Originally Posted by DJ's left nut
I'll believe it when I see it. LA is a Laker's market first, anyway. If Howard gets traded to LA, Pujols will be the 3rd dog in that town immediately, maybe even 4th behind Griffin. And if the Dodgers were worth a damn, he would possibly slip to 5th behind Kemp.
If Angels fans are really sprinting to the ballpark to see a declining .299 hitter, I'll be shocked. He hasn't built up the goodwill in the LA area that he has in STL. If he doesn't come out and live up to that contract, they simply aren't going to care. They're going to spend their money on Kobe and Griffin. If the Dodgers come back strong, they'll spend it there. And the California economy is going to crater; it really doesn't have a choice with the deficits you fellas run out there.
If he comes out there and plays like he played during his prime, you're absolutely right - the fans will come; I've conceded as such. However, if he plays like he played in 2011 - i.e about as well as Kendry Morales did in 2009 - the shine will come off that contract in a hurry.
You can cite 'Fernandomania' all you want - as long as you admit that it lasted all of one season. By 1983 he was just another pitcher and Dodger fans went right back to showing up in the 3rd inning. In 2003, the year after they won the WS, the Angels drew about 85% of their capacity, (the Cardinals, OTOH, put over 2K per game over their stated capacity of 46,000 in 2007).
The LA area fans have no attention span to speak of. Every season, Moreno has to get the Angels fans a shiny new bauble to convince them to come out to the park. In 2004, it was Guerrerro, in 2005 it was Colon, in 2006 it was Jeff Weaver, in 2007 it was Gary Mathews, in 2008 it was Torii Hunter, in 2009 it was Bobby Abreu, in 2010 it was Vernon Wells.
Really? Baseball town? Every season your owner has to go out there and throw a bunch of money at a declining player to keep you folks involved. The year after the Angels won the World Series, they had the audacity to only win 77 games and suddenly you people couldn't get 38,000 people to come to the ballpark.
Spare me - if he's great and the Angels win, fans will come out. If he sucks, Angels fans will do what Angels fans have always done - they'll find something else to do.
|