Ludwick: I'm calling fans out

[BuckeyeRedleg]

On a recent FSOH poll (and I'm guessing many of the responses came from Cincy) fans voted BP the team MVP over Votto by a margin I believe of 4-1. (~40%-9%). I am sure of Votto's 9%. I questioned the baseball intellect of Cincy on that one. Not that it goes hand in hand with fandom...but it showed how tuned in "casual" Reds fans are to the team.

That is a whole separate issue. If we are going to judge all good baseball fanbases on this sort of topic (rate stat vs. counting stat) I'd think you'd find that this is a nationwide epidemic and not relegated to hill billy Ahia fans. I do agree that this was a disturbing poll. However, don't underestimate the power the media has on the average and especially the low-information fan.

[REDREAD]

I'm not mad at Ludwick, he was trying to pump the fans out, and of course our stupid media has to try to twist it into something controversial.

What other fan base gets excited when a pinch runner comes in?
How about Chapman?
Or the strikeout right before free pizza?

I saw a few games this year. I thought the crowd was ok, until the bullpen blew it the leads (every time). That's naturally going to take the air out of the crowd.

Get homefield advantage in the wildcard game and this place will be rocking.
And try to stop only taking only 1 out of 3 from mets, brewers, cubs, etc. as we've been doing recently.. Man oh man, those last two Met games would've been horrible to see live.

[Mutaman]

If you buy into anything he writes, you probably also think professional wrestling is real.

Reality is relative.

[Falcon7]

My son finished his senior year of baseball this year, you know how many kids were cut from varsity...1
and only because he was awful. Oh yea, it's a school of around 2400 students.
Now everyone knows that African American kids just don't play baseball, extremely low numbers. But this is a predominantly white student body, 95% at least.
Among the young in my neck of the woods, baseball is of little interest.
Oh yea, I'm in the Dayton area.
I read some time ago that on any given night at a Reds game, about 40% of the crowd was from the greater Dayton area.

$1 beer nights will get the fans fired up. Ryan and Co. can chip in to make up for lost revenue.

[kaldaniels]

That is a whole separate issue. If we are going to judge all good baseball fanbases on this sort of topic (rate stat vs. counting stat) I'd think you'd find that this is a nationwide epidemic and not relegated to hill billy Ahia fans. I do agree that this was a disturbing poll. However, don't underestimate the power the media has on the average and especially the low-information fan.

I agree. I wasn't sure that related to the present discussion but thought I would flip it in there.

My possible link was...

If a wide majority of fans can't take the time to appreciate Votto for what he is, how can we expect them to turn out on a school night at the park. I think for many the Reds are just background noise duing their daily routines (literally a TV on in the background). That's not a horrible thing, it just is what it is. I know the reality and I certainly am not upset the Reds don't draw 30k on a Sept school night.

[joshua]

I agree. I wasn't sure that related to the present discussion but thought I would flip it in there.

My possible link was...

If a wide majority of fans can't take the time to appreciate Votto for what he is, how can we expect them to turn out on a school night at the park. I think for many the Reds are just background noise duing their daily routines (literally a TV on in the background). That's not a horrible thing, it just is what it is. I know the reality and I certainly am not upset the Reds don't draw 30k on a Sept school night.

I think the vast majority of Reds fans knows exactly what Votto is...and love him for it. What you hear on the radio is faux controversy used to rattle people up and get listeners/viewers/readers. ESPN does it all of the time. So does Fox/CNN/MSNBC.

[oregonred]

What other fan base can claim the Banana Phone? I'm pretty sure the same low information audience voting in a FSOH poll is the group burning up the phone lines during a rain delay. I'd be willing to bet the saviest of Redszone posters has rarely if ever voted in an online or text TV poll. Choo as MVP - sure. BP - about to go under .700 OPS on the season.

The Votto issue has also been a national debate stirred up by the local media. And it is an intereting conversation even though the pundits are mostly wrong. DatDude has really had a sub par offensive year minus the unsustainable RISP that has cooled dramatically in Sept. .681 OPS and .299 OBP post all star break (Cozart is .722 and .319) and .707/.320 on the year. Those last four years are going to be painful on that contract. Hope I am very wrong.

[New York Red]

What has Ryan Ludwick contributed to this team that gives him the right to complain about our fans? I'll be glad when he's gone.

[klw]

Oh yea, I'm in the Dayton area.
I read some time ago that on any given night at a Reds game, about 40% of the crowd was from the greater Dayton area.

$1 beer nights will get the fans fired up. Ryan and Co. can chip in to make up for lost revenue.

$1 beer and 12000 people driving from Cincinnati to Dayton sounds like a good mix.

[klw]

Is there a Fangraphs graph of fan effects?

fanWAR

The bathroom break metrics for it are still controversial.

[Cyclone792]

The attendance this year on the weekends and during most of the summer months was pretty good, but the September weeknight games just followed the same pattern of most other years with low attendance. It's the same as April; people shell out a ton of money jockeying for Opening Day tickets, but a Tuesday night game two weeks later struggles to draw 20,000.

I will say, though, that I'm quite disappointed in the ticket sales so far for postseason games. Seriously, if you think you missed out by losing the ticket lottery, think again. There are virtually entire SECTIONS of open seats for the NL Wildcard game Tuesday night and both potential home LDS games. One would think demand for those games would be a bit higher (I know the debacle with afternoon game times last year may be a culprit, and some people may not want to deal with late notice on game times this year).

Of course, the Reds could go out and lose two this weekend to the Pirates, shift the Wildcard game to Pittsburgh and then get beat. And those of us who bought tickets to playoff games would have nothing to show for it other than a $4 donation to TicketMaster for an order processing fee to purchase tickets to games that never happened.

[klw]

So is Ryan Braun still calling fans while Ryan Ludwick is calling them out?

[RollyInRaleigh]

My son finished his senior year of baseball this year, you know how many kids were cut from varsity...1
and only because he was awful. Oh yea, it's a school of around 2400 students.
Now everyone knows that African American kids just don't play baseball, extremely low numbers. But this is a predominantly white student body, 95% at least.
Among the young in my neck of the woods, baseball is of little interest.
Oh yea, I'm in the Dayton area.
I read some time ago that on any given night at a Reds game, about 40% of the crowd was from the greater Dayton area.

$1 beer nights will get the fans fired up. Ryan and Co. can chip in to make up for lost revenue.

My son's middle school team annually had 85 to 90 kids try out for 15 spots. That means around 70 kids were cut. I wouldn't call Charlotte a baseball town because of that. Nobody but parents in the stands. I would call our current town, Brownsburg, Indiana, a baseball town, diluted with Reds, Cubs, and Cardinal fans. They all love the hometown Bulldogs, and come out to support. That's a true baseball town. Love of the game.

[edabbs44]

I am in NJ so I don't have the same perspective as many others do, but I can say this. There always seems to be some sort of excuse as to why the team doesn't draw. Record, school, weather, etc.

To me it is all nonsense. This is your team. Fill the stadium. We can make jokes all we want about Florida and other teams, however this isn't much better.

[swaisuc]

My son finished his senior year of baseball this year, you know how many kids were cut from varsity...1
and only because he was awful. Oh yea, it's a school of around 2400 students.
Now everyone knows that African American kids just don't play baseball, extremely low numbers. But this is a predominantly white student body, 95% at least.
Among the young in my neck of the woods, baseball is of little interest.
Oh yea, I'm in the Dayton area.
I read some time ago that on any given night at a Reds game, about 40% of the crowd was from the greater Dayton area.

$1 beer nights will get the fans fired up. Ryan and Co. can chip in to make up for lost revenue.

You will need to come back in a few pages and tell us you only meant for September.