Not on track

Call me critical, call me quick to jump the gun, but with just two games under my belt this season, I'm not convinced the Connecticut Tigers are doing things very well.

I give them a A+ for effort and a C+ on execution.

Monday night was Military Appreciation Night and barely 1,100 fans attended. By one online account, there were 7,200 fans for the same promotion a year ago. Yes, I know Dodd Stadium holds fewer people than that, but I'm willing to bet it was as close to a sellout you'll see. Minor League Baseball's website, which holds the official box score says 7,163 fans.

Why were there fewer people at Dodd on Monday? My initial reason is that this promotion was poorly scheduled.

History shows that weekday attendance is much lower than weekend attendance. So if you move a popular event from, say, Saturday to a Monday, you boost your weekday draw. There's another Military Appreciation Night in August. On a Thursday.

I think the saying goes, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Just because the Navigators/Defenders didn't succeed, it doesn't mean everything they did was a failure.

This is an example of the Tigers over thinking.

Or maybe I'm wrong. Maybe the team's rather weak promotion schedule. I mean, if I have to use getting dressed up for Halloween in the August heat as an excuse, I probably shouldn't be going to a game.

In all fairness to the Tigers, they are trying -- hard. And I think the late start (thanks, Minor and Major League Baseball) has made this tougher than it should be. Plus, the team isn't getting to work off of revenue from last year to help them with promotions. Heck, the team moved from Oneonta, N.Y., where no one attended games. It's about as tough a spot to be in.

Here's the bigger issue: No one is going to Tigers games. They are in the bottom four of the New York Penn League in attendance, the weather is good and school is out. So what's the excuse?

Maybe, just maybe, no one cares. In that case, the city, the few loyal fans, the NYP League and the Tigers ownership wasted a lot of time and money.

I believe this team will do better. Shoot, it plays at home nearly every day in August. But something's got to be done.