It’s hard to truly gauge crowd noise from the TV broadcast. TBS, for example, is notorious for over-amplifying the crowd via some unique mic placement (they did it with the Braves for years and still do it now that they broadcast national games). At the same time, the Indians broadcasts I watch most nights during the summer seem unnaturally quiet compared to the way I know that ballpark sounds in person.
But despite the vagaries of technology, it’s been pretty obvious how quiet Yankee Stadium was during the first two games of the Series (where is this guy?). Buck and McCarver talked about it at length last night, and today FOX’s Ken Rosenthal gets the Phillies’ take on it:
Thank goodness the World Series is leaving New York so we can get a little atmosphere.
“Our ballpark is so loud and rowdy, I was really expecting some of that here,” Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins said. “It was very tame and civil.”
…From mystique and aura to tame and civil. What has the Bronx come to?
“Expensive tickets running loud people out,” Rollins said, referring to the high prices at the new Yankee Stadium . . .I asked the three Phillies outfielders in Game 1 — Ben Francisco, Shane Victorino and Jayson Werth — if they had heard any abuse from the fans.
“Crickets,” one of the outfielders said, and I don’t even know why I am granting him anonymity; it’s not like revealing his identity would put him in any danger.
I’ve certainly noticed the price-the-passionate-fans-out effect in other venues. Ohio State basketball games used to be raucous before they moved into a big plush and expensive arena a decade ago. Almost every new NFL stadium has rendered the previous roar of the home crowd a murmur.
But the Stadium has been loud at times this postseason, so I’m not willing to totally chalk it up to the richies taking over. There may be some of that — especially considering that the ultra-richies probably buy tickets from the mere super richies for the World Series — but I think the dominating performance by Lee in Game 1 and the stronger than expected outing from Pedro last night had a lot more to do with it. There has yet to be an instance in either game where Yankees fans had justification to go crazy so, not surprisingly, they haven’t gone crazy.
All of that said, I expect Philly to be positively insane tomorrow night. I mean, even if nothing exciting happens on the field, the roar of Philly fans yelling about how no one believes in them will be deafening enough on its own.
