gehringer_2 Posted June 9 Posted June 9 1 hour ago, oblong said: I think the digital versions of both papers is $10 a month. A bit too much for me. Sorry. I want to support local journalism. We subscribe to the Freep and MLive. Dropped DetNew this year for reasons that need not be stated here. 1 Quote
lordstanley Posted June 9 Posted June 9 46 minutes ago, Tiger337 said: I subscribe to nothing online unless I am going to use it frequently. That means baseball-ref and fangraphs for me. That's it. Sometime I want to read a Story in The Free Press of News, but it's just not worth it for me. The Tigers news will get to me eventually. If I miss a story about about how Jackson Jobe's grandma taught him how to throw a curve, then so be it. I subscribe to the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Times of London, Vancouver Sun and the Globe & Mail (Canada national). But I do use them frequently. Most have sweet deals if you threaten to cancel. Quote
gehringer_2 Posted June 9 Posted June 9 (edited) 12 minutes ago, lordstanley said: I subscribe to the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Times of London, Vancouver Sun and the Globe & Mail (Canada national). But I do use them frequently. Most have sweet deals if you threaten to cancel. I have NYT and WaPo via academic subscription which are discounted. NYT now asks me to upgrade on every login (You'll get 'Athletic' access, WooHoo!") so I have to close that dialog every time now. Edited June 9 by gehringer_2 Quote
Tenacious D Posted June 9 Posted June 9 The extent of my reading comprehension and information is fully formed here. Just hope none of you put up a paywall on your significant insights. 3 Quote
SoCalTiger Posted June 9 Posted June 9 14 hours ago, Tenacious D said: I don’t see the Tigers blocking a path for all of the middle infielders coming. And they are going to start having to do what the Lions have—pay their own players. Skubal being the obvious, but at some point you’ll want to lock up Greene, Carp, maybe, Tork. Our payroll could soon climb. I’m not sure we need to sign any of those players for their expensive non controlled free agent seasons. Certainly not at over value. Harris just needs to keep the development wheels moving and pick and choose free agents as needed. Max the six years of team control and move on. Financial flexibility is more important than any one or two players. i really think it’s the Harris blueprint. And most non coastal teams will do the same. Quote
chasfh Posted June 9 Posted June 9 6 hours ago, IdahoBert said: I get it, hardcopy newspapers are going away and they have to be able to pay the bills somehow, but I can’t justify subscribing to even one let alone two Detroit area newspapers online when all I want to do is read an occasional story about the Detroit Tigers. I miss just being able to click on a link. I pay a dollar a month. That’s worth it to me. Quote
gehringer_2 Posted June 9 Posted June 9 (edited) 1 hour ago, SoCalTiger said: I’m not sure we need to sign any of those players for their expensive non controlled free agent seasons. Certainly not at over value. Harris just needs to keep the development wheels moving and pick and choose free agents as needed. Max the six years of team control and move on. Financial flexibility is more important than any one or two players. i really think it’s the Harris blueprint. And most non coastal teams will do the same. The Tigers do have a couple of hundred million to work with, they don't have to let let everyone walk. My strategy would be to try to lure pre or early arb guys into extending just 2 or 3 years past FA with big AAVs. I don't mind giving guys big money for their age ~26-31 seasons. But odds are you are going to be better off letting someone else pay for whatever else they do in their career after that. Maybe you let a guy go who plays to 40 and makes the HOF, but you will have avoided 10 other roster crippling mistakes. A lot of guys won't be amenable, but some will believe they will still have a big payday score remaining. Edited June 9 by gehringer_2 1 Quote
Tenacious D Posted June 9 Posted June 9 Lee and McGonigle will be knocking on the door next season. Combined with Keith and Jung in the middle infielder mix, I don’t see them extending Torres. Both player and team entered into this with the idea that it would be for one season. Could change, but I doubt it. He’s only willing to play one position, which limits his flexibility and is not the type of profile Harris and Hinch love. Quote
IdahoBert Posted June 9 Author Posted June 9 1 hour ago, chasfh said: I pay a dollar a month. That’s worth it to me. I should maybe look into it but my hometown pay per which is a McClatchy paper charges $30 a month. That’s what it will be. It’s not worth it to me. Quote
IdahoBert Posted June 9 Author Posted June 9 The Tigers Have a Problem Behind Home Plate It’s not the catcher, it’s the rows of empty seats visible on all broadcasts for the best team in baseball By Jay Murray The Detroit Tigers are the best team in baseball, and confidence about their team is oozing out of Metro Detroit. “Even when they’re down a run late in a game, I know they’re going to come back and win,” said Jerry Yatooma, a former college baseball player and current coach for Livonia Stevenson High School’s baseball program. But one nagging question has plagued the Tigers through the first 57 games: Why can’t the Tigers fill the seats behind home plate? Burning up the call lines on talk radio and getting considerable engagement on social media is the glaring sight of empty seats directly behind home plate, and within clear view of every Tigers home broadcast. Newly constructed for the 2025 season, the home plate seating mirrors the corporate-tier high ticket box seats most MLB teams now have in their ballparks. The New York Yankees ignited the trend over a decade ago when they installed first-class seating behind home plate and began drawing celebrities to nationally televised games. Most teams followed suit, and prior to this season, the Tigers were one of only three teams without a Home Plate Club seating level. However, the Tigers have seemingly been unable to fill those seats, even for the sacred home opener when the entire downtown was ablaze with excitement and hope that the late 2024 playoff run wasn’t a fluke. I reached out to the team for answers. According to my source—a Detroit Tigers official asking not to be named—the Tigers front office is well aware of the controversy around the empty home plate seats. The team has apparently been less than happy with its coverage—particularly on FM 97.1 The Ticket. My source stated 80% of the Home Plate Club seats have been sold for the season, but the team has run into a secondary issue: The private and all-inclusive dining area for those with Club seating tickets is not yet open. The dining area located behind and under the Home Plate seating area is completed, but not yet operational. Currently, Home Plate Club members must walk up to the concourse to a reserved area located along the right field line, a decent walk. My source assured me the permanent Home Plate Club could open any day and will be operational before the All-Star Break. But the empty seats seen on local and national telecasts is creating embarrassing optics for the team at the top of the league. Acknowledging the the optics of empty seats, my source stated that often-floated immediate fixes—such as allowing young families to sit in the seats on a game-by-game basis—are not feasible. “We can’t hand-pick families or individuals to come down and sit in those seats only to have the club members show up in the fifth or sixth inning and demand their seats back,” the official said. The seats are exorbitantly priced for even upper-middle-class Tigers fans. Seat packages range in price from $10,500 to $40,000, and are sold in quarter-, half-, or full-season packages. Single-game tickets in the Home Plate Club, sold individually at the start of the season, are no longer for sale, according to my source. No explanation for that switch was given. With an eye on charitable giving and public relations, the Detroit Tigers do control an unspecified number of seats in the Home Plate Club they use to seat low-income families, wounded veterans, and other charity groups, and in collaboration with the State of Michigan. My source stated those initiatives will continue and expand in the future. Currently, the bulk of the Home Plate Seats are owned by several unnamed corporations and businesses, but suggestions for how to fill them abound. One possibility floated by multiple Tigers fans I spoke with was putting local celebrities into those seats to draw out the corporate and CEO class for games. The notion assumes that it wouldn’t be hard to induce any number of Detroit Lions, Red Wings, or Pistons into those seats, creating a pull for club members to get their asses into the seats they paid for. Famous Tigers fans span the country and echelons of the upper crust: Jack White, Bob Seger, Kid Rock, Eminem, J.K. Simmons, Tim Allen. Hell, they could even stick Tom Selleck in a Hawaiian shirt and do a Magnum PI night. This can’t be that hard, and our pride over the best team in baseball is on the line. Mark Nold, COO of Ambulatory Anesthesia Solutions headquartered in Metro Detroit, a lifelong Detroiter and Tigers fan from birth, was beyond excited by the team’s recent success. He purchased a suite for himself and close personal friends this season. “When the Tigers are winning, this city is electric,” Nold said. “This could be the year we’ve all been waiting for.” Quote
SoCalTiger Posted June 9 Posted June 9 1 hour ago, gehringer_2 said: The Tigers do have a couple of hundred million to work with, they don't have to let let everyone walk. My strategy would be to try to lure pre or early arb guys into extending just 2 or 3 years past FA with big AAVs. I don't mind giving guys big money for their age ~26-31 seasons. But odds are you are going to be better off letting someone else pay for whatever else they do in their career after that. Maybe you let a guy go who plays to 40 and makes the HOF, but you will have avoided 10 other roster crippling mistakes. A lot of guys won't be amenable, but some will believe they will still have a big payday score remaining. That makes perfect sense and to clarify when I said we don’t need to sign any of them I meant any particular one not all of them. But you clarified better than I did. Quote
gehringer_2 Posted June 9 Posted June 9 39 minutes ago, IdahoBert said: The Tigers Have a Problem Behind Home Plate It’s not the catcher, it’s the rows of empty seats visible on all broadcasts for the best team in baseball By Jay Murray The Detroit Tigers are the best team in baseball, and confidence about their team is oozing out of Metro Detroit. “Even when they’re down a run late in a game, I know they’re going to come back and win,” said Jerry Yatooma, a former college baseball player and current coach for Livonia Stevenson High School’s baseball program. But one nagging question has plagued the Tigers through the first 57 games: Why can’t the Tigers fill the seats behind home plate? Burning up the call lines on talk radio and getting considerable engagement on social media is the glaring sight of empty seats directly behind home plate, and within clear view of every Tigers home broadcast. Newly constructed for the 2025 season, the home plate seating mirrors the corporate-tier high ticket box seats most MLB teams now have in their ballparks. The New York Yankees ignited the trend over a decade ago when they installed first-class seating behind home plate and began drawing celebrities to nationally televised games. Most teams followed suit, and prior to this season, the Tigers were one of only three teams without a Home Plate Club seating level. However, the Tigers have seemingly been unable to fill those seats, even for the sacred home opener when the entire downtown was ablaze with excitement and hope that the late 2024 playoff run wasn’t a fluke. I reached out to the team for answers. According to my source—a Detroit Tigers official asking not to be named—the Tigers front office is well aware of the controversy around the empty home plate seats. The team has apparently been less than happy with its coverage—particularly on FM 97.1 The Ticket. My source stated 80% of the Home Plate Club seats have been sold for the season, but the team has run into a secondary issue: The private and all-inclusive dining area for those with Club seating tickets is not yet open. The dining area located behind and under the Home Plate seating area is completed, but not yet operational. Currently, Home Plate Club members must walk up to the concourse to a reserved area located along the right field line, a decent walk. My source assured me the permanent Home Plate Club could open any day and will be operational before the All-Star Break. But the empty seats seen on local and national telecasts is creating embarrassing optics for the team at the top of the league. Acknowledging the the optics of empty seats, my source stated that often-floated immediate fixes—such as allowing young families to sit in the seats on a game-by-game basis—are not feasible. “We can’t hand-pick families or individuals to come down and sit in those seats only to have the club members show up in the fifth or sixth inning and demand their seats back,” the official said. The seats are exorbitantly priced for even upper-middle-class Tigers fans. Seat packages range in price from $10,500 to $40,000, and are sold in quarter-, half-, or full-season packages. Single-game tickets in the Home Plate Club, sold individually at the start of the season, are no longer for sale, according to my source. No explanation for that switch was given. With an eye on charitable giving and public relations, the Detroit Tigers do control an unspecified number of seats in the Home Plate Club they use to seat low-income families, wounded veterans, and other charity groups, and in collaboration with the State of Michigan. My source stated those initiatives will continue and expand in the future. Currently, the bulk of the Home Plate Seats are owned by several unnamed corporations and businesses, but suggestions for how to fill them abound. One possibility floated by multiple Tigers fans I spoke with was putting local celebrities into those seats to draw out the corporate and CEO class for games. The notion assumes that it wouldn’t be hard to induce any number of Detroit Lions, Red Wings, or Pistons into those seats, creating a pull for club members to get their asses into the seats they paid for. Famous Tigers fans span the country and echelons of the upper crust: Jack White, Bob Seger, Kid Rock, Eminem, J.K. Simmons, Tim Allen. Hell, they could even stick Tom Selleck in a Hawaiian shirt and do a Magnum PI night. This can’t be that hard, and our pride over the best team in baseball is on the line. Mark Nold, COO of Ambulatory Anesthesia Solutions headquartered in Metro Detroit, a lifelong Detroiter and Tigers fan from birth, was beyond excited by the team’s recent success. He purchased a suite for himself and close personal friends this season. “When the Tigers are winning, this city is electric,” Nold said. “This could be the year we’ve all been waiting for.” TL;DR version. They overpriced the seats. 1 Quote
oblong Posted June 9 Posted June 9 42 minutes ago, IdahoBert said: The Tigers Have a Problem Behind Home Plate It’s not the catcher, it’s the rows of empty seats visible on all broadcasts for the best team in baseball By Jay Murray The Detroit Tigers are the best team in baseball, and confidence about their team is oozing out of Metro Detroit. “Even when they’re down a run late in a game, I know they’re going to come back and win,” said Jerry Yatooma, a former college baseball player and current coach for Livonia Stevenson High School’s baseball program. But one nagging question has plagued the Tigers through the first 57 games: Why can’t the Tigers fill the seats behind home plate? Burning up the call lines on talk radio and getting considerable engagement on social media is the glaring sight of empty seats directly behind home plate, and within clear view of every Tigers home broadcast. Newly constructed for the 2025 season, the home plate seating mirrors the corporate-tier high ticket box seats most MLB teams now have in their ballparks. The New York Yankees ignited the trend over a decade ago when they installed first-class seating behind home plate and began drawing celebrities to nationally televised games. Most teams followed suit, and prior to this season, the Tigers were one of only three teams without a Home Plate Club seating level. However, the Tigers have seemingly been unable to fill those seats, even for the sacred home opener when the entire downtown was ablaze with excitement and hope that the late 2024 playoff run wasn’t a fluke. I reached out to the team for answers. According to my source—a Detroit Tigers official asking not to be named—the Tigers front office is well aware of the controversy around the empty home plate seats. The team has apparently been less than happy with its coverage—particularly on FM 97.1 The Ticket. My source stated 80% of the Home Plate Club seats have been sold for the season, but the team has run into a secondary issue: The private and all-inclusive dining area for those with Club seating tickets is not yet open. The dining area located behind and under the Home Plate seating area is completed, but not yet operational. Currently, Home Plate Club members must walk up to the concourse to a reserved area located along the right field line, a decent walk. My source assured me the permanent Home Plate Club could open any day and will be operational before the All-Star Break. But the empty seats seen on local and national telecasts is creating embarrassing optics for the team at the top of the league. Acknowledging the the optics of empty seats, my source stated that often-floated immediate fixes—such as allowing young families to sit in the seats on a game-by-game basis—are not feasible. “We can’t hand-pick families or individuals to come down and sit in those seats only to have the club members show up in the fifth or sixth inning and demand their seats back,” the official said. The seats are exorbitantly priced for even upper-middle-class Tigers fans. Seat packages range in price from $10,500 to $40,000, and are sold in quarter-, half-, or full-season packages. Single-game tickets in the Home Plate Club, sold individually at the start of the season, are no longer for sale, according to my source. No explanation for that switch was given. With an eye on charitable giving and public relations, the Detroit Tigers do control an unspecified number of seats in the Home Plate Club they use to seat low-income families, wounded veterans, and other charity groups, and in collaboration with the State of Michigan. My source stated those initiatives will continue and expand in the future. Currently, the bulk of the Home Plate Seats are owned by several unnamed corporations and businesses, but suggestions for how to fill them abound. One possibility floated by multiple Tigers fans I spoke with was putting local celebrities into those seats to draw out the corporate and CEO class for games. The notion assumes that it wouldn’t be hard to induce any number of Detroit Lions, Red Wings, or Pistons into those seats, creating a pull for club members to get their asses into the seats they paid for. Famous Tigers fans span the country and echelons of the upper crust: Jack White, Bob Seger, Kid Rock, Eminem, J.K. Simmons, Tim Allen. Hell, they could even stick Tom Selleck in a Hawaiian shirt and do a Magnum PI night. This can’t be that hard, and our pride over the best team in baseball is on the line. Mark Nold, COO of Ambulatory Anesthesia Solutions headquartered in Metro Detroit, a lifelong Detroiter and Tigers fan from birth, was beyond excited by the team’s recent success. He purchased a suite for himself and close personal friends this season. “When the Tigers are winning, this city is electric,” Nold said. “This could be the year we’ve all been waiting for.” I’m so tired of seeing people complaint about that. Ryan Ermani had been a leader of that. Every stadium with those premium seats has this “problem”. I watch the players. Not the audience. It’s such a non issue. The seats are sold. People are getting what they paid for. It hurts no one if they aren’t sitting there. Get off social media Karen. 1 Quote
oblong Posted June 9 Posted June 9 It’s why I hate talk radio and podcasters. these morons need something to talk about. Quote
IdahoBert Posted June 9 Author Posted June 9 9 minutes ago, oblong said: It’s why I hate talk radio and podcasters. these morons need something to talk about. They are people worried about optics because they themselves are kind of shallow and in search of things to gab about. It’s hard to believe, though, that this is cause for any serious consternation. I think it’s interesting that 80% of the seats are sold, and most of them are sold to corporations. I’m curious as to why they’re not selling single seat tickets probably because people complained that the amenities they were paying for are not available which is a fair complaint. Quote
gehringer_2 Posted June 9 Posted June 9 (edited) 10 minutes ago, oblong said: It’s why I hate talk radio and podcasters. these morons need something to talk about. I only half agree. I think it does look pretty terrible when you have a sold out venue and the best seats in the house are sitting empty because some corp or high roller did show or is isn't interested enough in the game to watch. That's what lux boxes are for, the camera doesn't have to look at them. To me it's just another drip, drip of the social rot we live with. The rich waste stuff other people would love to use but we can't have that. Sure, its been the human condition since the Pharoahs but my baseball team doesn't have to rub my nose in it for 9 innings every night. Edited June 9 by gehringer_2 3 Quote
IdahoBert Posted June 9 Author Posted June 9 4 minutes ago, Tenacious D said: Is this good? Even Keith Law doesn’t hate us anymore or so I’ve heard it rumored. Quote
lordstanley Posted June 9 Posted June 9 1 hour ago, oblong said: I’m so tired of seeing people complaint about that. Ryan Ermani had been a leader of that. Every stadium with those premium seats has this “problem”. I watch the players. Not the audience. It’s such a non issue. The seats are sold. People are getting what they paid for. It hurts no one if they aren’t sitting there. Get off social media Karen. I don’t like the empty seats behind home plate. Empty expensive seats are normal in hockey and basketball but are usually outside my line of sights or on the fringes of it when I’m watching a game on tv. For Tigers home games I do think they are an eyesore on every pitch. But I don’t think the empty seats mean that the Tigers aren’t popular or are out of touch with the fanbase though. Quote
Sports_Freak Posted June 9 Posted June 9 1 hour ago, gehringer_2 said: I only half agree. I think it does look pretty terrible when you have a sold out venue and the best seats in the house are sitting empty because some corp or high roller did show or is isn't interested enough in the game to watch. That's what lux boxes are for, the camera doesn't have to look at them. To me it's just another drip, drip of the social rot we live with. The rich waste stuff other people would love to use but we can't have that. Sure, its been the human condition since the Pharoahs but my baseball team doesn't have to rub my nose in it for 9 innings every night. Or when you see people sitting behind home plate on their phones when exciting action is happening. Daddy's tickets so "I don't really care." A baseball game to some of these people is just a social event to bee seen at. Quote
Toddwert Posted June 9 Posted June 9 47 minutes ago, Sports_Freak said: Or when you see people sitting behind home plate on their phones when exciting action is happening. Daddy's tickets so "I don't really care." A baseball game to some of these people is just a social event to bee seen at. thats why i dislike the home opener.. it isnt about baseball 2 Quote
gehringer_2 Posted June 9 Posted June 9 (edited) On 6/7/2025 at 2:26 PM, chasfh said: So, I am dubious about the idea that players are on balance worse today than 60 years ago due to dilution through more opportunities to play big league ball. I'd bet an team of the very best bench and back of the rotation/bullpen players from 2025 could be very competitive over 1,000 games versus actual All-Star teams from 1965. No way to know that for sure, of course. I don't think players aren't better today, but that is a slightly different question than whether the pool is bigger. A smaller pool could still produce the same or a even larger number of players because of training, tech, more effective scouting within the pool etc. At any rate, that said, what are the numbers? The population of Central America, the Carribean, Mexico and Venezuela together is a bit more than the US, so if you take a starting date - say 1960, with a US pop of 180M which has grown to now to 340M and assume the utilization rate of boys in the US is down even by 50% (which I would not doubt for a minute), but that the utilization rate of ~380M Latin players has at least doubled, you've added 190 million in Latin America, and gone from 180 to half of 340 million= 170 million, I'd say it;s probable that MLB is still easily ahead of the game - without even considering Asia. Edited June 9 by gehringer_2 Quote
oblong Posted June 9 Posted June 9 2 hours ago, gehringer_2 said: I only half agree. I think it does look pretty terrible when you have a sold out venue and the best seats in the house are sitting empty because some corp or high roller did show or is isn't interested enough in the game to watch. That's what lux boxes are for, the camera doesn't have to look at them. To me it's just another drip, drip of the social rot we live with. The rich waste stuff other people would love to use but we can't have that. Sure, its been the human condition since the Pharoahs but my baseball team doesn't have to rub my nose in it for 9 innings every night. That’s not a problem exclusive to the Tigers. Part of the appeal of the seats is their location. I saw empty seats behind the plate in the same seats in the Yankee/Sox series this weekend. It does absolutely nothing for me as a fan if there’s people there or not. The stadium is sold out. It doesn’t make the team play better. We can’t teleport our energy and joy thru the TV to them. The players couldn’t care if people are there or not. Quote
gehringer_2 Posted Monday at 11:36 PM Posted Monday at 11:36 PM 3 minutes ago, oblong said: That’s not a problem exclusive to the Tigers. This is true. It just goes to show the drive to grub for the last $ since before the Tigers set those seats up they had the example of them being half empty during play in other stadia, so the despite their protestations about whatever isn't ready, they had to have anticipated what it was going to look like and they didn't care. So if Valenti et al want to hammer them, they can't say they shouldn't have expected it. Quote
oblong Posted Monday at 11:48 PM Posted Monday at 11:48 PM 1 hour ago, Sports_Freak said: Or when you see people sitting behind home plate on their phones when exciting action is happening. Daddy's tickets so "I don't really care." A baseball game to some of these people is just a social event to bee seen at. They are being good fans and placing bets. I mean the Tigers literally promote a prop bet midway thru the game on the scoreboard 1 Quote
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