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MLB 2014 Season |OT2| - Derek Jeter Appreciation Thread

R

RBH

Member
Royals manager Ned Yost pleaded with fans on Wednesday to show up for their remaining home games, one night after Alex Gordon's walk-off homer gave Kansas City a dramatic win over Minnesota that was seen by just 13,847 at Kauffman Stadium.

Yost briefly mentioned the attendance in his postgame remarks, and expanded on his thoughts when he was asked a follow-up question about so many empty seats during a pennant race.

"We've been working hard to try to make our fans happy and make our fans proud of us for a lot of years," Yost said, "and we'd like them to enjoy a night like that."

Some took Yost's comments out of context -- they thought they were a dig at fans who have suffered for 29 years without a playoff appearance. But the skipper said Wednesday that he wasn't being critical of fans, rather he was simply asking them to join in the fun.

The Royals entered Wednesday with a 1½-game lead over Detroit in the AL Central.

"The reason I do this job, there's two reasons: One is I've been to the World Series six times. I know that feeling. I know the excitement. I know what goes along with it," Yost said. "And one of my main things is I want these players to experience that, because it's very, very important. And the opportunities to do it are far and few between.

"And the other thing is I want the fans to experienced that," he said. "It's a special time. It's been a long time since our fans have been able to enjoy a playoff run."

The Royals won 86 games last year, their best mark since 1989, but were never really in the division race. They were eliminated from wild-card contention with a week left in the season.

"To win a division, it's one of the toughest things to do in sports, and you don't know when this opportunity is going to come again," Yost said. "I just think it's extremely important that our fans get the opportunity to come out and enjoy this with us."

It wasn't just Yost who noticed the empty seats, though. Gordon also mentioned how light the crowd was one night after 31,758 turned out to see the Yankees -- and shortstop Derek Jeter's last scheduled appearance in Kansas City.

"It wasn't the best," Gordon said, "but I think they've been pretty great all year long. I think they were a little tired after the Jeter night and cheering for him all night and putting a lot into that game. They took a night off and hopefully they'll come back out tomorrow."

There were several reasons for the paltry crowd. The Royals were playing the last-place Twins, a team that lacks star power.

The game was being played on Tuesday, traditionally a poor night for attendance. And school is back in session, which means many families are unwilling to show up for a game that might not end until late in the evening.

"I know there's a lot of reasons for it," Yost said. "There's economic reasons. You can watch the game on TV. There's a lot of reasons for it. But again, we've worked really hard to get in this position, and I just don't know when we're going to get in this position again. It could be for the next five years. It could be the next six years. But enjoy it while you can."

The reality is more fans have been enjoying it than any point in the past two decades.

The Royals had drawn 1,476,908 fans through Tuesday night's game, an increase of more than 100,000 over a year ago. That's an average of 23,443 per contest, which would give the club about 1.9 million fans for the season -- the best single-season mark since 1993.

On top of that, the Royals have been breaking records for local TV ratings all summer.

"You go back and talk to people about the '85 year when they won the World Series, they remember that, and they've been longing for that, and it's been a long time ago. And they remember it for the rest of their lives," Yost said. "If we do want we want to do, these kids jumping up and down on the Jumbotron, they're going to remember it for the rest of their lives, too."
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http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/1...mplores-fans-show-games?ex_cid=espnapi_public
 
M

matthewwhatever

Member
Now now, they'll probably finish third. Considering how the year started, that's not too bad. I'd love to cheer for a third place team.

EDIT, since I don't want to double-post: ...Valencia? Sure, why not. VALENCIA!
 
M

matthewwhatever

Member
Dominican Power said:
Royals are dumb. They've been sucking for more than 20 years and expect people to come in droves now that they finally got it together? How about you win consistently for a few years before you call fans out.
Click to expand...

Yep. With the exception of the Rays, the increased attendance always happens the year after the team gets better. People want to see the improvement is sustainable over the course of a season before they start showing up.

Also, Jays don't lose! I'm pretty pessimistic about their chances for next year, but at least we'll have a full year of Stroman to watch.
 
A

Askani

Member
So, Billy Butler just scored from first...and it wasn't a home run. Billy Butler. Scored. From first. Not a home run. Think about how long that ball had to roll to accomplish that.
 
R

RBH

Member
jakncoke said:
AJ just hit a cute girl with big tits with his bat.
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vtbvrjsqk896xzf93vdc.gif
 
L

lazybones18

Banned
Went to the Tigers/Yanks game so of course my presence resulted in a Tigers loss lol. I'll be back tomorrow too :p

Who was the chick in the blue dress interviewing one of the Yankee players after the game? Her boobs were huge
 
D

demolitio

Member
Sucks to have 2 really good tickets to the Reds game tomorrow when everyone is working. I can't even give them away anymore.

At least I'm going to see the back-ups play in the Bengals game. :p

Then again, most people I know seem to be fair-weather fans of the highest order.
 
DietRob

DietRob

i've been begging for over 5 years.
demolitio said:
Sucks to have 2 really good tickets to the Reds game tomorrow when everyone is working. I can't even give them away anymore.

At least I'm going to see the back-ups play in the Bengals game. :p

Then again, most people I know seem to be fair-weather fans of the highest order.
Click to expand...

Nobody want's to see Axelrod pitch. It doesn't help that the Reds haven't been all that great to watch recently we are in 4th place and 6.5 games back from the wild card. I gave away my tickets to the game last Saturday.
 
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