Quite a title for a thread huh? I went to SBC Park yesterday afternoon for the Giants game against the Houston Astros. I had relatively good seats, it was an "exciting" game from a baseball perspective. The Giants team scored 3 runs in the first inning and 5 by the 5th. I looked around the park, there is constant movement, very few people actually watching the game, lots and lots of dead time. Most action is to far away for most people to really know what is going on, yet the dog gone park on a rainy day was probably 70% full. Am I missing something? Why can't the Quakes fill the stadium?Competing with a sport as slow and monotonous as baseball should be easy. I left in the 5th inning ready to claw my eyes out from boredom. Maybe if Spartan Stadium had a slide more people would come. I need some help because, I just don't get it! BTW, I think that I have had my fill of baseball for the next several years.
Most people I spoke to at work or in school in the past don't know the quakes even exist....or they don't know anything about soccer.
I think Homer Simpson said it best when he said about baseball: " I never realized how boring this game is without beer"
This is a revolutionary, never-before-been-discussed topic here on BS. ( ) You ARE missing something. The reason the Giants fill the stadium and the Quakes don't is that one sport is America's national pastime, the other isn't. Ironically, many baseball fans find soccer boring (I know, I know, I don't get it either). Plus, the novelty still hasn't worn off regarding SF's relatively new stadium--at every game, a good chunk of the fans are making their first (if not only) visit. Put the Quakes in an interesting, atmospheric SSS with proper sitelines and modern facilities, and more people might come see them, too (at least until the novelty of the new SSS wears off). Not to mention the Giants are the defending National League Champions and are currently 13-2 this season, so the bandwagon is rolling in full. PS--May I recommend you attend a Giants-Dodgers Friday night game, and sit in the bleachers, if you want a little more excitement with your baseball?
I have attended playoff games at Fenway park and been equally disinterested. Sorry, I should have been drinking!
Re: Re: I just don't get it! I have a friend who has season tickets in the bleachers, and I go to a Dodgers game with her every year. I wear my Dodger blue there (I was raised in LA). It's fun. The other folks around are always happy to remind me how to get to the 405. The game is boring as heck, but the garlic fries are tasty, and they have good beer. I usually spend about a third of the game in line for food and beer. Maybe the Quakes should advertise that they have good food and beer without the long lines. Heck, maybe the Quakes should advertise.
I used to love baseball. It's the only sport I played in Chicago, and soccer was unheard of in the 60's in the flatlands. It's a game designed for a humid climate. Lots of standing around. Mind numbing questions: 1) Why do the players get a five minute rest period after every three outs? What on earth did they do to get so tired? 2) Why does the manager wear a player's uniform? 3) Is there another sport where the offense does not even possess the ball?
I was watching the Manchester United - Arsenal match on Fox Sports World yesterday. The game really started to heat up, and after a very exciting stretch, the announcer suddenly stated in a deadpan voice, "Cricket season begins in a few weeks." After that short non-sequitur, he went back to announcing the match. Haven't laughed that hard in a long time...
The major difference? The Giants have been around for....decades and the sport they play is considered wholly American. The Quakes have been around for less than a decade....and the sport they was imported. Get it?
It's not five minutes and it's not a rest period. The teams are switching places and the pitcher and other fielders are warming up. In the old days, the manager was always an active player. It's just tradition now. Cricket, boxing, triathlon, and ice hockey.
Re: Re: I just don't get it! It sure looks like they're resting to me! Or maybe that's the right fielder even when the game is going on. Sorry, I'm just NOT a baseball fan. All it's got going for it in my opinion is all of the statistics. Pitchers and catchers should make the most money because they do the most damange to their bodies. They're also the only ones involved for 50% of the plays in the game.
quote: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 3) Is there another sport where the offense does not even possess the ball? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Cricket, boxing, triathlon, and ice hockey. .....Games that use a ball...... Now Cricket, there's another thriller. "Remember that play in the 2nd hour three days ago when this game started". I think the "imported game" thing is what keeps us down. Egocentrism keeps people away from soccer. The people I meet through soccer are on the whole more open to the idea that there are worthy people and things outside of our borders. I must say that baseball gives me a better opportunity to drink my beer in peace instead of being interupted by applause or excitement. That's my problem with soccer. That and the ref keeps telling me I can't have my beer on the field. Maybe I should change to chew.
I'm going to offer a truly dissenting opinion here. I think from a spectator standpoint soccer and baseball suffer among the masses precisely because you have to know how to watch the game. It takes intelligence to watch each game because you have to know what to watch...there isn't a constant explosion of action. There's build-up, there's anticipation, there's climax. It's not just a series of car crashes and thumping rap lines. Football and basketball are easier for the "simple folk" to understand (there's nothing to understand). Soccer and baseball take skill and intelligence and that's why they're my two favorite games in the world. I'd continue with this diatribe but I've gotta go back to work. But I'm sure I've given you enough grist for the mill.
What catchers have to do every game is amazing, both on a mental and physical level. I do tend to believe that hitting a spinning/curving hard round ball coming at you at 90 miles per hour is one of the most difficult feats in all sports. Here in the Bay Area alone, we're fortunate to get to see Hudson, Mulder, Zito, Tejada, Chavez, and that Bonds guy. But baseball isn't soccer. It has to be appreciated on its own merits (or not appreciated, for instance, I wouldn't walk across the street to see gridiron). I think Kobe Bryant is the closest thing in other team sports to Landon Donovan, but that doesn't mean I'm going to watch the NBA playoffs. And that "why does the manager wear a uniform" question brings up the scary thought of Sigi in a Galaxy uniform. Tony
Going back to the original question . . . . The difference is that since baseball is a mainstream sport, you get many people at the game who aren't interested in the actual game, but the whole experience. I noticed the difference when going to Candlestick and then a year later going to PacBell. The new park seems to have so many distractions that you don't even need to pay attention to the game to enjoy yourself! I laughed out loud when the biggest cheer the entire game came when the Lakers (shown on tv moniters in the stadium) made a game-winning shot. If you look at all the new baseball parks being built, its the same -- most of them are more like amusement parks with a game going on somewhere in there. Personally, i think this is a great time to be a soccer fan in the US. Sure, we don't get a lot of TV coverage, and we only have 10 teams. But if you look at average attendance for MLS (which is what 15-17,000?) there is no shame in those numbers. But the best part is, most everyone at those games is an actual fan of the sport - not just some corporate shmucks who got free tickets to impress clients. I was delighted, two years ago, to get Quakes playoff tickets one week before the game and found myself sitting in the front row right at half field. And look at how accesible the players are. I guess, in a way, I don't care to see the day when MLS is in 20 cities and selling 65,000 tickets a game. To me, that just means it is harder to get good seats and a good 25,000 of those people don't necessarily like soccer that much to begin with.
A couple of years ago, my family and I were visiting Atlanta. We decided to go see the Braves home, Turner Field. It's another architectural masterpiece like Pac Bell, and we decided to go on a one hour guided tour of the place. There were about fifteen tourists in our group, including a family from England. One of our last stops was the press box, a monstrous stretch of office space in the upper deck, right behind home plate, stretching from dugout to dugout. In the EXACT center of this area sat a prominent looking desk, raised off the floor by a foot or so. The tour guide explained. "And last, here we have the scorekeeper's table." Everyone nodded knowingly, except the Brits. They looked at each other, shrugging their shoulders. I pulled the husband aside, knowing that up until a few years ago the home grounds for Liverpool didn't even have a scoreboard, much less a scorekeeper. What's the big deal with writing down the score? I filled him in on just a few of the million or so statistics that give baseball fans mental orgasms. He was non-plussed.
      Especially if the Galaxy jerseys were made by Kappa, ala the Mutiny jerseys of 2001 and the Rapids jerseys of 2001-2002.       GO EARTHQUAKES!!! -G
I got free tickets to an Orioles game last year and from my experience I would say 80% of the crowd just go to the game for a nice summer night out. I found most people to be more interested in eating and drinking rather than watching the game. Its funny because if you go to a soccer match you never see anyone at the concessions while the play is going. In baseball, the concessions seem to go all game. Most people dont care if they miss any of the play, they just want their beer and hot dog. One other thing I noticed, baseball has a really old fan base. Most people that seemed to have any interest in the play on ther field were all baby boomers. There were very few young people at the game.
Because baseball people are incredibly anal about the infinite details of the game. I spent a little time as a scorer for the SJ Giants in the days before computers ruled the world. Each intricacy of a player's at-bat and tour around the bases must be chronicled in precise detail in a specific format that must be readable by a stats guy in New England. We actually fax the raw scoresheets to Howe Sportsdata so that, when they read the scoresheets, they can actually recreate batter-by-batter how the game was played. Then there's the scorer's interpretation of the rules of baseball that affects the statistics (that affects the career progress and future earning potential of these kids in the minors). For example, the question "hit or error" has an effect on the statistics of batter, pitcher, and defender. Especially so in the minor leagues, managers and coaches will question the scorer over a particular decision that could affect the player's progress. I got a few questions in the few games that I worked in that capacity...visits from the pitching coach while I was compiling the box score to explain the thinking behind my scoring decision. Usually these conversations are very cordial give-and-take sessions...very few managers and coaches get demanding. But back to my earlier point...if you're brought up on baseball you're brought up on the minutia of the game. It's a part of the game that you understand and embrace. If you haven't been brought up on the game (like the touring Brits in Atlanta) it's indeed hard to understand the necessity of it all. Likewise, if you're brought up on soccer, you know and embrace the flow and pace of the game and understand its nuances. Slowly but surely more Americans are being brought up on soccer...we're really only starting our 3rd generation in the game (witness the NASL generation, the "lost" generation, and the current generation). Baseball, of course, has a few generations head start.
Advertising...hmmm....maybe all of MLS should just advertise PERIOD, and no, Midnight on ESPN2 does not count as my idea of advertising. Sebastian P.S. Maybe a superbowl commercial? there are still loads of pig ignorant bastards who don't even know the league exists!, but are somehow able to keep up with the superboring NBA.
I get what your saying. I`m a brit I watched the giants play and was bored out of my head for 5 hours even with beer. I watched the quakes and enjoyed every minute of it. I guess it comes down to what your national sport is. Ours is football (soccer) every saturday millions of people come together to support their favourite team, its the talk of the nation for days after whether it was a shock result or a sending off, everyone has an opinion. I guess baseball is your national sport so soccer will always be second.
The unfortunate part of that statement is it doesn't have to be that way. I was brought up on baseball...I get it. I wasn't brought up on football...but I still get it. Why? Because I was open-minded enough to get it. It's not that we Americans need "education" in the game, we just need to be open-minded enough to get it. Now if you didn't grow up with baseball and you don't get it, no worries. I don't get cricket either (though I've tried). What I don't understand is all the hand-wringing about not getting it. If you don't get it, don't get it. Fine. Move on. It's not worth the energy to try to put it down...same as all of us on these boards cap on the ugly Americans (not to mention any names but the initials Jim Rome come to mind) who want to kill soccer in this country. They'll never succeed and we all know it.