Ludwick: I'm calling fans out

[Hollcat]

It's hard to get that excited about a guy trying to draw a walk.

But it this situation a walk ties the game! The crowd should have been rocking, chanting "ball 4, ball 4"!!!!

[Always Red]

So what if Reds fans were like Cubs fans, routinely packing the house for 70 win seasons for the last 5 decades?

Would that make Cincinnati a baseball town? Would we be true noble Romans then?

It took the Cubs until 1984 to get to 2 million.

Lee Elia mentioned the meager attendance during his famous snit.

[WestSideBomber]

I do not disagree with his sentiment. Wouldn't it be cool if there were 100,000 fans at GABP every game and so many of them were screaming and ripping their throats to literal shreds that there had to be medical facilities on site to perform operations and after each run scored the rally pack had to sacrifice a lamb so as to appease the more blood thirsty fans so they wouldn't storm the field in a mass of enthusiastic humanity? Yeah, that would be cool.

This whole thing is ridiculous. Ludwick, though his intentions may have been good, went about this the worst way possible. The fact he called out the fans on the same day they broke the GABP attendance record is just icing on the cake.

[BuckeyeRedleg]

WGN and the circus-like party atmosphere that WGN promoted during those telecasts is what made the Cubs draw (win or lose). Not baseball as much.

[Brutus]

2010 CENSUS COMBINED STATISTICAL AREAS:

1. NEW YORK (Yankees & Mets) - 23.08m
2. LOS ANGELES (Dodgers & Angels) - 17.88m
3. CHICAGO (Cubs & White Sox) - 9.84m
4. WASHINGTON-BALTIMORE (Orioles & Nats) - 9.05m
5. SAN FRANCISCO-OAKLAND (Giants & A's) - 8.15m
6. BOSTON (Red Sox) - 7.89m
7. PHILADELPHIA (Phillies) - 7.07m
8. DALLAS-FORT WORTH (Rangers) - 6.82m
9. MIAMI-FT. LAUDERDALE (Marlins) - 6.17m
10. HOUSTON (Astros) - 6.11m
11. ATLANTA (Braves) - 5.91m
-- TORONTO (Blue Jays) - 5.58m (2010 CMA Canadian Census)
12. DETROIT (Tigers) - 5.32m
13. SEATTLE-TACOMA (Mariners) - 4.27m
14. PHOENIX (Diamondbacks) - 4.19m
15. MINNEAPOLIS-ST. PAUL (Twins) - 3.68m
16. CLEVELAND (Indians) - 3.52m
17. SAN DIEGO (Padres) - 3.10m
16. DENVER (Rockies) - 3.09m
18. ST. LOUIS (Cardinals) - 2.89m
19. TAMPA-ST. PETERSBURG (Rays) - 2.78m
20. PITTSBURGH (Pirates) - 2.66m
21. KANSAS CITY (Royals) - 2.34m
22. CINCINNATI (Reds) - 2.17m
23. MILWAUKEE (Brewers) - 2.03m

"Baseball towns" seem to be relative to how many people you're drawing from in a close proximity. Cincinnati doesn't have the luxury to draw those people from out of town during the week, especially during the spring and fall.

[reds44]

Bruce last year, Ludwick this year.

Maybe it's not the players, it's the fans.

[WestSideBomber]

Something like 15 games not on weekends since 1938 they have had 30k plus

That's weak

That's not a baseball town

10 times in 2013. 4 times in 2012. 5 times in 2011. Need I go on? Are you sure you didn't make that figure up?

[westofyou]

There's more to being a "baseball town" than having a rich history.

STL is a baseball town. BOS is a baseball town amidst being just an overall great sports town. Cincy is not a baseball town.

This.

Every MLB city has a past, everywhere is once a Podunk and now a big town.

The thing that makes a baseball town a baseball town is the fans, the fans and the fans.

Not knothole, all cities have that except they call it Little League.

Not having the first pro team, because guys like Al Reach got paid before those guys.

Fans, in the seats, and the team controlling the pulse of the town.

Which yes the Reds have failed incredibly well at doing the last two decades.

I don't think its a rip on Cincinnati, I live in Portland, we are a national hipster joke with a NBA team and a MLS team that drove our AAA team away.

Not a baseball city.

But I'm missing a lot of live action.

[Marc D]

You nailed it with this post. This is my 3rd full baseball season living near downtown...this has been the least fun season of the 3 even though 2011 was quite a disappointment. The amount of negativity from multiple sources has taken away a lot of the joy of a pennant race. The biggest source of negativity in my opinion has been the media (this article is simply another prime example). The broadcasters (tv and radio). Followed by the fans. If you were to just judge my the media, broadcasters, and fans one would think this team was out of the race in July.

I tend to blame the irrational way to high way to low nature of the fans emotions on the local media and Thom and Marty...because they set this standard. The past history of professional sporting disappointment in town likely does not help. But all season again and again the dead horse have been beat among a handful of negative topics while ignoring all the positives that have been happening.

The biggest topics we hear again and again all season:

Votto can't drive in runs
Phillips can't get on base
Baker is a terrible manager
Yada Yada whoever hits in the 2 hole

Topics we seem to hear little about all season yet a major positives:

Overcoming many big injuries to win 90 games
Shin Soo Choo
Phillips raking in big moments with Ludwick out
Mike Leake's season
Jay Bruce's season
Latos, Bailey, etc


Oh and Ludwick has a point...how about this big game in early September against the Cardinals? 20k in attendance. I was at the game and felt embarrassed a bit.

http://scores.espn.go.com/mlb/boxsco...incinnati-reds

Ludwick has a point does he?

How about these points;
2010 playoff no show
2012 choke job
2013 they are in the thick of a pennant race and choke again, losing 6 out of 9 to the Cubs, Brewers and Mets.

If anyone needs to be embarrassed about anything its these guys about their inability to function, let alone win, under pressure.

[dsmith421]

Bruce last year, Ludwick this year.

Maybe it's not the players, it's the fans.

Yet both of those individuals have signed multi-year extensions to continue playing baseball in Cincinnati. They didn't have to, and in Bruce's case could very easily have doubled his take by waiting for free agency and going elsewhere. Surely neither of them had any delusions about the gameday atmosphere in Cincinnati approaching Boston.

[BuckeyeRedleg]

WOY, can you rank your top 5 baseball towns? I'm sure you have St. Louis and Boston as the top two, but I was just wondering who is next.

[Larry Schuler]

Last time I checked the Reds aren't 162-0. Until they are perfect they can keep their comments about their half empty stadium to themselves, thank you.

[oregonred]

Something like 15 games not on weekends since 1938 they have had 30k plus

That's weak

That's not a baseball town

Probably RZ's best poster, but just not sure why you always pick on the locals at seemlingly every given chance. Reds have been top 3 in local TV and radio ratings for years. What is your list of baseball towns? I'd argue most come and go.

WoY's Baseball Town list?

Los Angeles - Check
Denver - Check, but not a long history.
San Francisco - Wonderful attendance history at Candelstick cracking 2M twice in 40 years. Is it a baseball town or an iconic stadium setting?
St Louis - Probably, but a good laugh would be to check out the Cards attendance in their lost decade of the 70s. 7 NLCS appearances in the last 11 years
Boston Check out those marvelous attendance numbers from pre 1985. They could only draw 1.7M in 1975...
New York - Yanks never cracked 33K per game until 1998, Mets attendance now terrible
Detroit - An annual attendance laggard until 2007
Milwaukee - Please. 2M twice in history before 2007
Chicago - Cubs attendance pre '84 when they became trendy was laughable, White Sox = MLB wasteland

I'd say LA, Boston, NY, Denver and St Louis would be my top 5 with Boston not really packing the yard until the 1986 Red Sox season.

Honorable mention and easily in the top 10 to the Reds for having such a small local market. They even cracked 2M seven times in the lost decade.

[Brutus]

Ludwick has a point does he?

How about these points;
2010 playoff no show
2012 choke job
2013 they are in the thick of a pennant race and choke again, losing 6 out of 9 to the Cubs, Brewers and Mets.

If anyone needs to be embarrassed about anything its these guys about their inability to function, let alone win, under pressure.

So in your mind, this kind of post proves Ludwick is in the wrong for criticizing fans? To me, it does more to corroborate his point than it does to hurt it and this coming from a guy who is tired of hearing about attendance without considering market size.

[757690]

WOY, can you rank your top 5 baseball towns? I'm sure you have St. Louis and Boston as the top two, but I was just wondering who is next.

About to post the same question.

There's a big difference between not being a great baseball city, and not being a baseball city. Saying a city isn't a baseball city implies the city doesn't deserve app MLB team.

Cincinnati is a baseball city. It's not the best baseball city, or even one of the top five. But it's a baseball city.