Mark McGuire is an idiot- Not the guy you are thinking off

This fool of a writer from the Albany Times Union wrote a piece about minor league baseball in the Capital Region. He basically thinks that Albany could never handle a league outside of Single-A baseball because of the weather and the fact people here apparently wouldn't be interested in going to a game in April or May.

As my friend Mike told me today, for a group of people that keep saying there isn't much interest for minor league baseball in the area, the topic of Albany having a higher level team is something that is brought up every year by the media and others from the area.

In his article, he states that:

"How great would it be to get full-season baseball back here?

Not much.

The thing is, the Capital Region sports fan does not have the attention span -- nor, in the case of baseball, cooperation from Mother Nature -- to support a team over anything longer than a relatively short-season basis."

Yeah, because the area of Syracuse doesnt have a triple A team. Or Rochester. Or other areas in the state of New York. I am pretty sure the weather in those areas is just as unpleasant as the weather in Albany. While attendance is obviously not at its peak during these months, I would bet that more people would show up to AA or AAA game than the college games that are currently being played at Joe Bruno Stadium.

The whole concept of the Single-A Astros is such a joke, especially for the area of Albany. The focus is on the 13 mascots they have running around the field rather than on the actual game being played. It is for kids and the casual fan but not for the fans that actual enjoy watching baseball and like following stats and the players on hand. I personally have very little interest in following a low-level class of Single-A Astros players. I would assume most of the players that are destined for the major leagues are part of the Single A team that plays more than 76 games.

I know I go on this tangent entirely too much, but this article touched a nerve and had me starting again.

This intelligent man also states that:

"For the most part this is a college/major league sports town. Yes, the fans are there in terms of knowledge and passion for the game. But when it comes to baseball, the local team is viewed solely as something to see, not to follow. The same goes for the Albany River Rats, and even the (likely late) Albany Patroons. Most fans would be pressed to name their league, let alone where they sit in the standings."

What is this research based on? People who followed baseball when we had the Yankees weren't just going to the games to "follow." If that is the case, I would like to see the interviews or reasoning for that statement. I am sure there were a great deal of people who were following the stats as they knew these guys had the potential to actual make it big, as was the case of Derek Jeter, Al Leiter, Bernie Williams, Jorge Posada, etc. You can base your assumptions of this on the Valley-Cats, as what fan in their right mind is actually going to these games to follow the team? Well clearly this example is very few. But don't generalize and say this was the case for the Yankees.

Check your facts dude, because when this team was here, they were drawing record crowds. And this was during a time period in which baseball wasn't at the peak in which it is now. The reason the A/C Yankees failed was because the city did not put any money into the team and the field was crappy. It also didn't help that there was a constant debate as to whether or not the team was going to stay in the Capital Region. Whenever you add a degree of uncertainty, the people stop coming.Plus, the fall came in 1994 and most baseball fans know what was going on during that time period for the game of baseball.

It's not a hard concept, I don't understand what people don't get. It just sucks when you want to see a baseball game on a nice day and the only option you have is to travel 3 hours to the Bronx or 2 hours to Syracuse. Even if I cared for the Tri-City Valley Cats, their seasons doesn't begin until the end of June. What is a baseball fan supposed to do until then?