Comments on: Game 145: A’s at Tigers

By: Dave BW

Dave BW — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 18:08:24 +0000

In fact, SL, there’s MORE to discuss with a losing team. There’s only so many ways you can say “Awesome game, tonight!”

By: Smoking Loon

Smoking Loon — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 17:59:53 +0000

Not saying anything about right or wrong or loyalty. But it seems to me that if you’re really interested in a team, there’s always something to examine, revisit, propose, speculate about, and otherwise discuss. A losing or disappointing season only provides more fuel for this.

By: ron

ron — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 17:43:58 +0000

Dave bw Sorry I overreacted. I just love my city so much. Well, at least the suburbs.

By: ron

ron — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 17:40:24 +0000

Seattle internet fans are just a bunch of over caffeinated, 2nd generation hippies sitting in rain soaked internet accessible cafes with nothing better to do than baseball blog. Cleveland fans, well they’re just idiots. Detroit fans spend most of their time working, looking for jobs, taking care of their families, praying for the welfare of the nation and supporting the Tigers by ordering in Illitch’s pizza every other night. It’s hard for them to find time to blog when thing are going good. When things go South, they go outside and play catch with the kids, hoping to raise a future Tiger. They have their priorities.

By: Dave BW

Dave BW — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 17:26:19 +0000

It seems, ron, that you’re attributing my argument with more nuances than I intended. Yes, internet fans can be assumed to be a small percentage of fans in general, and granted, my first post on this topic was in retrospect needlessly inflammatory.

Anyway, SB Nation is a network of sports fan sites, and isn’t necessarily indicative of internet fan behavior in general — though in my experience ALL Tiger fan sites (this one, motownsports, etc) have been slow for over a month. My point has been that posting trends for the Tigers seem to be completely linked to playoff odds, and this does not mesh with the posting patterns of fans of other teams (who seem to be consistently active regardless of performance). This doesn’t mean that Detroit fans are absolutely less loyal, but that is one obvious conclusion.

I did not mean for you to construe that I was attributing value judgments to “team loyalty”, posting trends, etc. I’m not. For fans that are concerned primarily with winning (which, again, there’s nothing intrinsically wrong with) — or even with sound baseball — following a team like this year’s Tigers would be ridiculous.

By: ron

ron — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 17:18:19 +0000

What is wrong with blogging only when thing are going right. This has nothing to to with team loyalty. Maybe loyalty to a site.

By: ron

ron — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 16:56:38 +0000

Dave bw aren’t internet fans a very small percentage of fans in general? Did Forbes distinguish between the two? And what is SB Nation?

By: Dave BW

Dave BW — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 16:43:36 +0000

And both the Indians and Mariners have huge amounts of posts each night on their pages. Craziness.

By: Chris in Dallas

Chris in Dallas — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 16:01:27 +0000

Oh. I also forgot to mention the Mariners, since their payroll is roughly comparable to the Tigers (i.e. well over $100 million). I’m surprised the USS Mariner guys haven’t committed ritual suicide yet.

By: Chris in Dallas

Chris in Dallas — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 16:00:02 +0000

I’d say Cleveland would be another good comparison. The Tribe and Tigers were supposed to have a Mexican death match for the division title, at least according to the pundits. Obviously both fanbases are a touch on the disappointed side.

By: Dave BW

Dave BW — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 15:25:14 +0000

Yeah, Chris, the disparity between expectations and results is really the key difference between Tigers fans and other fanbases this year. The only apt comparison is with the Yankees, and that probably isn’t fair — you know, due to the whole being in New York thing.

By: Smoking Loon

Smoking Loon — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 14:38:49 +0000

“Dave: I think a lot of people subscribe to the theory of “if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything”.”

Well, I’m glad we’re different. This would be a pretty lonely place…

By: Chris in Dallas

Chris in Dallas — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 14:16:27 +0000

Dave: I think a lot of people subscribe to the theory of “if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything”. There hasn’t been much positive to talk about with these Tigers in 2008, what with all of the high expectations.

By: Dave BW

Dave BW — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 13:33:17 +0000

I’m talking internet fans, here, ron. Like I said, I was making an observation based on one popular website (SB Nation). Judgment calls — let alone elitism — don’t come close to entering into it (to be honest, I couldn’t possibly care less about the definition of a “fan”).

I just think it’s strange that the Tigers have such an inactive page in that community compared to almost every other team (who generally have hundreds of comments per game per night, regardless of how crappy their season has been), and I’m curious as to why that may be. Is there a reason why Detroit fans would be less likely to use the internet than anywhere else in the country save Florida that I am missing? Considering that the Tigers page was thriving in the early portion of the year, I concluded that most internet fans were only interested in the team in the instance in which they were winning.

By: Smoking Loon

Smoking Loon — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 05:04:46 +0000

Go Ron. Go Tigers.