While the Cincinnati Reds are starting their (short-lived) run into the postseason, perhaps we should take a minute to explore just how much the Queen City hates its hometown team.
After the Reds clinched the NL Central title with a win over the Houston Astros, the team was celebrating in the clubhouse, and as everything else is in today's society, it was televised. Of course, a handful of players decided to celebrate as though they just had a baby by lighting a cigar in the clubhouse. The problem: Ohio has an indoor smoking ban... including Great American Ballpark. No less than five different people called the health inspector to report the violation.
Of course, it's amazing that five people called it in, because it's amazing that five people were actually paying attention to what was going on. The Reds ranked 19th in baseball for attendance this season with just over 25,000 people per game on average. To give them credit, though, attendance was actually up from a year ago when they averaged 21,500+ and ranked 26th in the league.... oh, and they were 13 games out of first place at the end of last season.
They actually had a game in mid-September where only 12,000 people showed up. It was a Monday evening. The seating capacity at GAB is 42,000+. Just how many times have the Reds sold out the stadium in their NL Central championship season? Twelve times, the Reds have played before crowds above 42,000. The only time it was in Cincy: Opening Day. Where were those other games played? In Los Angeles: 3 games; in Philadelphia: 4 games; in Seattle: 1 game; in St. Louis: 4 games. That's right, folks! The Seattle Mariners had a bigger draw to a Reds game in Seattle, than the Reds did in Cincinnati all season long.
The only logical conclusion in all of this is that Cincinnati hates the Reds... and that I'm mildly bitter that the Cardinals gave away the division this year.
No comments:
Post a Comment