Even More Throwballin' Muppets
Michigan baseball wins a tense Big Ten championship game against Maryland 4-3 and punches their ticket for the NCAA tournament.
..and you can't have one without the other…
Congrats to the team, who went 4-0 in the tourney to go from the bubble to in. College baseball should not be played at MLB parks.
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Two Muppets in the same weekend?!?!
It's great! To be! A Michigan Wolverine!
And just like that, I have the Scott Orr fight song video running through my mind. Going back to watch it again now. Go blue!
How many of you would get up to attend a Maryland-Minnesota B1G Baseball Champsionship at Ray Fisher stadium if it started at 9AM?
I betcha there was a Michigan fan in Minneapolis that missed seeing the game in person due to a hangover and the early start time.
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without the home team involved would see little interest.
IMO, it's a tough sell unless the home team is involved. Even if played on a campus. Make it a Saturday night game and sell beer if you want any chance of drawing a crowd.
BTW, tickets were only $10, so I doubt that influenced the attendance.
Of course, they could always give away
9am + threat of rain + no home draw = empty ballpark. An equation along those lines is almost certain to equal disaster.
But the Target Field stands were empty all weekend long, regardless of the time of day or night, regardless of teams playing. I haven't seen any attendance figures (I'm assuming they're available), but I doubt any of the sessions Thursday thru today had even a couple thousand fans in a ballpark that holds 40,000+. In that size of a park, you need probably at least 5000 to make it look like anyone cares at all.
I suggested yesterday a format involving rotating the tournament among 3 or 4 mid-size cities w/o major league franchises, cities that have top-notch minor league facilities, and I used Grand Rapids as an example. Someone else today mentioned Toledo. As long as it's within the B1G footprint, I think such a plan would work well. Such cities are much more likely to treat something like this as a major event rather than a distraction from their Major Sports franchises, as a Chicago or Detroit of Cleveland or Minneapolis, etc., would.
Someone else suggested Wrigley Field or Comerica. Wrigley might work, more because the draw of such as historic ballpark than anything else; Comerica, though? I doubt it. I'm skeptical somewhat even of Wrigley, though---look how poorly Northwestern draws in nearby Evanston, even when they have good teams, regardless of sport.
Yet a 3rd suggestion made was to play games in B1G venues. That would likely draw well, but I'm not sure which B1G teams have or don't have adequate facilities to host, assuming the tourney is awarded to the regular-season champs---or would it be played over a couple weekends, allowing for the final round(s) to be played in a bigger park?
I don't think the focus should be on attendance at all. How many fans does Michigan baseball normally draw? In 2010 Michigan ranked 44th in the nation in attendance at just over 1,200 fans per game. WD could probably fill in the gaps here but I thought I read online that some games this year Michigan drew as few as 600 people. (Please point out if that is inaccurate). OTOH the players greatly appreciate the thrill of playing in a Major League park. The locker rooms, dugouts, bullpens and accommodations are vastly superior to what we are used to playing in.
Having had multiple teammates suffer season ending surgeries due to poorly maintained fields I do not think the importance of playing on a Major League surface can be understated. So you move the tournament to a field with higher attendance how many more people really show up? At $10 a ticket (for those who are not on the pass list and get in free which is nearly every family member of any player in the tourney) how much money are we really talking about? Especially considering the TV revenue is unchanged whether it's an MLB park.
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that Michigan Baseball doesn't draw well (reportedly as low as 600 for a game this season/average of 1200 per game in '10) during the regular season. For that matter, most B1G teams (with the possible exception of Nebraska and a very few others) don't draw well. Early spring weather in much of the B1G area can be pretty brutal on both the players and the fans---other than a couple of opening days, I seldom have gone to a game myself in April, and I love baseball.
I'm sure that it IS a thrill to be able to play in MLB parks. That's something not too many ballplayers get to do. No doubt, either, that the field conditions are usually top-notch, too, at MLB Stadiums.
But isn't it also a thrill to play in front of a loud, enthusiastic crowd? I would think that has to rank right up near the top of the list of priorities for most ballplayers, too. And are you saying that B1G ballparks and/or most minor-league facilities are that much more dangerous to play on than what Target Field was today? While I'm sure a handful of minor league parks are substandard, I have no doubt that any ballpark that wants a prestigious event such as the B1G Tournament will put their best foot forward and make sure field conditions are tip-top, in the hope that the tournament might return to their venue.
Do you think that Grand Rapids (and/or several other potential host cities) wouldn't go all out to showcase such an event and make sure everyone directly involved is pampered? As for accomodations, I doubt Grand Rapids compares unfavorably at all with Minneapolis.
No, I can't guarantee a full house at, for instance, Fifth-Third Ballpark in GR or Toledo's stadium, but OTOH it wouldn't be an embarassment of a low turnout like the entire tournament was in Minnesota the last few days. Though it may not be high on the list of priorities to the players, I'm sure the conference would benefit overall by showcasing well-attended games on BTN as opposed to what we watched Thursday thru this morning. The money from the gate is of secondary importance to how well it all shows to the TV cameras, something that seems to me to be of relatively greater importance to the conference.
A packed house is a fun thing to play in front of. Only happened a handful of times in my 5 years of Big Ten baseball. Usually in the Deep South. The only northern sell outs I remember were at Ohio State and Big Ten tournament in Minnesota. Maybe one game at Illinois when they were having a great season.
I don't care if its Target Field, Wrigley, or somewhere else. Brian's comment was it shouldn't be played in MLB parks. It sounds like you and I both disagree with that statement although you make good points about getting the MLB park and attendance. My field surface comment is based in part on the number of games played in the few days. There must be a great field to start with and a top notch grounds crew to keep everything safe throughout the 3-4 days. Especially if it rains. In my experience that's possible in some minor league parks but as a player, I always wanted the MLB experience if it could be done.
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He looks just like what I would picture the Central Scrutinizer to look like.
you'll love it...it's a way of life...that's right! ...you'll love it...it's a way of life...the WHITE ZONE is for loading and unloading only...if you have to load or unload, go to the WHITE ZONE...you'll love it...it's a way of life.
yay for the ball and stick teams!
8!
Happy Birthday, though!
You'll want to watch these highlights! http://t.co/qUwEtdKW6i
— Michigan Baseball (@umichbaseball) May 24, 2015
Yay!
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