Indians Make Rays Look Great

If there's a silver lining in the Rays' uninspiring 2011 attendance numbers so far, it's that the Indians make them look great.

Not only does the Tribe sport a 22-11 record, but its paltry 14,275 attendance average is several thousand behind the Rays for 29th place. Weather has been a factor in Cleveland this year, but remember, fans there once filled Jacobs Field for 455 straight games.

Hard to blame the economy, either, when the NBA's second-worst team, the Cavs, was the third-best draw in the league. They averaged 20,112 fans per game without LeBron James.

Maybe Cleveland fans are protesting Charlie Sheen's ties to the Indians' franchise. Maybe they'd rather watch Anderson Varejao's hair or Baron Davis' beard than a winning team. Maybe the whole city is just a glutton for punishment (insert Cleveland joke here).

Whatever the reason is, don't expect a huge bump in the Indians' attendance numbers this week - the Rays are visiting Tuesday through Thursday.

Replay May Not Have Overturned Joyce's Imperfect Call on Galarraga

Chew on this. Even if MLB had instant replay, the controversial call in this week's Tigers-Indians game may not have been overturned.

Umpire Jim Joyce made a number of refreshing teary-eyed apologies after what appeared to be a very bad call, costing Detroit's Armando Galarraga the first perfect game in franchise history. Joyce thought Jason Donald beat Miguel Cabrera's throw to first. He didn't.

But I'm not so sure if umps had the ability to go to a replay booth if they would have overturned the call. Why? Galarraga appears to have bobbled the ball as he tagged first base.

Judge for yourself here (go to the 1:10 mark):
(Sorry, link removed!)
Now, I'm not saying Donald was definitely safe. But he wasn't definitely out. And if umps went to replay to see who got to the base first, they may have discovered a bobble they hadn't noticed before.