I think I was at the worst promotion ever last night at Jacobs Field. Gale and I attended the remake of the Opening Day snowout last night against Seattle. The Indians tried to bring up all the snow references once again and it was pretty obvious the fans really did not want to participate.

Paid crowd was about 38,000. The PD estimated 10,000, a planted number from the Indians front office. Our estimate was about 4,000, the emptiest I've seen the place for a scheduled game. There may have been worse crowds by attrition during a game affected by weather or lateness, but that was awful.

Some of the wintry things they tried: an ice sculpture, fake snow falling above the entrance, 20,000 coupons good for 10 days for a McFlurry, complimentary sno-cones. Abysmal marketing efforts included many game replays from Opening Day, a game that still doesn't count, remember? The worst part was the giveaways. Clearly the Indians were understaffed, therefore camera positions were at a premium. The first four prizes of ski trips and snowblowers were awarded to bleacher fans. The next was in 102, the next in 117. Our side of the field got nothing, as did much of the lower box area. The final insult was the daily Pizza Pan promotion which was held in the Club Seats, oddly enough where the next prize winner was seated only a few rows below those winners. Obviously, a camera needed to be there for both prizes, so they rigged it where fans get free pizza in a section where they already get free food and they decided while they were there to give away a snowblower. Or vice versa. Listen, I'm not bitter I didn't win, but tell me beforehand it that it's not random and things are decided by how easy it is on the staff. I can live with that, as long as I am told.

BTW, the Tribe won again.

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Those whales just love all that attention.























"Why couldn't you have made me an architect? You know I always wanted to pretend that I was an architect."

Some revisionist history going on here, as 40 albums reviewed by Rolling Stone get corrected. Props for Beck and a Devo album I bought at (ahem) Zayre's.

Web domains can make you rich. Ask this guy.

Exercise Yard

The Cavs lost last night in Game 1 of the conference finals. I was only able to see the last 14 minutes of the game. First shock was LeBron had only 4 points at the time, and Chauncey Billups from Detroit was not scoring either. But Rip Hamilton was.

Our guards shot 8-35 in the game. So, why is LeBron intent on making a game-winning assist, instead of a game-winning shot? I can't fathom why he did not take the last shot last night, relying on one of the Cavs most inconsistent shooters, Donyell Marshall, to win.

The disappointing part is that it was a winnable game. Especially for as badly as they played. It would have been nice to steal that one. The Cavs had the better fast break points, inside game, and look at Jason Maxiell's line in the box score. He does absolutely nothing for the Pistons in 13 minutes of play, except he somehow grabbed the biggest rebound in the game. That was tough to take.

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