Nationals back in a slump

This is a bummer..

Nats Go Quietly As Reds Sweep [WPost]

The Nationals managed all of one hit. An announced crowd of 19,380 took it in rather placidly, with one fan finally yelling "Bo-ring!" in the eighth inning. And when the Cincinnati Reds slapped hands and patted backs after a routine 5-0 victory, they celebrated a sweep at RFK, where the Nationals have won only once in eight tries this season.

And our current best starter, John Patterson --

...doesn't know when he'll make his next appearance because of tightness in his forearm.

Attendance is suffering too:

Nats Play to Empty Seats at RFK [WPost]

Nationals President Tony Tavares said the team has sold about 16,000 season tickets for 2006, down from nearly 22,000 last year. With that lower base, team officials are relying heavily on individual game and day-of-game walk-up sales.

Tavares blamed several factors for contributing to the lack of bodies in the seats: the off-season fight between Major League Baseball and D.C. officials over a new stadium, the legal battle between Comcast and Baltimore Orioles owner Peter G. Angelos that has kept games off television for most area cable viewers, and MLB's delay in picking a team owner -- who could spend more money on marketing and promotions.

Nobody looks good in this whole mess except the team (and sometimes not even them). But MLB's dawdling for many months on the owner question has had many ill effects.

  Baseball   3 comment(s)  

The lack of TV broadcasts is a huge deal. The broadcasts are where people actually get to know the players personalities and quirks. Baseball is a slow game and it's enormously helpful to know who you are looking at and some idea of what they might be up to. I have noticed the crowds at RFK suffer from the same disease that I first noticed at Camden Yards when I moved down here from NY. For whatever reason, a lot of people just don't give a crap. A lot of them have no emotional investment in the team, so they just sit in the crowards and talk about how their stocks are doing or how awful the traffic was coming in.
      ...posted by Andrew on April 27, 2006 1:12 PM

First off, this team needs an owner and an identity. They put the selling of the team off for ever; they needed an owner in place last season or the start of this season. The tickets are over price. The prices rival that of major baseball market teams, Yankees and Red Sox. Their premium priced games is a horrible business idea, just rape the fans more MLB. Concessions are horrible; I hear it from everyone that goes to the game. Here is my personal experience on Opening Day: Out of beer at one stand, 5 minute wait at another beer stand. One concession area was out of hot dogs, came back 20 minutes later got a dog and then they were out of condiments. Traffic is shitty getting to the game from 395, but that isn’t the teams fault. Get people in management that know what they are doing and hire people that “like” working at the game. That is one major difference between RFK and Camden Yards; the people working the Camden yards are friendly!!!! When tickets went on sale for opening day, they have 6 ticket windows open to sell tickets for 150 plus people. Waited in line for 30 minutes after tickets went on sale any only moved 15 feet. The previous poster said “A lot of them have no emotional investment in the team, so they just sit in the crowards and talk about how their stocks are doing or how awful the traffic was coming in.” agree with that statement, a lot of the people there have no idea about what is going in.
      ...posted by Steve on April 28, 2006 10:13 AM

I agree across-the-board. Sorry about the "crowards" typo. The only other ticket pricing I pay attention to is Shea Stadium with the Mets. They have the grading system where the ticket price depends on the opponent and/or the promo giveaway. If they start pulling those tricks this early, they would really alienate the fanbase that already exists. My recollection from last year was that Mets games were more expensive, but I just hit mets.com and you can get seats to "value" games for $5. Shea is a lot like RFK, a giant round stadium holding 50k+ with some truly awful and distant seats. But for a "premium" game those awful seats are $22, while at RFK they would be $7.
      ...posted by Andrew on April 28, 2006 6:26 PM

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