CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Guardians are the hottest team in baseball, playing at times in front of some of the coldest fans.
Tuesday night's win over the Red Sox came in front of a crowd of just over 13,500, but the number of fans who stuck around to the end to see the late-game comeback win was much smaller.
"It is April and it's April in Cleveland so we're always prepared for anything," said Guardians Vice President Curtis Danburg.
Yes, April, we know, can give us snow like we saw in 2007 when the entire opening weekend was snowed out or the picture-perfect backdrop of the opening day eclipse a few weeks ago.
"But we've paid for that this home stand it's going to feel like football weather tonight so dress warm to come down to the ballpark but we're playing well and it's still fun to be at the ballpark," Danburg said.
Witnessing those Guardian wins through 10 home games this year has been an average of just over 20,500 fans; if you remove the opening day sellout, that drops to an average of 18,862. Still much better than past bad weather in April, like 2019, when a brutal month dropped that number below 15,000 a game.
Still, Dave Norman of Medina said to bundle up and turn out because the team needs the energy of fans in the stands.
"I think it gets in there head because if there's not the support, you need the support, without support what have we got," Norman said.
Mumuni Salifu, though, disagrees. He said for the players at this level, "this is relative, if the players are ready to play, no matter how the fans are, whether big or large, they'll be able to deliver."
Jessica Petsock of Cleveland tells us she's been to most of the home games this season. So, how tough is the April weather?
"I mean if you're from here you get used to it. There is no bad weather, there's only bad clothes," she said. "And we only postponed one game there was the one in the Yankees series and we made it up the next day."
Jessica has the ballpark pass that gives her standing-room access to all home games in a month for just $49, which she said is actually more economical than watching it at home on TV.
"It's cheaper to get the ballpark pass than to pay for a FUBO subscription for a month," she said.
Oh, and if you're looking ahead to May, Danburg said they just released a limited number of additional Ballpark passes Wednesday, given the way the team's playing.
"We expect them to go very fast for the month of May," he said reminding fans Thursday's weather is looking much better for the afternoon finale with the Red Sox.
"Our fans love day games, weekday day games so with us playing at 1:10 p.m. Thursday we're expecting a good crowd and good to see the temperature's in the 50s."
