Passan hatchet job on us

[Dback Jon]

Screw you, *******...

Hello? Any Diamondbacks fans out there?

By Jeff Passan, Yahoo! Sports
October 12, 2007





PHOENIX – The view from Section 307, Row 40, Seat 13 – the one that not a single person of the four million living in the Phoenix metropolitan area cared to inhabit Thursday night during the biggest baseball game of the Arizona Diamondbacks' season – was quite nice. Take in a few innings from that seat down the right-field line, the field unfolding in an expansive portrait, and the game feels so much more real than TV's microwave-popcorn version of it.

Hector Tapia and Eddie Reyes, sitting three seats down from lucky No. 13, didn't know until 8 a.m. Thursday that they would come to Game 1 of the National League championship series. During homeroom at Summit High, the 18-year-old seniors' teacher told them that because of their perfect attendance this year, each would receive a ticket – face value: $60 – gratis.

"And even then we weren't going to come," Hector said, "but we figured we had free tickets."

The announced attendance for Thursday night's game, a 5-1 victory by the surging Colorado Rockies over the Diamondbacks, was 48,142. A sellout, the Diamondbacks said. Maybe, even with Seat 13 surrounded by thousands of cousins in emptiness during the first pitch, it was. Perhaps every person in Section 307 got caught in the same traffic jam because they had to scramble after the dog ate their tickets. Or it could be that someone bought up all the remaining tickets and gave them away – some, say, to local schools.


A Diamondbacks spokesman said he did not believe the franchise had bought tickets, though if majority owner Ken Kendrick and his partners did, who could blame them? So much talk leading up to Game 1 focused on the flaccid ticket sales, taking away from the fact that Arizona has built itself up from the 111-loss mess of 2004 to the winningest team in the National League.

Now, on the biggest stage since the Diamondbacks' 2001 World Series championship, the great fans of Phoenix – which is creeping up on Atlanta for most pathetic sports city in America – couldn't bother to watch their team host a division rival hotter than any team since Oakland won 20 straight in 2002.

The Diamondbacks deserve better than this city.

They deserve better fans, too, than some of those who showed up, drank too much and decided to throw bottles on the field after umpire Larry Vanover called interference in the seventh inning on Justin Upton's hard slide into second base, forcing an automatic double play. Plastic bottles – some still heavy with liquid inside – rained onto the outfield grass and warning track, and umpires delayed the game and pulled the Rockies off the field to restore order.

"I'm not scared of plastic bottles," Rockies left fielder Matt Holliday said. "I lift weights for a reason. In case mayhem breaks out at the field and they start throwing stuff, I've got muscles."

Holliday, spared from a direct hit, could kid. The Diamondbacks couldn't. Now they had to apologize for two sets of fans: the handful of idiots who showed up and the thousands of apathetic ones who didn't.

To the right of Seat 13 sat Nick Johnson, Jordan Kaye and Brian Aden, all 9, who had moved up to the $60 seats from their $25 ones. Kaye's father, Sean, came up to check on the kids, and, bless the man, tried to defend the dozens of empties that surrounded him.

"This stadium is huge," Kaye began.

"Give the sense it's a hard ticket to get and people will want it more," he continued.

"Look at everything going on here: Cardinals, Coyotes, preseason Suns, 6-0 (Arizona State football)," he explained.

"We have really good TV numbers," he elucidated.

"We got spoiled going to the playoffs after the second season and winning the World Series after the fourth," he rationalized.

So, he was all right with this.

"Um. OK. I wish there were more fans," Kaye said. "We are the biggest bandwagon fans here."

The biggest shame is that a series dying for exposure – Game 2's East Coast start time: around 10:20 p.m. – can't even sell one of the cities participating. What kind of impression does it give those who might stay up past midnight to watch a game with two unfamiliar teams when the host city pretends like that game barely exists?

On StubHub, the ticket resale site, the lowest price for Game 1 of the ALCS in Boston was $200, the highest $1,730. For Game 3 in Cleveland, the prices were $75 and $1,990. Even for Game 3 in Colorado, which sold out almost immediately, the cheapest went for $85 and the priciest $1,200.

Anyone interested in Game 2 here can get in for $15.90.

And in case a big group wants to go, as of midnight here, blocks of up to 18 tickets were available for Game 2 on MLB.com.

"You'd think the National League championship series would sell out," Holliday said.

Certainly you would, though the Atlanta Braves made a habit of not selling out the NLCS – as recently as 2001, when they faced the Diamondbacks, who, too, couldn't even pack in 40,000 for Game 1 with Randy Johnson starting.

This isn't the Diamondbacks' fault, and it's not Major League Baseball's, either. Sometimes, it's incumbent upon a city to adopt a franchise, and even if the fans chuckle at the public address announcer's imploring fans to chant along to the "Anybody, anytime" catchphrase and roll their eyes at the team's theme song with the chorus "It's a fact, Jack, I back, you back, we back the D'backs," they should support the team by, at very least, showing up.

On the walk back down to the main concourse from Section 307, Row 40, Seat 13, a sign greets those about to leave the stadium.

THE D-BACKS THANK THE BEST FANS IN BASEBALL

Too bad those fans refuse to thank the Diamondbacks in kind.

 

[crisper57]

Screw you, *******...

Can't really disagree with his assessment. Our fans are backwards. They are quiet at baseball/football games, but they go nuts at a golf tournament (FBR).

The Cardinal fans seem to have figured out how to support their team, why can't D-Back fans?

I'm doing my part. I'll go to every game I can in this town. And, as the article points out, money is no longer an excuse for this series.


But everyone knows Puss-an is a Cubs fan. He's just bitter and probably can't bring himself to actually appreciate the baseball being played on the field in front of his seat.

I just emailed him and let him have it. I suggest you do the same, D-Back fans! Stay classy, though, we wouldn't want him to whine about ungrateful fans in his article.

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/feedback;_ylt=ApsJ3MObiRJdq.bROIyIGI8HU84F?author=Jeff+Passan

 

[PoolBoy]

o i just blasted him

You are a punk. Making fun of seniors for only wanting to go to a game because their tickets were free. Bitter about your precious Cubs losing to the D-Backs? Great. Don't put your misery on us gel boy. Why don't you come to University of Phoenix Stadium this Sunday for the Cardinals and Panthers game, then write about Arizona Fans. Go to United Airways Center and watch the Suns play, the write about Arizona Fans. Go to Sun Devil Stadium and watch ASU play, then write about Arizona Fans. Don't take one unfortunate incident and make it seem like a plague in Arizona Sports. If this incident happened in Chicago or Boston, you would be saying how the fans are so passionate about their team and that it is good to see, but you saw a chance to use your pen as a sword to make a name for yourself, and took it. Show some class, show some pride, write for D-Backs and Arizona Fans as a whole, not picking on a fan base that is small in numbers, but has more pride than your Cubs.

 

[Phxchris1989]

I'm a Dbacks fan, and I'm thankful of them. Screw that cornholio

 

[MigratingOsprey]

what he said is pretty much the truth - attendance at phoenix area sporting events tends to be pretty poor - not atlanta poor - but below average on the whole

it's getting better with respect to the cards and the suns though

he is definitely baiting with his style and side commentary - but the fact is still there

right now stub hub has 99 tickets for tonights game for $10 or less

 

[Dback Jon]

Phoenix would do a whole lot better, attendance-wise, if all the residents supported the team, like Eastern Cities. But, I doubt that even half of the area support Arizona sports - the rest are too caught up being part of the "RedSox Nation", or Yankme fans, or Scrubs, etc.

 

[MigratingOsprey]

I agree to a point - phoenix is very transient - however, the population is massive and the core should be able to provide better numbers - along with casual fans

i was just up in denver this week and the attitude up there is something different than what i've seen down here - that whole city is going nuts and even making fun of themselves for being late on the bandwagon (one radio ad had a fan proclaiming his love for andres gallaraga) - the sports page is all rockies and the articles are pretty good as far as scouting - nightly news broadcasts have "rockies baseball cards" where they take 2 minutes to do a brief piece on the young players

i think the better coverage helps feed into the frenzy a little bit

i think the AZ media instead of focusing on luis and the color change and colangelo for the past couple years instead focused on the incredible farm system, the exciting style of play and the personality of this young ball club they wouldn't have to do all this scrambling last minute

 

[Lefty]

Reading that article was a waste of my time.

 

[devilalum]

There sure is a lot of hate out there for our Dbacks. The clowns at ESPN still haven't forgiven us for beating their beloved Yankees right after 9/11 and now the Chicago and their sportswriters hate us for taking their crappy Cubs out to the woodshed.

I think AZ fans are just too laid back from not having to scrape ice off their windshields all winter. We'd probably be a lot more intense about our teams if we had the kind of angry, pathetic, freezing, cheese wiz guzzling lives that Chicagoans have to endure.

 

[Mulli]

There sure is a lot of hate out there for our Dbacks. The clowns at ESPN still haven't forgiven us for beating their beloved Yankees right after 9/11 and now the Chicago and their sportswriters hate us for taking their crappy Cubs out to the woodshed.

I think AZ fans are just too laid back from not having to scrape ice off their windshields all winter. We'd probably be a lot more intense about our teams if we had the kind of angry, pathetic, freezing, cheese wiz guzzling lives that Chicagoans have to endure.

1) White Sox fans are huge Diamondback fans now.

2) I live a great life in Chicago.

 

[coyoteshockeyfan]

Big deal, he's a columnist for Yahoo freaking Sports so it isn't like his opinion holds much clout. They aren't exactly on the list for the most illustrious places for sports journalists.

 

[devilalum]

1) White Sox fans are huge Diamondback fans now.

2) I live a great life in Chicago.

Sorry, I just get defensive when people from other places are critical of the valley and its population.

 

[Mulli]

Sorry, I just get defensive when people from other places are critical of the valley and its population.

Don't be sorry. Lots of pendejos here in Chicago.