Indians P Chris Perez’ comments about fans not coming out to Progressive Field despite the team leading the AL Central drew a variety of responses yesterday on sports talk television shows. Boston Globe columnist Bob Ryan said it is “never a good policy to take on the fans,” and Perez needs to “have a little patience.” Ryan: “The fact of the matter is between the economy and the fact that school isn’t out yet, if they’re in first place in three weeks, they’ll get people.” Dallas Morning News columnist Tim Cowlishaw said, “What players never understand is it takes years sometimes to build up some trust. What have the Indians done for their fans the last few years? Yeah, they’re in first place right now, (but) this came from out of the blue. Stay there all summer and the fans will eventually show up.” Denver Post columnist Woody Paige noted Perez is making $4.3M this year and said, “Why don’t you go out and buy 3,000 or 4,000 tickets a game every time you’re out there on the mound.” Paige: “Have you noticed the economy in Cleveland -- where there are a lot of people without jobs -- and you want them to come to a baseball game?” (“Around The Horn,” ESPN, 5/21). MLB Network's Al Leiter said, "There is nothing to gain here. ... When you have a fan base as good as it was ... you have a trust situation for the fan base to have faith in believing in what they are doing” ("MLB Tonight," MLB Network, 5/21). MLB Network’s Chris Rose said, “I would never tell fans how to spend their money and whether or not to go down to a game.” However, he added, “If you do have a disposable income and you are in the Cleveland area, why wait another month to see if the team still going to be good? Go right now while it is exciting. On that point, I’m going to back him up” (“Intentional Talk,” MLB Network, 5/21).
TIMES HAVE CHANGED: MLB Network’s Harold Reynolds said of Perez, “He is sitting there going, ‘This is a great fan base. Where are you?’ I see his point. You want to be politically correct. I get it. When the player finally says something, we kill him. Well, I am praising him. I think they should come out and watch these guys play” ("MLB Tonight," MLB Network, 5/21). ESPN’s Michael Wilbon said, “I think it’s okay to call fans dopes. … You can challenge fans. This isn’t like the old days when the fans didn’t have a voice. They all got a voice. It’s called Twitter. They’re out there on social media, they take shots at the players, they take shots at the team. A player can challenge them and say, ‘You know what? You want to come boo us? Fine, just actually come to the game because we’re giving some effort here’” (“PTI,” ESPN, 5/21).
