[BiffTFinancial]

http://www.cleveland.com/tribe/index..._story_package

the gist is, some Tribe fan drove "all the way to Detroit" and the team lost and he took to twitter to bash the team, tying attendance to record (to which Kipnis responded, and all manner of social media spazzing ensued).

Tom Horsman @TomHorsman Follow And we wonder why only 9,000 people show up to Indians game in September. This team is pathetic. @Indians @TheJK_Kid

Boy, was he off-base:

Team	Attendance	Wins	Attendance/Win
LA Dodgers	3,487,962	84	41,523
St. Louis	3,225,241	82	39,332
NY Yankees	3,058,366	76	40,242
San Francisco	3,160,755	82	38,546
LA Angels	2,809,008	93	30,204
Boston	2,736,561	65	42,101
Detroit	2,629,472	82	32,067
Milwaukee	2,640,357	77	34,290
Texas	2,469,781	56	44,103
Colorado	2,473,852	59	41,930
Chicago Cubs	2,326,480	65	35,792
Washington	2,358,883	84	28,082
Cincinnati	2,291,197	71	32,270
Baltimore	2,202,208	88	25,025
Toronto	2,170,129	77	28,183
Philadelphia	2,288,687	69	33,169
Pittsburgh	2,182,913	78	27,986
Atlanta	2,072,548	75	27,634
Minnesota	2,024,470	62	32,653
San Diego	1,918,247	68	28,210
NY Mets	1,951,222	72	27,100
Arizona	1,867,890	60	31,132
Seattle	1,935,005	80	24,188
Oakland	1,775,616	82	21,654
Kansas City	1,709,458	81	21,104
Houston	1,585,595	65	24,394
Miami	1,584,950	71	22,323
Chicago White Sox	1,516,348	68	22,299
Cleveland	1,323,848	76	17,419
Tampa Bay	1,322,047	76	17,395

Only the Rays provide their faithful with more overall wins (and arguably, effort) per ticket sold, and no one else is even in the neighborhood, so this argument is simply silly. This Tribe team is not perfect, and certainly you could criticize certain aspects, but to blame attendance upon performance is sheer lunacy. Questioning their effort isn't much better. This team is playing meaningful games in mid-September. Isn't that the point?