I, for one, predicted good things from these Reds. Didn't happen. The team issued a rather comical letter to the fans explaining their situation.
I like how they talk about how they've "capitalized on our burgeoning younger players" without mentioning Edinson Volquez? Odd. And you have to be happy about them signing a vast majority of their 50 draft picks....I.E. "We'll mention the draft picks because we know we'll suck for the foreseeable future."
Letter
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
24 comments:
I think the Nationals fans should apologize to the team.
They had better attendance in Montreal.
Watch it! Willie will come and attack us!
Probably. But, sersiously... You have a new beautiful stadium. Yes, your team sucks, but so did the Brewers and we packed Miller Park opening year. Even with a third or less the population of D.C.
Pathetic.
Maybe they're all watching the Orioles...
Oh, wait.
The Expos should have stayed in/moved to Puerto Rico, IMHO...
Yes, Brewers fans are the paragon of sticking with their team through thick and thin. That's why just 2 years after Miller Park opened, average attendance dropped to about 20,000 per game -- or 25th out of 30 teams.
As a comparison, in their 3rd year at RFK, the Nationals drew more than 24,000 per game. Sounds like even dingy RFK was a better draw than Miller Park.
Or maybe a team's performance plays a role, and fans in DC will turn out when they see an effort on the field -- sort of like Brewers fans.
Oh, forgot to mention the average attendance figures for the Brewers during their first three years in Milwaukee.
Year 1: 11,527 per game
Year 2: 9,031 per game
Year 3: 7,413 per game
Nice...
I'm pretty sure I supported the Brewers through thin.
I'd say thick and thin, but the only thick was Belliard's waistline.
What has all of you Nats fans so... touchy? And why are you all Simpsons characters??!?! I've rooted for a team that's been terrible most of my life, but at least I have a sense of humor about it.
You also have to remember that people in Brew City still felt burned by the Braves leaving... Really, with our stolen franchises, we should be like brothers! Join me, and we can rule the galaxy!
Clown - your statements aren't even close to true.
The Expos never averaged more than 29,000 fans per game - and the only time they were even close was in the early-80s. In their last decade in Montreal, they weren't even getting 20,000 and in three of their last six seasons they couldn't even break 10k.
AND...prior to last season, there was only ONE season in the Brewers history that you averaged more than 29,000 fans per game: 2001, the year Miller Park opened.
And, if it's facts you want...in 2000 (the year before Miller Park opened) Milwaukee's population was 596,000 (according to the U.S. Census). The population in Washington, DC, in 2006 (granted, two years before Nationals Park opened) was 581,000.
Having said that, I'm sure we were all hoping for better crowds at the new stadium and for a better team on the field.
D'Amico - i'm with you. we've both been burned and spurned.
And, eventually, your team will be good. But to be fair, it looks years away. Let's hope it's not 10+ years.
What happened to Elijah "put up your" Dukes? More importantly, what the heck has happened to Ryan Zimmerman?!?! He was supposed to be really, really damn good, and he's shown flashes,but...
City population mean nothing for pro sports franchises. It's all about METRO areas.
According to the 2007 U.S. Census estimates:
Milwaukee Metro: 1,544,398
Washington DC Metro: 5,306,565
The arguement about Metro area sizes IS a fair one. That said, I'm sure that a team with little history in the area it's in isn't going to pull well, a point that was made earlier in regards to the Pilots ne Brewers first few years. I say give the Nats a chance... after they get a playoff team (something they nearly had a few years ago), they'll establish a larger footprint in there geographic area. Many of the commenters on this site are fans because it's who we grew up with; the Nationals haven't yet had that generation come around yet.
I'm not touchy about the players, the organization or the owners. I have problems with all of them. I just get touchy when people are quick to say that DC is a bad baseball town based of the running farce that is this ballclub. You really have to be in DC to understand just how poorly they've been executing things here.
For two years, we've been told to believe in "The Plan." The Plan is to skimp on the major league roster while building the minor leagues. Then, this week, we found out that the Nats spent $3 million less on draft picks than they did last year -- and they let their #1 pick walk over a $700k difference in asking price.
So apparently we're not willing to spend on the majors OR the minors.
Before the season, the Nats' ad campaign was built around encouraging people not to drive to the game. A brilliant strategy to get people to the Park.
The team is bad and the manager is indifferent. Acta is probably a decent manager, but not for a young ballclub.
I'm not sure what has happened with Zimmerman. He's had some injuries, but more importantly, he doesn't seem to want the leadership mantle that the team has forced on him. Rather than being the face of this franchise, I think he's looking for a way out.
It's not that DC fans don't like baseball, it's that this ballclub seems to be actively trying to aggravate its fanbase.
Congratulations to all on your ability to use Wikipedia and Google.
I guess I thought D.C. was more populated do to it's extremely high violent crime rate.
I don't think your population accounts for the thousands of hobos.
Hey now... D.C. ain't Portland (don't talk about hobos till you've lived in the Interstate 5 corridor!).
Wiggum- Exactly. Teams like ours struggle because management says they'll spend money when the fans show up, and the fans say they'll show when management spends money. I didn't realize they were so horrendously mismanaged, but it doesn't surprise me. They're in that Yanks/Sawks area, and anything other than that seems to not really matter to MLB...
I'll happily take Zimmerman off your hands for a Rickie Weeks/mediore prospect pu-pu platter.
For all the abuse hurled at Rickie Weeks, at least the Brewers are only paying him $1 million this year. And isn't he gone after this season? (And yes, clowshiplollypop, I did use google for that information. Google is awesome.)
The Nats are going to pay Austin Kearns $8 million next season (after paying him $5 million this year). Our rightfielder bats .218 with 6 home runs -- and up until yesterday, he was batting clean-up.
So perhaps a Weeks for Kearns trade could be worked out. But you'd have to take the contract.
Ahhhh... umm.. That's ok. I've seen Austin Kearns... Me no likey.
With Kearns playing that bad, I again ask- where is Elijah Dukes?
BTW- I think if ya'll took Weeks and two low-A prospects for Zim, it'd double the strength of your farm system. Seriously, I'm not trying to be mean, but you were absolutely correct; They've been mis-managed nearly into the ground. It reminds me of the early 2xxx Brewers...
Dukes has been decent when healthy, but he hasn't been healthy very often.
Dmitri Young was supposed to be his mentor this year. Not sure why. It's tough to teach somebody how to be fat and diabetic. So Elijah has really just worked on being injured -- something he can perfect by watching Nick Johnson, the world's most fragile man.
Dmitri Young as a mentor to someone with a rough legal history?!?!? Holy Crap!
So Dukes has been injured? Hmm... Apparently he has all the talent in the world but a ten-cent head. I guess it's a ten cent head and a nickel body. That's a shame; I was looking forward to a Dukes/Milledge outfield.
wow, clownshiplollypop is vying with anonymous and the ap's alter ego for the most hostile chuckie hacks poster.
this is exciting.
Yeah, they thought Dmitri could teach Elijah how to avoid the same pitfalls. But Dukes was healthy a couple of weeks ago and got benched for being late to the stadium -- so I'd say things aren't looking good. Milledge has looked promising recently, though he's terrible at reading fly balls.
Next year, the Nats have more than 2/3rds ($26 million) of their salary budget tied up in four guys -- Kearns, Dmitri, Nick Johnson and Cristian Guzman.
So at least we're putting our limited resources to good use...
Sometimes I forget to take my meds.
Today I'm in my Koko the clown from the Groove Tube mood. Normally it's the aging Bozo the Clown grand prize game mood.
A Twins reject, a Tigers reject, a man made of paper, and the man who was supposed to be the face of your franchise. 3 of them are untradeable, and the other you wouldn't want to. Man. That sucks.
Clown- Usually you're a well behaved boy/girl/clown of indeterminate gender... Everyone has a bad day. No one is as bad as Anonymous, in my opinion... I think it's Ned, actually.
Post a Comment