This past weekend I ventured to Cleveland to watch the Orioles play the Indians at Progressive Field for two games. Let me cut to the chase right off the bat: if you're looking to do a road series, go to Cleveland. Progressive Field (formerly Jacobs Field or "the Jake") is a beautiful ballpark, and a great place to see a game. As we've heard over the years, the design was based on Oriole Park at Camden Yards, so while it's also starkly different there's a touch of home in seeing a game there.
The park is located in a similar area as Oriole Park (although Cleveland's a bit more rundown), but speaking for myself it feels a bit more "neighborhoodish" than Oriole Park. Many of the sightlines in the ballpark are almost identical to Camden Yards, which allowed me to sit in a similar location to my normal perch in section 17. The issue that the Indians have is their attendance. The Orioles have some games that are sparsely attended; the Indians have huge attendance problems. On Saturday they had an announced crowd of 10K plus, and 13K plus on Sunday. The Orioles generally have some crowds like that during the week, but they don't draw poorly on weekends. There are plenty of bars right near the Jake, but nobody appears to pregame/postgame at any of them. I ducked into one of those places after Saturday's game, and it was almost empty.
After the above-mentioned attenance issues, this is going to sound funny; Cleveland has great fans. I was incredibly humbled by the throngs of people that had so much respect and admiration for the Orioles' history and traditions. I must have heard the name Brooks Robinson at least nine or ten times. These people are true baseball fans, much like the Camden faithful. And unlike many fan bases on the east coast (including Baltimore), Cleveland fans don't appear to get in your face if you're wearing opposing colors. As I said, all of the people with whom I spoke had a huge amount of admiration for the Orioles. Their attendance is a problem, but that has more to do with economic conditions in the area than the team. Most of the fans are still a bit skeptical about their team's start, but many people can't afford to go to that many games any longer.
As for the series itself, the Orioles need to get their act together. And I have no doubt that they will because they're took talented to keep flailing their bats at bad pitches. Incidentally, some of those called third strikes on the Orioles were so far outside that Oriole batters would have needed lacrosse sticks to reach them. As a result, they kind of had to swing early and often; Cleveland pitchers seemed to take advantage of that. If the O's can just win one game they'll be okay. The losing streak is now at seven; when it gets to that point it kind of takes on a life of it's own. Once they get that stopgap win, they can get back to the fundamentals of playing the game. Thank you for your hospitality Cleveland!
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