Cleveland Indians hottest team in baseball, yet remain last in attendance May 19, 2013 By AJ Kaufman 6 Comments There’s a scene in Major League where Bob Uecker, portraying the radio voice of the Indians, bemoans, “In case you haven’t noticed, and judging by the attendance you haven’t, the Indians have managed to win a few here and there, and are threatening to climb out of the cellar.” Well, that was nearly 25 years ago and fictional, but today’s reality is that Cleveland has won 17 of its last 21, and currently tops the AL Central with a mark of 25-17. No one in the majors is better than the Indians in the past month (20-7). That’s great news. The bad news, however, is the Tribe somehow remain in the MLB cellar when it comes to attendance. How can this be? The fact that I wrote on this same topic almost to the day last year – when only Tampa Bay drew fewer fans than Cleveland - may be even more troubling. Though roughly 34,000 watched a walk-off win Friday night against Seattle, perfect weather and free caps weren’t enough to draw more than 36,000 Saturday and Sunday combined. What did the Indians do in those tilts? They nabbed another walk-off win on Saturday, then the Indians crushed the great Felix Hernandez Sunday behind Justin Masterson, arguably the AL’s best pitcher right now. Fun fact: The Indians have already faced eight Cy Young Award winners in 2013: Bartolo Colon, R.A. Dickey, Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, Jake Peavy, David Price, Justin Verlander and Hernandez. They have won seven out those eight matchups. Simply astounding. This offseason, the much-maligned Indians front office finally made a legitimate attempt to improve the team through free agency. I’m not talking an Ubaldo Jimenez-like trade, but rather smart acquisitions that brought veterans Mike Aviles, Michael Bourn, Jason Giambi, Scott Kazmir, Brett Myers, Mark Reynolds, Drew Stubbs and Nick Swisher to Cleveland. In addition to being a fantastic place to watch a game due to great egress and ingress, with extremely affordable tickets, the best promo lineup anywhere, Jacobs Field boasts overall, cooler, less muggy summer weather than most Midwestern locales. The team also lowered beer and hot dog prices to $4 and $3 respectively. What other professional stadium in any sport offers that? I have visited 28 of the 30 current Major League Baseball stadia, and few top The Jake when all angles are considered. I say that as a baseball fan, not an Indians fan. As for the putative “economic” angle, these are the same people who spend insane amounts of money to watch terrible football every fall and show up in decent numbers for putrid basketball in the winter. Irrespective of season length, those sports charge up to 10 times the price for a ticket, and the atmosphere isn’t half as fan-friendly as baseball. I understand fans’ lack of willingness to get on board to some degree. A decent recap of Cleveland’s decade of “rebuilding” can be read here and the team suffered a horrific collapse last August. However, in addition to all the benefits of attending games at Jacobs (now Progressive) Field, fans should also realize the team has potential and often exceeds preseason aspirations at any point without warning. Cleveland hosts the rival Detroit Tigers — heavy favorites to repeat as AL Central champs — Tuesday and Wednesday nights before hitting the road. The temperature should be pleasant at first pitch each evening so you’d expect The Jake to be full to watch the best hitter on the planet right now — but don’t count on it.

NEW YORK — With the Bruins a win away from the Eastern Conference finals, they hope to have a better focus than they did the last time they got their third win. The B’s let the Maple Leafs come back from a 3-1 deficit last round to nearly eliminate them, so they weren’t getting too far ahead of themselves after their 2-1 Game 3 win.

“We’ve had the experience, but we’ve also had a tough time closing out teams and we know they’re going to be tough to play against in Game 4,” Shawn Thornton said. “Their backs are against the wall, so that’s usually when you see the most desperate of teams. I think we’re going to have to be ready for that again.”

Though the Bruins have a 3-0 series lead, Games 1 and 3 could have gone either way. If a few bounces went the Rangers’ way this series could be much closer, and the B’s aren’t forgetting it.

“Every game is a tough game,” Zdeno Chara said. “Sometimes the scores aren’t always showing how close the games are.”

Game 4 will be played Thursday at Madison Square Garden.

“We know it’s going to be a tough one,” Patrice Bergeron said. “It’s always a tough win to get, is the last one. We have one day to regroup and we need to make sure we’re ready for Game 4. We know the Rangers are a team that’s not going to give up, so it’s about making sure we’re ready for that game.”

For more on the Bruins, visit weei.com/bruins.

In the wake of a 2-1 win in Game 3 that leaves them one win from the Eastern Conference finals, Bruins coach Claude Julien says he can sense his team has found its groove.

“We’re a very focused group right now and the challenge is to stay there.” Julien said. “After the second period, we’re playing a good road period. I thought with a couple of breaks in the first period, we could’ve been ahead. We didn’t care if we had to go to overtime, we just wanted to get that first goal.

“There’s no doubt. I don’t only see it on the ice, I feel it in the dressing room everywhere else. The Jekyll and Hyde thing I haven’t seen since midway through the Toronto series.”

Since falling behind 4-1 with 11 minutes left in the third period of Game 7 against Toronto, the Bruins have outscored the competition, 14-3, while winning four straight games.

The Bruins also handed New York its first home ice loss of the playoffs after they won Games 3, 4 and 6 on Madison Square Garden ice in the first round against Washington.

“You have to be proud of your team,” Julien said. “[Playing] a Rangers team that hadn’t lost here in a long time, playing well here in the playoffs. We had to be better. We’re playing well and eventually get that goal and it came.”

In the wake of Boston’s 2-1 win in Game 3, a win that puts them one win from the Eastern Conference finals, here are some postgame notes of interest, courtesy of the Bruins:

• The Bruins now have a 19-10 lifetime record in game threes of best-of-seven series in which they won the first two games.
• They are 17-1 lifetime when leading a best-of-seven series 3-0 and they are 13-5 lifetime in game fours when leading a best-of-
seven series 3-0 following game three.
• The Rangers now have an 11-13 lifetime record in game threes of best-of-seven series in which they lost the series opening
two games.
• They are 0-10 lifetime when trailing a best-of-seven series 0-3 and they are 4-6 lifetime in game fours when trailing a best-of-
seven series 0-3 following game three.

WHO’S HOT:
• Daniel Paille had a goal and an assist tonight for his second career multiple-point playoff game.
• Shawn Thornton had two assists tonight for his first career multiple-point playoff game.
• Johnny Boychuk had a goal tonight for the second straight game … He now has four goals this post-season after tallying just
once during the regular season (Jan. 19 vs. the Rangers on his birthday) and is tied with Nathan Horton for second on the team
in playoff goals.
• New York’s Ryan McDonagh had an assist tonight, giving him 1-1=2 totals in two of his last three games.

FUN FACTS:
• Daniel Paille and Shawn Thornton both had multiple-point games tonight … They are the seventh and eighth multiple-point games by seven different Bruins in this series (Marchand, two; Chara, Bergeron, Krejci, Krug, Paille and Thornton, one each).
• Johnny Boychuk scored Boston’s goal tonight and the Bruins have now gotten 11 of their 30 points (5 goals and 6 assists) in this series thus far from their blueline, including five of their ten goals.
• All three games of this series have now been tied after the first period, including scoreless deadlocks entering the second period in two of the three games games of this CSF.

SPECIAL TEAMS:
• The Bruins did not have a power play opportunity tonight and they are 4 for 25 on the power play in this post-season (16.0%) … They finished the regular season ranked 25th in the NHL at 18 for 122 on the power play (14.8%) and they allowed two shorthanded goals.
• The Rangers went 0 for 2 (0.0%) on the power play tonight and they are now 2 for 38 on the power play in this post-season (5.3%) … They finished the regular season ranked 23rd in the NHL at 24 for 153 on the power play (15.7%) and they allowed four shorthanded goals.
• The Bruins went 2 for 2 (100.0%) on the penalty kill tonight and they are now 26 for 31 on the penalty kill this post-season (83.9%) … They finished the regular season ranked 4th in the NHL at 142 for 163 overall on the penalty kill (87.1%) and they scored five shorthanded goals.
• The Rangers did not have to kill a penalty tonight and they are 17 for 21 on the penalty kill this post-season (81.0%) … They fin- ished the regular season ranked 15th in the NHL at 120 for 148 on the penalty kill (81.1%) and they scored five shorthanded goals.

FIRST GOAL OF GAME:
• The Rangers scored the first goal of the game tonight when Taylor Pyatt scored at 3:53 of the second period … It was the first time this series that the Rangers have tallied the first goal of a game.
• The Bruins are now 3-2 this post-season when allowing the first goal of the game … They finished the regular season with a 9-10-3 record when allowing the first goal of the game.
• The Rangers are now 3-3 this post-season when scoring the first goal of the game … They finished the regular season with a 18-2-1 record when the first goal of the game.