What if you ran a team caravan and no one came?

Rebecca Glass writes on the magic of being a baseball fan.

Get a good team.

I much preferred the "Wade guy" in the bleachers at Fenway Park. Every time Wade Boggs would come to the plate, he would bellow, "Waaaaaaaaaaaaaade," holding it as long as possible. On a good day he'd last a good 30 seconds. A few years later I found out he was an aerodynamics professor at MIT.

Female Rays fans are getting Mohawks, too, just at the other end. I love that they make the male anchor read the story.

Big League Stew posts pictures of fan signs from Tuesday night's playoff game between the Twins and the White Sox.

Rays fans turned out to welcome home the AL East champions:

Joe Petrucelli had his hair cut in a mohawk just for the event, as did his 2-year-old son Hunter. "It's my home team. I was born and raised here. I love it."

If the child grows up to be the next Mr. T, we'll know who to blame. :-)

I didn't realize the fan who caught the penultimate home run at Yankee Stadium and the one hit before that was actually setting himself up to catch the balls.

How can the Cubs not let a 104-year-old fan throw out the first pitch at a game? It's nice they gave him tickets and invited him to meet the players, but why not let him toss? He could even lead "Take Me Out to the Ballgame!" Now, if the Cubs snatch defeat from the jaws of victory this season, we can blame the curse of the 104-year-old man!

Martin Bell sends this video as an example of why he'll miss Shea. It's 10 minutes long, but well worth the watch:

A Giants fan finds comfort in strange places.

Last night's Marlins attendance was only 13,419, but that was enough to generate boos for Florida's poor performance. With the Marlins in the NL East race, more fans should be showing up to cheer them on, but it's good to see the people who do show up are at least passionate about the team playing well and winning.

The Los Angeles Times publishes a story on how scorekeeping fans are disappearing. However, this quote surprised me:

Eisenberg has embraced a time-honored task that requires a fan to pay reasonably close attention to an entire game -- in an era when the stadium-going experience is full of reasons not to. There are long lines at the bathroom or the beer stand, distractions on the scoreboard and in the stands, and, at least among Dodgers fans, a long-standing tradition of leaving early.

And the attentiveness requirement isn't the only impediment. There's always the danger of ridicule.

"People laugh at me, and they look at me really strange and they say, 'Why do you keep score? What are you going to do with that?' " said South Pasadena resident Kelly Wallace, who keeps score at approximately 30 Dodgers games a season.

When I attended game regularly, I always kept score. Some people would ask what I was doing, but they were always interested, not condescending. Often, people would ask what happened earlier in the game. I actually became a resource for the fans around me.

It's nice to see some Boston fans are still worried about the Yankees.

Jose de Jesus Ortiz list reasons why Astros fans are among the best in the majors.

A football site devoted to the Cincinnati Bengels found themselves threatened by the team they support!

Well, looks like the Cincinnati Bengals are first in something. The fansided.com blog network is a collaboration of fan NFL blogs run by UNPAID, Fans of the teams. Cincinnati has contacted our main office to threaten us with a lawsuit over using pictures (that are out in the public domain) that we gave copyright credit to the Bengals organization for. We have been forced into a redesign, as we cannot defend ourselves against Mike Brown's deep pockets. Funny, we've been in touch with the Bengals (PR Director Jack Brennan) via email several times (me personally). I've invited him to browse the site, comment and make suggestions for our site to a benefit to the Bengals organization. Instead, we get a lawsuit threatened against us (why, Mr. Brennan, could you not just ask us to make changes?).

I guess this will go over badly. Never pick a fight with someone who buys pixels by the gigabyte.

I remember when we referred to these as our favorite players.

Morgan Ensberg guest posts at Phil Hughes blog and wants fans to be witty:

The next idea that I have is about opposing fans. I love it when a fan is yelling at me and says something really witty. Not just yelling to be heard by the people around him, but something really funny. If it is good, I will laugh at it myself. I want it to be funny. But let me tell you this, if you say "you suck" we know that you don't know what to say and you probably aren't very funny. To us it is like saying "um". We hear it all the time and it is just a sound with no meaning. Take your time and don't get caught up in the moment. Timing is everything and if you can think of something genuinely funny, you will have my respect.

Morgan has a little Cyrano de Bergerac in him.

The Good Phight discusses the seven stages of Phillies sports stars appreciation and notes Ryan Howard is at the dangerous stage five. I'd worry about Ryan if B.J. Novak's character starts coming up first in Google searches.

Another fan falls in a stadium, this time in Baltimore. Luckily, this time, no one died.

Eric Seidman poses a very interesting question:

I want to combine this thought with something I heard last year on the radio and bring forth a question. Quite simply, would you rather be a fan of a team like the Marlins or the Giants? Not necessarily the specific teams or how they look in 2007 and 2008, but would you rather be a fan of a perennial contender for eight years or a team that would win two world series in that span and be below average the other six years?

Click over to his site and leave your answer in the comments.

I think I'd rather be a fan of a team that contends and wins the World Series fairly often.

The Yankees will have the first pitch at Wednesday's Red Sox matchup thrown from the International Space Station. As a space nut, I think that's really cool.

Matt Cerrone notes:

...it's a sad, sad day when a) Philadelphia can mock New York, and b) a Phillies fan is the voice of reason...

Here's the Phillies fan:

To us Phillies fans, it's fantastic to see this kind of madness on our side of New Jersey, but let me make a statement for the Mets, because, really, I want them to be competitive. I want this rivalry to remain at a high level. So to the Mets:

It's a marathon, not a sprint.

It appears Cubs fans received a bad translation of "It's gonna happen."

Billy Crystal struck out in his only at bat as a Yankees player.

Dodgers stars both old and new signed autographs in Santa Monica recently. LA Cityzine did a photo essay.

What can Google tell us about the Marlins fan base?

(Top cities searching for "Marlins" are Ft. Lauderdale, Delray Beach, and Boca Raton. Miami comes in fourth.)

It took the Angels a long time to establish a deep, local fan base in Anaheim. There was a long period during which most people showing up at games there were coming to see the visiting team. That's happening a bit in Washington as well. In the case of the Angels, taking forty years to develop a great team didn't help.

Every batter looks like Hannah Montana, When they step up to the plate against Johan Santana.

He's been a member of the Mets for about four hours, and he already has his own song. It's pretty good, too.

All the pain from last year is gone, The fans are happy with Fred Wilpon.

That may be. However, to paraphrase Star Wars, "Great trade, don't get cocky."

Here's the story of a dedicated fan, told by Matt Damon:

Homeboy Matt Damon, who narrates the 2007 World Series DVD that had its premiere last night at the Wang Center, is proud of his bona fides as a Red Sox fan, one who showed up on David Letterman's show last summer wearing a Sox jersey to diss the Yankees his entire interview. But even the Oscar-winning screenwriter and accomplished actor was impressed by the story related to him by his old roommate at Harvard, Sean Kelly, one of the emergency room doctors from Beth Israel on duty at Fenway Park during the season.

more stories like this"There was this 85-year-old guy in the bleachers who had driven down from Maine or New Hampshire with his two daughters," Damon said by phone yesterday from his home in Miami, where he'd returned after spending the Thanksgiving holiday here with family. "Anyway, the guy didn't feel well, and after some of the medics and nurses looked at him, it went up the chain to Sean. They realize the guy has had a heart attack, and Sean says, 'We've got to get you out of here.' "

The man had come to the park with a small oxygen tank but still refused to leave.

"The guy says, 'Big Papi is up, and I'm not leaving,' " Damon said. "He said, 'I drove all the way to see Big Papi, and I'm not leaving during his at-bat.' Well, the guy passes out. Sean's got the guy under the bleachers, with the paddles, doing the whole thing - 'Clear!' They save the guy, and he's still healthy. But is that guy a Red Sox fan or what?"

When I'm 85, I can think of worse ways to go out than watching a baseball game.

Sixteen thousand Indians fans showed up at Jacobs Field Saturday night to watch the game, hoping for a series clincher. They came away from the park feeling a big down:

"I'm going to be sick," grumbled Al Madan, 46, of Cleveland. "It's all slipping away. I'm sick. Sick. This is a disaster."

Robin Joynes, 38, of Kent bemoaned the "vortex of doom" that's pulling down the Indians. Consider it a professional opinion: She's a psychology professor at Kent State University.

Mark T.R. Donohue notices his bad Karma for the Rockies:

But unlike most other metro-Denverites, I have spent the entire season shoveling dirt on the Rockies. I'm a pessimist by nature, but this year has made me look a bit absurd. This team will not die, and I feel I only feed its strange resilience with my ongoing if's, or's, and but's. I got really fired up to watch the Rockies game as a fan on Friday night, dressed up, invited friends over, made an event of it. As suited the occasion. But the game itself was such a downer -- it was clear from the first that Brandon Webb had his Brandon Webb thing working and there wasn't much the Rockies could do but bend their knees when they swung and run as fast as they could to first -- that I panicked. I was having flashbacks to 2003 and 1998 with my former long-term baseball commitment, the Cubs. I had never expected in this year of all years to have serious emotional involvement in the Rockies winning or losing any games. I thought at best they'd win 75 games again.

So I've been relentlessly wrong, which is frustrating, and every time I try to take my medicine and admit it, the Rockies tend to swoon. Now I've become superstitious enough of a fan that I believe I may have been having a malign influence to them. I looked true fan commitment in the eye, and I blinked. I gave away my (single) ticket to the game Saturday night. I didn't really watch much of it on TV, preferring for the first time in my life college football for my complete lack of rooting interest. (Although, hey, look at those Cal Bears!) I couldn't bear the thought of a having to see the best season in Rockies history (and way better than any of the sentient seasons I spent as a Cubs fan, no fooling) end with a final on an out-of-town scoreboard. So with my eyes mostly shielded by my hands, I peeked in a couple times. It looked, to be honest, like the opposite of Friday's game. The Edgar Gonzalez thing, if any exists, was not in evidence as the Rockies made the last eight innings a well-deserved Coors victory lap with a four-run first.

He's not watching the game today.

Capt. Morgan wins an MLB Dream Day at Fenway.

Orioles Post remembers Bill Hagy, the fan who led the O-R-I-O-L-E-S cheer for so many years at Memorial Stadium. He formed the letters with his body as the crowd shouted out the letters. My thoughts go out to his family, friends and fans.

This has to be one of the great heckler stories of all time.

Soccer Dad links to a piece on where to get foul balls in Baltimore.

The Pirates got off to a 6-1 lead over the Nationals after two innings, and that might have kept fans in the park:

The Nationals' offense was about as effective against Gorzelanny (8-4) as was the planned fan protest by Pirates rooters unhappy with the club's refusal to spend money to upgrade a team stuck in a 15th consecutive losing season. Only a few thousand fans, if that, vacated their seats after the third inning and it appeared most returned quickly.

Given that the attendance was 27,000, a few thousand leaving would be a pretty big chunk. Still, it's much better to not buy tickets than to buy and walk out. Buying and walking out is a bit like divesting stocks from countries you don't like. If you sell the stock, someone else buys it, so you haven't changed anything. Boycotting products is what has a real economic effect.

Freddy Sanchez stayed hot, picking up two more hits and raising his average to .305 as the Pirates went on to a 7-2 victory. Sanchez hit .343 for the month of June.

Over at Lookout Landing there's a great article about a Bert Lahr lookalike who's a big fan of Adrian Beltre.

Via FishStripes, Fish or Cut Bait uses his advertising database to present a series on the demographics of Marlins fans. The series starts here with part 1.

The fan auction is over on EBay, and the winner is a high ranking team official. My bid did not win, but I was going to pick one of the bad teams if I did.

Would you like to force someone to root for and write about your team? Manny Stiles is auctioning off his fandom to raise money for AIDS research.

I will write 50 articles throughout the season covering the team of your choice from the end of this Auction until Nov 1st. 99% of the proceeds will benefit the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS foundation , the other 1% will go to a logo emblazoned item for my personal use to PROVE my dedication as a fan of my new team!

It's for a very good cause, and if your team isn't the most popular one on the block, it's a way of getting them some blogospheric exposure! Bid early and often!

On Valentine's Day, MLB.com posts the reasons fans and players love baseball. Interestingly, three mention that for the most part, size doesn't matter. Here's the two that most reflect my views of the subject. The first by a famous player:

Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter: "I think because everybody can relate. You don't have to be seven feet tall; you don't have to be a certain size to play. Baseball is up and down. I think life's like that sometimes, you know. Back and forth, up and down, you're going through this grind. I think people like watching it. Baseball's like a soap opera every day."

The second by a fan:

Joel Kweskin, 56, White Sox fan based in Charlotte, N.C.: "It's unique unto itself. Football, basketball and hockey are variations of the same concept -- back and forth in a linear progression to score a goal. Baseball, however, is mapped out on the field unlike any other sport. A running back or return specialist can run 100 yards, tops; a baserunner legging out an inside-the-park homer runs 20 yards farther. Baseball is the most democratic of sports -- any size can play, and because the ball is not controlled by the offense but rather the defense, every player at any given time is involved in a play. Along with the anecdotally accepted premise that hitting a pitched baseball is the single most difficult thing to do in sports, so might be fielding a 175-mph line drive or grounder down the line. I love baseball because it is the greatest game ever invented."

I'll add that any player can be the hero. You never see the 12th man in basketball take the game winning shot, but you see the 25th man on a baseball roster get the game winning hit, even in the post season.

Why do you love baseball?

Geoff at Ducksnorts attended FriarFest yesterday, where fans actually got to play on the field at PETCO Park. He documented his trip with photos.

Via Red Reporter, a baseball fan meets Ken Griffey, Jr. on vacation.

Griffey also discussed pitchers and how to distinguish between if the pitcher is going to throw a curve ball or fast ball. He said Pedro cuts his sleeves in a way so that the flap on his sleeve hides his hand which makes it more difficult to determine what he is about to throw. he also advised if I go to a high speed batting cage, not to move my feet to much but swing a short swing if I wanted to try to make contact with the ball.

While some KC Royals fans are leaving the fold, one is getting on the bandwagon real early.

The more I thought about my friend's luck, the more I wondered what it would be like to be a new fan for a completely different team. I, like most fans, had given myself to one team earlier in life. When I was a kid I learned the players' and managers' names, memorized the schedule and during the summer counted down the hours each day to the first pitch.

But that was a long time ago, and I started wondering what it would be like to do that again, to pledge my allegiance to a new team no matter how the season turned out.

As the 2006 season closed and the Braves missed the playoffs, I decided to pick my new team. I set out some guidelines and began narrowing my options.

The Royals met all his criteria, and Joe Schulman will be blogging about what it's like to be an out of town fan at A Royals Fan in Atlanta.

Nina Bennett is a freelance writer and Red Sox fan. She sent along this essay titled, "How to Be a Red Sox Fan." Enjoy.

Being a Red Sox fan entails a life of heartache, hope, and passion. You must have faith through continual failure, endure cyclic disappointment, and have the courage to believe that a group of mere men can come together to achieve acts of heroism.

For those born and raised in New England, the Red Sox are passed on like family heirlooms generation after generation. They are a thread that runs through family history and tradition. As a rite of passage father proudly takes son to Fenway Park for the first time. Grandpa sits on the porch talking with the grandchildren about the Sox of yesteryear. Brothers play baseball in the streets of Boston, pretending to be their favorite player. But even a transplanted Red Sox fan, such as myself, that lives elsewhere and has discovered the team later in life shares the same love for the team that is seen in lifestyle, behavior, and beliefs.

From the first World Series win of 1903, the dream season of '67, the devastation of '86, and the angst of the '99 postseason when the team rallied to defeat the Indians only to be slaughtered by the Yankees in the ALCS, a Sox fan's mind is steeped in history. The dates of losses, victories, and monumental moments are lodged in your mind. You know that there was never a man who did more for the Red Sox, as a player, coach, and fan than Johnny Pesky. You know the day Ted Williams and Carl Yastrzemski retired. You are an expert on Babe Ruth's infamous 'curse' and the New England rhetoric to reverse it. And of course, when the Red Sox won the World Series in 2004, a full 86 years after their last title, you had a single, teary-eyed thought that coincided with the collective conscious of all Sox fans: now I can die happy.

The fan who alleged Kenny Rogers grabbed his collar backed off pursing Rogers:

James Spurlock, 37, of Adrian, Mich., told the Detroit Free Press he will settle for an apology from Rogers for the way he and his 14-year-old son were treated when the boy asked for an autograph.

Somehow, I don't think he'll get it.

The Yankees fans are giving Big Papi a good razzing today. They might want to stop, however, as Ortiz just hit his second double in as many at bats.

Update: The doubles don't do any damage as Wang strikes out Pena in each successive at bat.

Alex Rodriguez is in a slump. Believe it or not, it happens to the best of players. But to talk to Yankees fans, you'd think this person is the biggest bum ever born. There's a lot of talk that Alex should be traded. Was Watching is all over this story today. First, he looks at Alex's numbers his first three years in New York. He can't decide if A-Rod was lucky in 2005 or unlucky in 2004 and 2006.

Let me put in my two cents. Alex is 30 (seasonal age) meaning he's past his prime. At this point in his career I suspect we'll be seeing more 2004 or 2006 years than 2005 years. But that's okay, they're still good seasons, better than most third basemen in the majors. But you shouldn't expect the last five years of his contract to be as good as the first five years of his contract.

Secondly, he notes that the Yankees have only trade a superstar twice. Once it worked out okay, once it didn't.

New York fans need to realize that they own an all-time great here. He's going through a slump. But these are probably the same fans that would rather have Brosius and Martinez playing third and first, and the same type of fans who booed Carlos Beltran last year.

Update: Brooks Robinson likes Alex:

"I was watching TV last night and I really had to laugh at the guy who said he might be traded," Robinson said. "There's no way in the world that A-Rod is going to go anywhere. If they don't have A-Rod, they don't win."

Rodriguez's defensive woes are the talk of New York right now. The two-time MVP has been getting booed at Yankee Stadium -- and that was before last week's stretch of five errors in five games. Yankees manager Joe Torre eventually pulled Rodriguez from his spot at third base, making him the designated hitter Saturday in Toronto.

Robinson's advice: Everybody calm down.

"A-Rod is just going through a little crisis right now, which might be a week long. Most of his errors are throwing errors and that can be corrected very easily," Robinson said. "But everyone has those streaks. You have streaks as a third baseman or a shortstop where every ball you get is not a big hop, it's an in-between hop, it's a tough play ..."

U.S.S. Mariner is enjoying rooting for the Mariners again.

Even when Washburn gave up the lead and we trailed 5-2, my first thought was "it's only three runs, and the Dodgers bullpen isn't very good." For the first time in a while, I was anticipating a come from behind win. That's a nice feeling.

Part of the fun is that Ichiro is on an incredible hitting streak. While 20 games isn't that long in terms of the best of all times, the stats he's collecting during the streak are extremely impressive. He's averaging better than two hits per game, with 14 multi-hit games and two four hit games. He's scored 22 runs as well. If the Mariners had any offense at the bottom of the order, he might have a ton of RBI as well.

The New York Times prints a nice story on Karl Ehrhardt, the sign man of Shea. My favorite sign came during the 1973 World Series. Charlie Finley fired Mike Andrews after he made two errors in game 2 of the series. Games 3-4-5 were in Shea, and on the first error made by an Oakland player, Karl held up a sign that read, "You're fired."

Michael Malone notices a non-mellow fan at Dodger Stadium last night.

A couple of Cubs fans picked the wrong day to heckle Jacque Jones:

Dave van Dyck of the Chicago Tribune says Jones lost a ball in the sun in the top of the seventh, ruining Carlos Zambrano's no-hit bid. In the bottom of the inning, Jones was called out on strikes and a fan allegedly yelled, “The sun must have gotten in your eyes.�

According to witnesses, the fan was berated by a finger-wagging woman wearing a replica of Jones' No. 11 jersey. It was Jones' mother, sitting two rows away.

I believe she said, "If you hurt my son's feelings, he'll never get his OBA above .320." :-)

Roch Around the Clock notes an interesting rule in Baltimore, explained by the ushers:

They wanted to make sure I was aware that the Orioles and Ravens share the same policy regarding fans standing during a game. The majority rules. If most people in the section are sitting, you'll be asked to join them. And those orders come "from above," I was told.

One of my college roommates was extremely annoyed by fans standing at games, especially over long foul balls. I'll have to check to see if he's joined the Orioles front office. :-)

Chad Carroll auctioned off his loyalty to the Royals on E-Bay. He's not the first Royals fan to try this, however.

Should this send a message to Royals management? Two people in a year willing to sell their loyalty to another team might make them think they have a real problem. Unfortunately, you can't fire an owner. Maybe MLB should stop wasting revenue sharing money on this sorry franchise.

You could hear the excitement in the stands during yesterday's Pirates-Brewers game. Greg Giesen spoke with fans, and this one is typical:

"They're going to be 10 games over .500 and I think they will be in the playoff race until late September," Andreasen said Scott Behringer of Neenah, who, along with his friend Steve Fahrenkrug, spray-pained his upper torso blue with "Brew Crew" in yellow letters on their chests, believes the Brewers' young talent will lead them to a 92-70 season.

"They've got a lot of good young prospects. It's all about the young guys," Behringer said Chris Marshall, a former Racine resident who lives in Madison, said he hasn't been this excited about the Brewers since the 1987 team won their first 13 games.

Nice to see the enthusiasm returning to Milwaukee.

Rich Jurnack sent me a very good article on African-American fans and players in Philadelphia. There's some hope there that Ryan Howard can heal a half-century of animosity between the black community and the home town team.

Baseball Musings is conducting a pledge drive in March. Click here for details.

Balls, Sticks and Stuff notices that baseball fans are alive and well in Philadelphia:

Over the last few weeks, I have been absolutely struck by the abundance of young children playing baseball on fields all over the area. Several months ago I was dumfounded as to why I couldn't take a few swings with a golf club at my local park. Now, with spring here, I see why: the space is needed for eight year olds to practice their bunting. In the cold rain. On a Saturday.

Make no mistake, children practicing bunts in the cold rain as opposed to playing XBox is evidence that the sport is quite healthy. Should the Phillies find a way to make the playoffs, rest assured, this grassroots passion for the game will overcome the boos we've come to expect from the upper levels of Citizens Bank Park. Winning breeds popularity in any town, and Philadelphia is no different.

Lots of children playing ball is good news. Maybe someone can write a musical about this called "Bunting in the Rain."

Baseball Musings is conducting a pledge drive in March. Click here for details.

The Tampa Bay Devil Rays annouced their latest addition to their Fan Wall of Fame. She's called "The Sampler":

Because of Dennis, who has held two season tickets to all eight seasons, 223 different people have attended - or sampled - Devil Rays home games.

"And I turned quite a few into fans," said Dennis, who lives in Holmes Beach.

Nominated by her sister, Diane Wallace, Dennis was one of six Rays fans to be enshrined Saturday on the Wall of Fame that adorns the Tropicana Field rotunda.

"You have to be a true baseball fan to be a Devil Ray fan," Dennis said.

Very true.

The Soxaholix tries to start a new fad (warning, coarse language):

I mean think about it. Bottom of the 9th, pressure situation, need just one more out with the other team's sluggah confidently striding to the plate … And all of a sudden 35 thousand fans begin to ululate in unison!

He suggests A-Rod won't like it.