Mariotti challenges us

[3E8]

Still. He brings up a good point. I hate Mariotti as much as the next guy, but in this article he praises the White Sox and basically says, we're the best team to watch in all of baseball, but yet we are at the bottom of attendance. There's a difference between simply bashing and making sense. In this article he's making perfect sense. This series should've been a sellout. Two best teams in baseball(us being the best team) off to a record start and even the mayor shows up(today at least) on a weekend and we still can't sell out any of the games. That's extremely dissapointing.

Extremely dissapointing? Did you know that 128,560 paid for that four-game series, without either half-price day involved? That's anything but a dissapointing sales number for a series at US Cellular if you know the slightest bit about the attendance patterns we've had the past few seasons.

 

The average attendance for each game was 32,140. If the Sox drew that well at every home game in a season, they'd total over 2.6 million tickets at the end of the year. That number would blow any recent yearly sales number out of the water.

[Ishmookie]

this series was fine because of the weather. unfortunately i hae a hunch that only 22000 will show up for texas because its not the weekend.

[DBAHO]

Challenge to Douchebag:

 

Would you go to a Sox game right now?

[NUKE_CLEVELAND]

Challenge to Douchebag:

 

Would you go to a Sox game right now? 

 

 

I strongly doubt he'd show his face at the Cell.

[JohnStamos]

I'm no fan of Mariotti by any stretch, but what he says in this article is true. He praises the White Sox if you actually read the article, but states that a game pitting the two best teams in the league against each other on the weekend should draw full houses. What about that is so completely off-base? He's right, although many people will shade themselves from the truth and argue against him no matter what he says. When the White Sox's bring in less people for a game against the Orioles than the Cubs will have in their lowest attendance, you know there's a problem. Mariotti is not gonna kiss the Sox or Sox's fans asses and tell people what they want to hear. If he did, he wouldn't have a job. He will continue to tell people what they don't want to hear because it makes people like us talk about him.

[nitetrain8601]

Extremely dissapointing?  Did you know that 128,560 paid for that four-game series, without either half-price day involved?  That's anything but a dissapointing sales number for a series at US Cellular if you know the slightest bit about the attendance patterns we've had the past few seasons. 

 

The average attendance for each game was 32,140.  If the Sox drew that well at every home game in a season, they'd total over 2.6 million tickets at the end of the year.  That number would blow any recent yearly sales number out of the water.

 

Yes extremely dissapointing. Possible playoff matchup. Two best teams in baseball. Not just the division or leagues, but baseball. 2.6 is bad if you are the best team in baseball. Before, we weren't close at all being at the top. We were happy being in the division race. Right now, we could get home-field advantage through the ALCS. I bet the Orioles will outdraw us. I know about the attendance patterns. There should be no reason why there is this low. Have White Sox fans sunked that low in which now there needs to be a major promotion(half price night; and dont forget there was dollar-dog thursday and fireworks on saturday) for them to head out to a game. That's not right. The side shows should be bonus, not the main attraction. Sadly most Sox fans feel the other way. For the 2 best teams in baseball, that's pathetic.

[GoodAsGould]

Yes extremely dissapointing. Possible playoff matchup. Two best teams in baseball. Not just the division or leagues, but baseball. 2.6 is bad if you are the best team in baseball. Before, we weren't close at all being at the top. We were happy being in the division race. Right now, we could get home-field advantage through the ALCS. I bet the Orioles will outdraw us. I know about the attendance patterns. There should be no reason why there is this low. Have White Sox fans sunked that low in which now there needs to be a major promotion(half price night; and dont forget there was dollar-dog thursday and fireworks on saturday) for them to head out to a game. That's not right. The side shows should be bonus, not the main attraction. Sadly most Sox fans feel the other way. For the 2 best teams in baseball, that's pathetic.

 

 

Ok we might be 1st place but its still May.... Like its been said earlier, if we are still struggling to get 30,000 to a game after school is out and weather is warm and we are still a 1st place team than be worried.... until than calm down and enjoy the run.

[whitesox91403]

I actually do agree with Mariotti on quite a bit of this article. I think it's well written. Just because I don't like him, I won't bash this article. But, I for one, and most true White Sox fans should just accept the attendance issue.

 

It is what it is.

 

I've been a Sox fan my whole life and will not dwell on attendance anymore.

 

Besides, when I went on April 19th (Tuesday) against Minnesota, me and a buddy sat in section 102 row 9 and we had the whole row to ourselves. I didn't mind that at all.

[zirc]

i think that's a good point...i like that fact that if i have the day off and i decide i want to go to a baseball game, i'm not limited to standing room only.

[The Critic]

Yeah, I know it makes me a s***ty fan or whatever, but I like not having to plan every Sox outing in f***ing January.

Sometimes you wake up and you want to go to a game that day.

It's nice to not have to pay a piece of s*** f***ing scalper to do it.

 

EDITED to add that Kotex Boy can eat a dick, piss up a dry rope and jump off a f***ing building. No one would miss him.

Edited May 16, 2005 by The Critic

[southsider2k5]

We need to get ahold of the Sun-Times circulation numbers for the whole time that Kotex-Boy has worked in this city. It would be interesting to see how much they have plunged.

[southsider2k5]

We need to get ahold of the Sun-Times circulation numbers for the whole time that Kotex-Boy has worked in this city.  It would be interesting to see how much they have plunged.

 

Actually this is way too interesting to pass up. I was googling this, trying to find the Sun-Times circulation numbers when I came accross this info about the Sun Times artificially inflating their sales numbers by 23%!

 

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/5261421/

 

They were counting newspapers they had printed and delivered, but didn't sell, as sales. They were reporting 72,000 more newspapers sold per week, than they actually had sold in reality, and then they were reporting to their advertisers these artificially high rates to crank up the amount of money they would spend for ads.

 

So to connect the dots here. Kotex-Boy uses our attendance as a way to indict us and our fans, but yet he works for a newspaper that illegally lies about its sales numbers, and defrauds the advertisers who work with the Sun Times, yet we are supposed to care what he said about our attendance? :fyou hypocrate

[YASNY]

After reading this column, I had a few things I wanted to say to MR. Mariotti. Here's my email to him. No response from him as of yet.

 

Mr. Mariotti,

 

Impeccible timing, sir.  You realize that this time period is probably your last opportunity to take a shot at something associated with the White Sox.  Even you (gasp!) admit that everything is good with the White Sox.  So, you look for, and find, something negative to write about concerning the Sox.  Rather than choosing to focus on one of the many positive stories you can write about the team, you choose to take another in a long line of cheap shots.  But then, that does deflect attention from the fiasco on the north side known as the Cubs.  Of course, thats what you would choose to do.  Your anti-Sox bias is so obvious that you cannot even claim to attempt to hide it.  Ken Harrelson and Jerry Reinsdorf see you for what you are and have called you on it.  Hence, the fueds you have ongoing with them.

 

Yet, you do have some valid, inarguable points.  The Cubs did win the public relations battle.  There is no denying that.  Reinsdorf has been his own worst enemy in this area.  When an owner threatens to move the team to Florida, puts the team on SportsVision and off WGN, is the main proponant of the owners' hard line stance of the '94 strike when the Sox appeared to be Series bound, trades the present for the future in'97with the team 3.5 games out of first .... yada yada yada, that type of foolishness will erode a fan base.  Then you have the Cubs, with their presence on a nationally exposed superstation and the ever present "Beautiful Wrigley Field" and "Friendly Confines" garbage, selling a myth to the gullible Cub fans that have bought into that "lovable loser" mystique.  But Mr. Mariotti, as Bob Dylan said, the times they are a-changing.  You commonly call U.S. Cellular Field "the ballmall".  Fair enough.  Yet, under your very nose, the ballpark has been changed into a wonderful place to watch a baseball game.  Wrigley Field, for all it's quaintness, is a relic of a bygone era that is falling down on and around the heads of it's patrons and smells of stale urine.  The neighborhood around Wrigley is on the decline and the southside is on the upswing.  Check the crime statistics before you begin to dispute that.  Finally, the "lovable loser" mystique is on it's way to becoming a thing of the past.  The ever present boos and catcalls at Wrigley Field are a sign that Cub fans are finally, after all these decades, wising up.  The Cubs were just good enough in '03 make their fans realize that they didn't have to settle for rooting for losers.  The excuses like goat curses, Bartman, all day games, too windy, etc. are not being accepted.  The Tribune Co. in all their wisdom, are starting to out-Reinsdorf Reinsdorf. Scalping their own tickets and attempting to block the rooftop crowds from seeing the games are the type of thing that alienates fans.  The way the Cubs handled the Sosa situation was beyond comprehension.  Sosa was THE main reason to see the Cubs for years and put millions of butts in millions of seats over the years.  So the Cubs, after riding on his back all that time, turn on him at the first opportunity and give away a Hall-of-famer for a second string middle infielder.  Brilliant!  Of course, you've bought into all this.  You've gone from having a case of Sammy-love to being one of his biggest critics.  The Cub front office has played you for a fool and are sitting back and letting you play the Cub fans for fools by doing their public relations work for them.  Wake up and smell the coffee, because you are swallowing it all, hook, line and sinker. 

 

These things are cyclical, Mr. Mariotti and they are circling back around toward the White Sox.

 

Most sincerely,

[retro1983hat]

We are giving credence to his column by working so hard to rip him, just let him be. I was at Saturday's game and I don't know what he was saying, but it was freezing out there. Personally I thought 37K was good for Sat night.

 

The attendance story is an easy one to write on. We won't WON'T average 34K a game like we did this weekend. If we win the division, we will be lucky to draw 2.2 million. I hate the attendance talk, but what can you do. Of course Wrigley sells out.

 

And there are several reasons. There are more Cub fans in the world. Wrigley is a museum (If you honestly had to go to Boston and were going to see the sights, most people would be pissed if they didn't get to see Fenway). The neighborhood. Everything Cubbie.

 

Let's just go to the games and hope for the best.

[Texsox]

I could not find much to disagree with in that article. In a small way, Jay probably helped attendance with that article. If he wrote a fluff piece that most Sox fans drool over, praising everything, it would not bring any attention to the enormous challenge Brooks and the Sox face. TV and cheeks in the seats go a long way to a bigger payroll. How often have Sox fans replied we don't buy tickets to watch a crappy team, like they do on the north side? Well why wasn't the Cell closer to a sell out? Why did almost every one here who played the YNOT contest predict an even lower attendance figure?

 

We're not the fans this article is challenging. I believe there are about the same number of knowledgeable, avid Sox fans and Cub fans. The Cubs have won the battle for the casual fan, and the family that attends a game a year, and of course the out of towners. That is the battle ground.

 

Take a friend to the Cell this year.

[hammerhead johnson]

Two best teams in baseball. Not just the division or leagues, but baseball.

 

My ass.

 

I don't care how good Baltimore's record is right now. That ain't no f***ing playoff team. And even if they do somehow manage to sneak into the playoffs, they have no shot at winning a series. Come on, man.

[Steff]

My ass. 

 

I don't care how good Baltimore's record is right now.  That ain't no f***ing playoff team.  And even if they do somehow manage to sneak into the playoffs, they have no shot at winning a series.  Come on, man.

 

 

 

I don't think they'll have to sneak... the front door is working just fine for them right now.

[Guest JimH]

Take a friend to the Cell this year.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Great sentiment, I agree.

 

Good things happen by word of mouth. Sometimes I feel like a PR person for the White Sox, the Bridgeport neighborhood, and the whole experience of going to a game.

[hammerhead johnson]

I don't think they'll have to sneak... the front door is working just fine for them right now.

 

120+ games to go.

 

With that rotation, I'm expecting 85 wins at the most.

[DBAHO]

I don't think they'll have to sneak... the front door is working just fine for them right now.

Yes, but is their offense going to remain this good. Are there any 15 game winners on that staff? The Yankees have won like 6 straight now also, and you know Boston is going to pick it up when they get Schilling, Wells and Miller back into their rotation.

[Chisoxrd5]

Yes, but is their offense going to remain this good. Are there any 15 game winners on that staff? The Yankees have won like 6 straight now also, and you know Boston is going to pick it up when they get Schilling, Wells and Miller back into their rotation.

 

Bedard sure has the looks of a guy who could win 15...he was gettin everything over yesterday (ala Mark B.). Sir Ponson could easily win 15, even though I know he has overwhelming support on this board. And BJ Ryan is pretty solid as their closer. I really think they have some staying power, but if they are to make a deal come the deadline it will be for a SP.

[hammerhead johnson]

Yes, but is their offense going to remain this good. Are there any 15 game winners on that staff? The Yankees have won like 6 straight now also, and you know Boston is going to pick it up when they get Schilling, Wells and Miller back into their rotation.

 

Bedard is the only guy who can win 15 to 18 games. Cabrera has long term potential, but right now, he's decent as best. Ponson and Lopez, as we all know, are nothing special. Bruce motherf***ing Chen?

 

It doesn't take a baseball expert to see what's what. That ain't no playoff team. Nowhere near it.

[Steff]

Yes, but is their offense going to remain this good. Are there any 15 game winners on that staff? The Yankees have won like 6 straight now also, and you know Boston is going to pick it up when they get Schilling, Wells and Miller back into their rotation.

 

 

I think their offense staying hot is a better probability than our pitching staying hot. Bedard and Sidney can win 15 I think. I agree Boston and the Yanks will not stay down all year. All a matter of luck. Regardless.. nothing to worry about at this point.

[Steff]

It doesn't take a baseball expert to see what's what.  That ain't no playoff team.  Nowhere near it.

 

 

With the way our offense looks.. neither are we.

[hammerhead johnson]

Sir Ponson could easily win 15, even though I know he has overwhelming support on this board.

 

It's hard to support a guy who had a .305 BAA and 5.30 ERA in 2004. That is buster status.