August 14, 2004
Viz Kids
Omar Vizquel is enjoying Cleveland's surge:
"I'm having the time of my life," said Omar Vizquel, the last remaining piece of the World Series teams of 1995 and 1997. "I can't ask for anything better than the year we are having."
Is Vizquel surprised? "Yes," he said. "We have a lot of young guys who have made improvements in a quick way."
Vizquel, 37, said the raucous atmosphere brought back memories. "It was kind of like deja vu out there," he said. "It was obviously nice to see so many people behind us."
Vizquel had four of the 13 hits off four Twins pitchers Carlos Silva (10-8, 4.52 ERA), Matt Guerrier, Joe Roa and Jesse Crain.
There were 30,000 at Jacobs Field last night, about 9,000 more than usual for the Indians this year. I was told once by an independent league GM that a fan in a seat was worth $20 to him; I assume for a major league team like Cleveland it's somewhat more. Let's say $50. If they can do 30,000 a game for the rest of the season (22 more games), that's an extra $10 million in their pockets for next year (and I believe I'm being conservative here). That's a good chunk of money to use to improve your team.
$50 sounds pretty high to me, $30-35 seems about right.