[Blue_Phoenix]

Fans haven’t warmed to Florida teams
Jerry Sullivan
Updated: 05/27/08 9:39 AM



Like any true baseball lover, I pulled out the sports section on Monday and turned immediately to the box scores. After skimming through most of the games, I noticed something odd on the last line of the Marlins-Giants box. The attendance was listed as 0.

“It’s finally come to this,” I chuckled to myself. “They played a game in Miami and no one bothered to show up.”

Actually, it was a misprint. It was the first game of a doubleheader. Below, in the Game Two box, they had the real attendance figure. The Marlins and Giants played before a whopping 14,674. Two games for the price of one, on Sunday of Memorial Day weekend. A first-place team. And the park was a third full.

Across the state in St. Petersburg, the Rays were beating Baltimore to take over first in the AL East and go 10 games over .500 for the first time ever. They did it before a gathering of 17,762, baseball’s second- smallest crowd Sunday.

The Marlins and Rays are the talk of the game on the field. Memorial Day is an early milestone for any baseball fan. So it was astonishing to look at the standings Monday and see both Florida teams sitting in first place.

It’s a quaint occurrence, a great conversation piece for baseball fans. But it’s hard to get past the fact that people in Florida don’t care. The Marlins, as usual, are 30th and last in home attendance at 14,520 a game. The Rays are 27th at 18,686, ahead of the Royals and Pirates.

The Marlins were last in attendance in 2006 and ’07. Tampa Bay was 29th both years. If they combined their attendance last season, they would have finished ninth in attendance.

That’s pathetic. The Marlins are finally spending some money to lock up star players. They’re building a new stadium, which is expected to jolt an indifferent Miami community when it opens in 2011. I’ll believe it when I see it.

The Rays have plans for a new “sailboat” stadium in St. Petersburg, with a roof resembling a sail. Tropicana Field’s domed facility is a turn-off for fans. Still, that doesn’t excuse the lack of support. Minnesota fans packed the Metrodome when the Twins were winning big. Canadians flocked to the SkyDome when the Blue Jays were contenders.

Florida doesn’t deserve a major-league team, never mind two. If people can’t show up for two exciting, first-place teams, what hope is there? On May 13, the Rays hosted the Yankees. They won their 11th straight home game and moved into first place, the latest they’d ever been in first. They drew 16,558.

Buffalo sports fans shake their heads at this stuff. The Bills haven’t made the playoffs in eight years and sell out. You can’t get a Sabres ticket. And still, fans have to live in fear that their pro sports team might leave one day.

Meanwhile, in the glorious Sun Belt, teams are greeted by a yawn of indifference. Sabres fans grit their teeth as the Stanley Cup is lifted in languid hockey towns like Raleigh, Dallas and Tampa.

It’s passe to talk about Buffalo as a potential big-league baseball town. But when I learned of Jimmy Griffin’s death, I thought back to the early days of Pilot Field, and how Griffin and Bob Rich Jr. genuinely believed a Major League team could succeed here.

From the start, I was skeptical, assuming Buffalo was a stalking horse for expansion. Baseball wanted the big, untapped TV markets in Denver, Phoenix and Florida. Maybe baseball would have struggled in this economy, but Western New York surely would have showed up in larger numbers than Florida.

You can’t tell me that if Buffalo had a Major League team in first place on Memorial Day, there would be 14,500 people in the stands. I’m not saying we could support a big-league team at a high level, not in these difficult economic times. But we’re a good baseball town, and we wouldn’t embarrass ourselves.

That’s Florida’s department.