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Rick Dorsey is a staff writer for The Augusta Chronicle.File Photo

Interleague play gets fans back in stands

Web posted June 7, 1998

By Rick Dorsey
Columnist

We all know that the way to a baseball owner's heart is through his wallet.

That's why the idea of interleague play, an invention whose re-appearance this weekend has been met with a dose of intrigue and indifference, can be such a vital cog in restoring baseball to its proper place in the sports world.

Interleague play is different, and with the baseball status quo failing to create the buzz among the populace, it needs all the different ideas it can muster.

Make no mistake. Baseball remains in trouble.

The owners can claim that attendance is up percentage points throughout the game, but truth cannot always be read in the numbers.

For the first two months, baseball can thank Phoenix and Tampa Bay, the game's newest outposts, for the turnstiles turning. Remove the expansion teams -- first and 11th respectively in attendance -- and the numbers are basically the same as they were a year ago, and a concerning 11 percent behind the 1994 season pace.

You remember 1994, don't you. That's when the Great Depression began, caused by a disastrous player strike and a morbid canceling of the World Series. The scar on our chest is as fresh as the one on John Smoltz's elbow.

For example: The Oakland A's, last in attendance a year ago, had their season's average drop from 15,965 to 12,219 by week's end.

In Montreal, where the roof at Olympic Stadium has been removed for the season, the apparent sunshine hasn't helped ticket sales. They've dropped nearly 50 percent, from 18,489 to 10,363 per game.

The White Sox, Tigers, Twins, Royals, Brewers and Pirates can't outdraw a local basketball game, as these six average less than 17,000 a night. The Reds, Phillies and Mets average less than 21,000, though Shea should see greater numbers with Mike Piazza and Hideo Nomo coming to Queens.

Baseball is in trouble, save for the usual suspects in Atlanta, Baltimore, Los Angeles, St. Louis, Cleveland and Boston.

On the first night of American and National league teams confronting each other, interleague play batted .500, with seven of the 14 games played in front of crowds better than 75 percent capacity.

This tells me that where the matchups are intriguing, where state or city pride is in question, where the baseball is played at a non-Florida Marlins level, fans will clamor back.

Baltimore's Camden Yards invited its second-largest crowd ever, that's right EVER!, for Saturday's day game with the Braves. Fenway Park sold out its weekend set with the Mets, while in Cincinnati, a haven for empty seats burning under the scorching sun, more than 45,000 visited Saturday as Cleveland trekked in.

Give the fans what they want and they will return.

And when the baseball is sloppy, involving cellar-dweller franchises teetering on implosion, fans will avoid the plague, and rightfully so. The seven games with subpar crowds Friday night all involved teams who've lost more than they've won.

Whether the interleague play experiment becomes an entrenched figure during the 21st century will depend on the players union and a vote it'll take after the season.

Here's hoping the millionaires forget about the schedules rife with two-game series, the inordinate amount of airline travel, the loss of the designated hitter in National League parks, the unevenness that may occur during pennant races and all the other inconveniences it causes and remember what they need most.

Baseball needs people.

Forget all periphery mumbo-jumbo and remember that this former national pastime needs fans more than the fans need it.