked why attendance was so low at the Sox-Dodgers series, and said: "Because our fans are not stupid like Cubs fans. They know we're (expletive)."

I'm sure the Sox marketing folks will use that in their next campaign.

6. cardsfanboy

Posted: June 28, 2009 at 07:51 PM (#3235899)

I don't know attendance patterns, so it may very well be that teams always have lower attendance in the first half of the season and higher attendance in the second half.

depending on competitive level of the team I think it matters how well they compete throughout the season and the feeling among the local populace. It's obvious that the Rays benefited greatly in the second half of last season for their record, but I would imagine that teams like the Indians which were thought to be competitive, will have a drop in attendence (teams like the Red Sox, Cubs, Cardinals, Yankees it probably doesn't matter right now in their competitive cycle)

7. Kiko Sakata

Posted: June 28, 2009 at 08:02 PM (#3235914)

it may very well be that teams always have lower attendance in the first half of the season and higher attendance in the second half.

I'm sure that was the case last year for the Sox. Remember, they just barely won the division by playing a Game 163 (at home). They were a playoff team in the closest playoff race in MLB last season and they're a pretty mediocre team this season. Given that, a drop from 6th to 8th in attendance doesn't seem like a big surprise.

8. puck Posted: June 28, 2009 at 08:07 PM (#3235921)

EDIT: I don't know attendance patterns, so it may very well be that teams always have lower attendance in the first half of the season and higher attendance in the second half.

Someone posted this nifty BB-ref attendance query the other day. It compares 2008 and 2009 attendance through the current date.

White Sox are down 2,592/game so far.

9. snapper (history's 42nd greatest monster) Posted: June 28, 2009 at 08:47 PM (#3235958)

The Yankees and Mets are weird ones, since they moved to smaller stadiums, much smaller for the Mets. The Yankees were near sell-out capacity last year and cut about 5,000 seats (not to mention pricing some of those seats at absurd levels). The Mets cut something like 10,000 seats. In both cases you'd expect a per game decline, and I'm not sure if the actual ones are good or bad news, i.e. higher or lower than expectation.

10. cardsfanboy

Posted: June 28, 2009 at 09:05 PM (#3235966)

11. Answer Guy Posted: June 28, 2009 at 09:37 PM (#3235972)

Wow, Detroit's hurting. They had a disappointing year last year and have actually been doing pretty well this season. Not sure to what extent this year's totals reflect the poor showing by the Tigers last year.
The other teams that are down that much are the two NY teams who moved to smaller ballparks and teams that are actually doing poorly, like Houston and Colorado (well, the Rox have picked it up more recently.)

Not a good year for attendance overall with more than half the teams experiencing significant attendance dropoffs.

12. snapper (history's 42nd greatest monster) Posted: June 28, 2009 at 09:58 PM (#3235976)

Not a good year for attendance overall with more than half the teams experiencing significant attendance dropoffs.

Well, there is that depression thing everyone has been talking about.

13. Home Run Teal & Black Black Black Gone! Posted: June 28, 2009 at 10:06 PM (#3235979)

I love Ozzie Guillen. I wouldn't let him manage, but I'd make him spokesman.

14. Vaux, A.B.D. Posted: June 28, 2009 at 10:49 PM (#3235996)

The last few home series for the Tigers have seen higher attendance than earlier in the year. I don't think anybody expected them to really contend this time around (and I don't expect them to keep doing it, either, but that's another story).

15. Jim Wisinski

Posted: June 28, 2009 at 11:23 PM (#3236007)

Cardinals are down 22 people per game, the economy is destroying our attendence.

The Giants are down 22, the Cardinals are down -1,459.

16. cardsfanboy

Posted: June 29, 2009 at 12:21 AM (#3236042)

The Giants are down 22, the Cardinals are down -1,459.

teaches me to glance quickly and make assumptions.

17. Kiko Sakata

Posted: June 29, 2009 at 01:39 AM (#3236136)

Detroit's hurting.

Of course, this sentence has nothing to do with the Tigers or baseball attendance. You can make a pretty decent argument that the current recession has hit Detroit harder than anywhere else in the country.

I don't expect them to keep doing it, either, but that's another story

Well somebody has to win that division. I can see an argument that the Twins are a better team than the Tigers, but not enough better that they're going to be able to run away and hide from them any time soon.

18. Dag Nabbit apealing [sic] his own check swing Posted: June 29, 2009 at 04:35 AM (#3236346)

Not a good year for attendance overall with more than half the teams experiencing significant attendance dropoffs.

Two-thirds are down, in fact.

Only four NL teams have per-game attendance rises. All teams in the NL West are down. OK, so San Fran is only down 22 per game. Still the Dodgers are down over 1,700 per game despite being fantastic.

19. Tripon Posted: June 29, 2009 at 04:43 AM (#3236348)

Nobody wants to pay $15 to park at Dodgers stadium.

20. Sox Machine Posted: June 29, 2009 at 05:10 AM (#3236354)

Nobody wants to pay $15 to park at Dodgers stadium.

$15? That's it? It's $23 at The Cell!

21. Tripon Posted: June 29, 2009 at 05:13 AM (#3236355)

Well, they also put in a crazy parking plan where you can only park in a specific section regardless of where you actually want to park to enter, or exit. And it was $5 dollars before the increase.

That pissed a bunch of people off.

22. Phil Coorey. Posted: June 29, 2009 at 05:17 AM (#3236356)

White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen was asked why attendance was so low at the Sox-Dodgers series, and said: “Because our fans are not stupid like Cubs fans. They know we’re (expletive).”

That is hilarious

23. Mark Edward Posted: June 29, 2009 at 06:38 AM (#3236387)

Phil, I am a big fan of your current screenname.

Did you know that Aleksandra recently left the group? This is sad; not only was she a great singer, but I had a bit of a crush on her as well...

This year's Sox team has been a bit bland. It's gotten more exciting with the promotions of Beckham & Poreda, but the first few months were pretty dull. Also, this was the first year in quite a while that the Hawks went deep into the playoffs, so I'm sure many Sox fans were caught up in that (I know I was).

24. Phil Coorey. Posted: June 29, 2009 at 08:35 AM (#3236402)

Did you know that Aleksandra recently left the group? This is sad; not only was she a great singer, but I had a bit of a crush on her as well...

Was aware and am in fact really worried about the band with her out of the picture. Her voice always offers balance to the craziness. At this stage I prefer We are beautiful, We are doomed to the debut - but that is because I grabbed it first. I also love their cover of Pavements "Frontwards" on the debut EP (some people hate the cover - oh well)

Glad you like the screen name - I needed to shape up after the Noise Conspiracy fiasco!!!

25. Ron Johnson Posted: June 29, 2009 at 01:59 PM (#3236489)

#11 perception of team strength is broadly speaking twice as important as actual team record in explaining marginal attendance.

It's more complicated that this of course (and attendance is a lot tougher to model than revenue), but yeah the Tigers are paying for last year.

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Piniella vents about clubhouse leaks and Sox attendance woes

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