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June 2, 2023 [LINK / comment]

City population and baseball attendance

After many hours of number crunching, I have at long last finished revising and updating one of the most prominent reference pages on this website: the Baseball cities page. Like the last major revision in 2011 (November 28, to be exact), it includes data on population for the major metropolitan areas of the United States and Canada, along with the number of pro sports franchises in each city, stadium capacity, and MLB attendance trends. For the first time, it now includes the attendance trends for the most recent decade (2010-2019) as well as the previous decade (2000-2010). There was no attendance at any regular season games during the peak of the covid-19 emergency in 2020, so for our purposes the previous decade only lasted nine years.

When I first put together the early version of that page in 2003, the primary motivation was to demonstrate that the combined population in the Baltimore - Washington D.C. region was more than enough to support two MLB franchises. Hardly anyone would dispute that contention nowadays, but before the Washington Nationals were (re-)born in 2005, there were plenty of skeptics. During the last major revision of that page in 2011, I presented data on attendance in Baltimore and Washington from 2005 through 2010 compared to the preceding final years of the Montreal Expos to show that "the franchise relocation yielded a 1.0 million net increase in overall Major League Baseball attendance." Since that is no longer an issue, I have deleted that section of the page, but I may end up posting it on some other page in the near future.

In the world of today, there is a similar controversy brewing: the Oakland Athletics' plans to relocate to Las Vegas some time in the next few years. With that in mind, I added additional lines to that table, including the cities that are most often mentioned as candidates for either an expansion MLB franchise or a relocated franchise. (Montreal was an actual major league baseball city for 36 years, and is therefore part of the table, not included in the list of potential MLB cities, which are as follows, ranked here in order of likelihood of getting an MLB franchise (NOT in order of population):

• Las Vegas, Nevada
• Nashville, Tennessee
• Orlando, Florida
• Charlotte, North Carolina
• Portland, Oregon
• San Antonio, Texas
• San Juan, Puerto Rico *

* NOTE: San Juan was the "part-time" home of the Montreal Expos in 2003 and 2004.

Perhaps I should add that I am extremely skeptical about the suggestion that Major League Baseball should embark on another round of franchise expansion. Too many small-market franchises (such as Oakland!) are struggling already, so why make that situation worse?

Anyway, another new feature on that page is a column showing annual attendance for the most recent year (2022) relative to stadium capacity. In general, the higher the percentage, the more successful we may deem the franchise in question, but there are many caveats. As noted at the end of that table, the official capacity figures are sometimes artificially reduced, or in one case (Dodger Stadium) exaggerated. Also, several of the early-phase "retro stadiums" (such as Coors Field, Chase Field, and T-Mobile Park) ended up being just too big, as American demographics changed. That page features a revised map of baseball cities as well as this brand-new graph comparing the population of MLB cities with annual attendance at baseball games:

Note that the team names are color-coded according to league (red = AL, blue = NL), and that the aggregate total numbers for the four multi-baseball-team cities (New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and San Francisco-Oakland) are shown in black. Based on those data, here are my preliminary assessments of the teams that regularly "overachieve" or "underachieve" in terms of their attendance records relative to their population:

"Underachievers"



• New York Mets
• Chicago White Sox
• Miami Marlins
• Oakland Athletics
• Tampa Bay Rays

"Overachievers"



• Los Angeles Dodgers
• San Francisco Giants
• St. Louis Cardinals
• Colorado Rockies
• Milwaukee Brewers

Nats shake off more bitter blows

A recurrent theme in the Washington Nationals' better-than-expected performance for the first two months of this season is that almost every time something truly awful happens to them, threatening to plunge them deeper into the proverbial Dungeon of Doom, they manage to recover their wits and pull off a spectacular win. For example, after a 5-run 8th-inning rally on Thursday May 25, they were close to winning the final game of the series with the the visiting San Diego Padres. With two outs in the top of the 9th, Rougned Odor hit a 3-run homer just inside the right field foul pole to retake the lead. Hunter Harvey blew the save and took the loss, which really stung. Final score: 8-6.

But that didn't seem to affect the Nats [the next evening in Kansas City] as they took a 1-0 lead in the 1st inning, and then staged an 8-run rally in the 6th inning. Luis Garcia got six hits in six at-bats, tying the Nationals' record set by Anthony Rendon in April 2017. Final score: Nats 12, Royals 10. On Sunday Mackenzie Gore had his best day yet on the mound for the Nationals, striking out 11 batters in 7 innings, while giving up just one run. But the Royals tied the game in the 8th inning, and in the bottom of the 9th, Nats' first baseman Dominic Smith let a ground ball go through his legs (just like you-know-who), and two batters later a walk-off RBI single ended the game 3-2, in the home team's favor. The Nats really should have swept that series, but instead had to digest yet another "bitter blow."

On Monday, the Nationals arrived in Los Angeles, and their starting pitcher Trevor Williams was doing pretty well, and his team had a 1-0 lead unti the bottom of the 5th. That's when second-year shortstop C.J. Abrams misplayed a ground ball that could have been a double play, but instead served as the spark of a 6-run rally by the Dodgers. Six unearned runs! Nobody else scored in that game. There wasn't much hope for the Nats in the Tuesday game, as rookie pitcher Jake Irvin struggled mightily. On Wednesday, the Dodgers scored 3 runs off two homers in the first inning, but then the Nats came right back with two homers of their own in the 2nd inning. Patrick Corbin somehow managed to escape multiple jams, and as if by a miracle, was in line for the win after Jeimer Candelario hit a 2-run homer in the 5th inning. It was just a crazy back-and-forth slug-fest, in which Luis Garcia hit two home runs, and the Nats ended up with FIVE (5) four-baggers for the first time this year. Final score: Nats 10, Dodgers 6.

And so, the Nationals finished the merry month of May with a 14-15 record, much better than the 10-17 record of late March and April. Attendance at home games averaged just over 20,000, about the same as in the month before. This has been duly recorded on the Washington Nationals page.

After a day of rest, the Nationals returned home to Washington where they took an early 6-0 lead against the Philadelphia Phillies earlier this evening. (It was the first matchup between those division rivals this year.) Starting pitcher Josiah Gray did well until the 6th inning, but the Phillies staedily narrowed the gap as the Nats relief pitchers failed to contain them. Another error by C.J. Abrams (his 11th of the year, tied for the MLB lead) allowed the Phillies to tie the game, 8-8. Then with two outs in the bottom of the 8th, Lane Thomas hit an ultra-clutch RBI single to retake the lead. Kyle Finnegan, who had just blown the save, returned to the mound in the 9th inning and this time he held firm, as the Nats just barely won it, 8-7. WHEW!!! Against all odds, the Nationals are now tied with the Phillies (4th place) in the NL East, the latter team having lost five games in a row. If the Nats somehow pull off a series sweep this weekend, they'll go ahead of the Phillies in the NL East race. Anything's possible!

I should note that the Nats' usual designated hitter Joey Meneses went on another hot streak this week, and now has a batting average of .305, the 7th best in the National League. Does he deserve your vote for the 2023 NL All-Star team? Absolutely YES! And you may find this very difficult to believe, but thanks to Meneses, Garcia, Candelario, Thomas, and others, the Washington Nationals now have the highest team batting average (.265) in the major leagues!! Unfortunately, they're near the bottom in home runs. Also, the Nationals rank 3rd in the majors in errors, behind the Giants and the Braves. There is plenty of room for improvement, but in general things are going quite well.

May 23, 2023 [LINK / comment]

Stadium capacity changes, 2023

Are you ready for some number crunching? Just like two years ago (April 30, 2021), I have compiled the current-year seating capacity figures for each of the 30 MLB stadiums and calculated changes in capacity compared to 2021. (I'll have to check to see whether there were any significant changes last year.) The three stadiums whose capacity changed by at least 1,000 (Rogers Centre, Busch Stadium III, and Great American Ballpark) are highlighted in yellow. Coors Field surged into second place ahead of Rogers Centre, reflecting the latter stadium's revamped outfield seating. A sizeable part of the second deck near the two foul poles was removed. Nationals Park has just barely surpassed Wrigley Field, while Minute Maid Park has dropped two steps, and now trails Comerica Park. Otherwise, the seating capacity rankings are almost the same as two years ago.

SOURCE: Box scores published in the Washington Post.
Sometimes, reductions in stadiums' seating capacity are announced without any seats really being taken out. Most notably, Tropicana Field's 1998 capacity was 45,000, but it has been reduced sharply several times in the years since then, by closing the upper deck, etc. The same used to be true of Oakland Coliseum, but it now includes virtually all the baseball-suitable seats.

One might question why the capacity of Oriole Park at Camden Yards has remained the same (45,791) ever since 2011 even though they tore out a big chunk of the left field grandstand last year. (See April 17, 2022.) When I revamp all of the stadium pages this summer I will include the current (2023) capacity figures. My general practice is to ignore the minor year-to-year changes, often using figures rounded off to the nearest thousand. As the table above shows, that is exactly what some teams have done.

I read that this past weekend saw the biggest total attendance for MLB games before June since 2017 (mlb.com), which is a very good sign. Games played from Friday through Sunday drew 1,518,016 fans through the turnstiles, compared to 1,550,987 from April 7-9, 2017. Now that the U.S. government and the World Health Organization have officially declared an end to the covid-19 "emergency," there's really no reason for fans to shy away from ballgames.

NOTE: While I do my best to get accustomed to the rapid-fire stadium name changes from year to year, in the table above I have retained (in parentheses) the old names of three stadiums whose names are probably less familiar to most people. On the other hand, not even the Oakland Athletics bother to update their website with the new name of Oakland Coliseum, "Ring Central Coliseum." Whatever Ring Central is, they wasted their stadium naming rights money. The Athletics' lease there expires after next season, and they could relocate to Las Vegas by 2025. Also, I decided to emphatically repudiate the silly capitalization of what was called "Marlins Park" until two years ago: "loanDepot" has a lower-case L (which looks like an I) and an upper-case D. Instead, I shall henceforth refer to it in proper English: LoanDepot Park!

I should mention that the stadium capacity numbers will be used the soon-to-be-updated Baseball cities page, which compares metropolitan area population, stadium size, and attendance.

Soto returns to D.C.

The Nats' prodigal son Juan Soto returned to his former home in Nationals Park this evening, and got the last laugh when he hit a long home run (441 feet) to center field in the 7th inning. The Nats had hit back-to-back home runs off Yu Darvish in the 5th inning (by C.J. Abrams and Lane Thomas, respectively) to tie the game 3-3, but then relief pitcher Erasmo Ramirez gave up four runs over the two innings he pitched, including the homer by Soto and then a two-run homer by Jake Cronenworth. It looked like the ball hit the top of the padding before rolling back onto the field, but the video review folks said it cleared the fence. Oh well. That opened up a four-run lead, which proved to be too much to overcome. Final score: Padres 7, Nats 4.

The Nats (now with a 20-28 record) began that series just one game behind the Padres in the overall National League standings, and they still have a chance to pull even if they win the next two games. It's an interesting situation, given that Soto left the Nationals (or made it clear that he wanted to be traded) last year because of his eagerness to play on team contending for the postseason. Oops! This year the Padres are going nowhere fast, while the Nationals are headed upward. In today's Washington Post, Barry Svrluga raises the possibility that the Nationals might want to invite Soto back with a long-term contract after he becomes a free agent following the 2024 season. Hmmm.....

Elsewhere in the majors

Believe it or not, all five teams in the American League East Division now have a better record than the first-place team in the AL Central Division, the Minnesota Twins (25-24)! The New York Yankees have rebounded from a miserable first month, and after winning their 5th game in a row are now in third place at .600 (30-20). The team they beat, the Baltimore Orioles, are in 2nd place, only 3 games behind the first place Tampa Bay Rays. The last place Toronto Blue Jays beat the Rays 20-1 tonight, with 9 runs coming in the 9th inning off position players who were filling in as relief pitchers to give the bullpen some rest. Maybe the Rays' historically-good first two months can't be sustained for the whole season after all. Meanwhile, the 4th place Boston Red Sox are a half game ahead of the Blue Jays.

Urban eye candy

One of the ongoing enhancements to the stadium pages is a photographic "montage" showing some of the iconic scenes from each of the respective cities. (Or at least the ones I have visited.) I really like this one from Kansas City on the Kauffman Stadium page :

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: The Jazz Museum / Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, Union Station, the World War I memorial tower, and the downtown skyline as seen from that tower.

May 22, 2023 [LINK / comment]

Nats bounce back from bitter blow

Just when the Washington Nationals were emerging from the doldrums and showing a spark of hope for a respectable season, everything fell apart. In their first game in Miami against the Marlins last Tuesday, their starting pitcher Josiah Gray had another fine outing, only giving up two runs (one earned) over seven full innings. Once again, however, his team failed to provide him with much run support until the top of the 8th when they staged a 3-run rally to take a 4-2 lead. The bottom of the 9th inning, Hunter Harvey got the first two batters out, and had an 0-2 count on Garrett Cooper. A win was all but secured with 99.9% probability, but Cooper somehow managed to hit a double. Then on a 1-2 count Luis Arraez singled to make the score 4-3. Nats fans grew a little edgy as Jorge Soler stepped up to the plate. Harvey got him to a full count, but the fourth pitch that was called ball 3 was actually inside the strike zone, according to the radio announcers, as well as the MLB pitch track log. That bad call gave Soler the chance he needed: he smashed the sixth pitch all the way into "The Clevelander" club area beyond the left field fence. And that's how the Nats lost the game in a most heartbreaking way, 5-4.

On Wednesday the Nats took an early 2-0 lead as Corey Dickerson (filling in as designated hitter for Joey Meneses, who was on paternity leave) homered in his first at bat after six weeks on the injured list. But in the 4th inning Jorge Soler hit a 2-run homer once again, and the Marlins held on to win it, 4-3. And on Thursday, the Nats rallied with 2 runs in the top of the 8th inning, but Keibert Ruiz grounded into a double play, and the Nats blew their chance to at least tie the game. Final score: 5-3, as the Marlins swept the Nationals in the games straight. It was only the second series sweep loss for the Nats this year, and the first was in similar circumstances, as that other team from Florida rallied with 5 runs in the bottom of the 9th inning to win the game on April 4.

On Friday, the Detroit Tigers arrived at Nationals Park, and rookie pitcher Jake Irvin gave up a home run to the very first batter, Jake McKinstry. By the time Irvin was replaced in the 3rd inning, the Tigers were ahead 6-0. By the middle of the 6th inning it was 8-0, and it's hard to imagine how dismal the atmosphere must have been in the Nats dugout. But then a miracle happened: in both the 6th and 7th innings the Nats scored three runs, and in both cases a runner was left on second base. (In the 7th inning, three consecutive outs followed a double by Alex Call.) It was a respectable final score (8-6), but it easily could have been one of their biggest comebacks ever. On Saturday Patrick Corbin gave up a 2-run homer in the first inning, but he held the line for the next five innings while his team mates came through at the plate, and he earned his third win of the season. That was the fourth straight quality start for Corbin, who now has a lower ERA (4.47) than the reigning NL Cy Young Award winner, Sandy Alcantara of the Marlins (5.05) -- believe it or not!! In yesterday's game, Josiah Gray had poor control and gave up 6 walks, but just barely got out of multiple jams so that he could make it through five innings with his team ahead. Home runs by Riley Adams and Ildemaro Vargas (both second-stringers) and a 4-for-5 day for Jeimer Candelario assured the Nats win, 6-4. That gave the Nationals their third series win of the month, against two series losses and one series tie (2-2).

Today the Nats get to rest and prepare for the San Diego Padres, who will begin a three-game series in Washington tomorrow. It will be interesting to see how the fans in D.C. react to Juan Soto, who has recently improved (8 HRs, .248 average) after a dismal first month. Two of the New Nats (Joey Meneses and Lane Thomas) have a batting average in the .290s range, and Thomas has hit 6 home runs.

While we're on the subject of former Nats players, I should mention Phillie slugger Kyle Schwarber's first-inning grand slam against the visiting Chicago Cubs on Sunday. His batting average is only .174, however, and his team mate Trea Turner (also an ex-Nat) is only batting [.257]. Bryce Harper is slowly improving after his long recovery from Tommy John surgery.

Forbes Field update!!??

Have you ever read the book Moby Dick? Me neither. But I do know that it is about a whaling ship captain who becomes so obsessed with vanquishing this one particular whale that it totally consumes his life by the end. It's a classic tragedy, a "cautionary tale" about setting unrealistically high goals in life.

Forbes Field is my Moby Dick. It is (or was) an exquisite ballpark with nice aesthetic adornments (such as patterned brick exterior) and numerous quirks in the layout. It deserves the very best. In spite of the fact that hundreds of articles and a number of books have been written about it over the year, my quest to render it with the appropriate accuracy and detail has repeatedly fallen short. Every time I get close to solving the big riddle, some new piece of evidence (or lack of crucial evidence) confounds my endeavor to complete a set of historical diagrams for it. (The same kind of problems have plagued me with Griffith Stadium, from the same era of "classical" ballparks, holding me back there.) Instead, I keep opting for the "path of least resistance," updating the diagrams of stadiums for which there is more supporting evidence or fewer mysterious quirks to unravel. In recent months (especially the last couple weeks) I have concentrated on revamping ALL my diagrams with a larger image size so that big stadiums (e.g. Yankee, Candlestick) won't have to be "truncated" to fit within the standard 500 W x 480 H pixel dimensions. This "new standard" (600 W x 600 H) will also leave more room around the periphery for the side-view profiles, all (or nearly all) of which will eventually be mutually commensurable, so that you can compare the profiles as well as the top-view diagram of the stadium itself.

Well, yesterday I decided that enough is enough, and that my yearning for a high degree of accuracy was unfairly depriving fans of this site from seeing the "work in progress." Accordingly, I swallowed my pride and posted a set of updated (but still flawed) diagrams on the Forbes Field page, labeled "2022," which is when I did the most recent tweaks to it. The "new" 1909 diagram now shows the original left field wall, before the Pirates acquired additional land in 1911. In additional, all the diagrams from 1911 forward show that the left field was angled inward slightly, not perpendicular to the left field foul line as I once thought. Those diagrams feature some of the newer detail enhancements that nearly all pages now include, such as entry portals in the bleachers and bullpen pitching rubbers and home plates, but not others. There are as yet no separate diagrams for the first deck or second deck without the roof. Please bear in mind that those diagrams do NOT reflect what is probably the biggest insight I have gained in recent years, which is that the diamond at Forbes Field was originally symmetrical with respect to the two main wings of the grandstand, and that the semi-final configuration dating from 1925 was actually "tilted" slightly. Taking care of that proved to be just too much in light of all the other things on my plate.

As an example of the extreme delay in getting this thing done, one critical piece of evidence can be found at post-gazette.com, but that link is several years old. Anyway, hat tips to both Bruce Orser and Mark London for that. Mark is the sponsor of that page,and I owe a big debt of gratitude to him for his patience and understanding. I will most assuredly finish this task and present a more accurate rendering of Forbes Field within the next few months! (Or else...)

Globe Life Field

Many thanks to Terry Wallace for sharing the photo he recently took at Globe Life Field. It shows very clearly the oddly "interrupted" upper deck on the first base side, where one of the big rails that holds the retractable roof sections is located. Like Marlins Park and T-Mobile Park, which also have retractable roofs, Globe Life Field is way too big to render within the standard diagram dimensions, and the new standard will make it much easier to see that stadium in its entirety.

May 15, 2023 [LINK / comment]

Nationals split series with Mets

The Washington Nationals had a chance to overtake the New York Mets in the standings during this weekend's 4-game series, but could only manage to win two of those games. On Friday the Nats took an early 2-run lead, but starting pitcher Mackenzie Gore only lasted 4 innings as his pitch count soared. In the top of the 6th inning the Mets loaded the bases, and on a 3-2 pitch with two outs, Francisco Lindor batted in three runs on a single to right-center field. A better throw from center fielder Alex Call would have held the runner at third base, but the Mets took the lead and kept it. Final score: Mets 3, Nats 2. On Saturday afternoon the Nats again took an early lead thanks to another RBI single by Joey Meneses, but the rain got worse and worse, so the game was suspended during the top of the 3rd inning. After play was resumed early Sunday afternoon, a solo home run by C.J. Abrams in the 7th inning proved to be the deciding play, and the final score was the reverse of Friday: Nats 3, Mets 2. Former National and future Hall of Famer Max Scherzer took the mound in the second game on Sunday, and believe it or not he was getting beat by the Nats' rookie pitcher Jake Irvin until the 5th inning. That's when Irvin started to lose control and gave up multiple hits; relief pitcher Mason Thompson gave up even more hits, and before you knew it, the Mets had scored 8 runs. That's all they would need in the 8-2 victory over the home team.

Max Scherzer missed a few games earlier this month because of tightness in his back muscles, and I suspected that he may have postponed his recovery in order to be able to pitch in Nationals Park, where he was bound to get a warm welcome. (Bryce Harper and Juan Soto, not so much.) As mentioned previously, Scherzer was ejected during a game against the Dodgers on April 19 and later given a [10]-game suspension for using a sticky substance. MLB announced there would be more stringent scrutiny of such sneaky tactics prior to the 2021 season. Scherzer insisted that he was only using the rosin bag.

Today's game pitted two pitchers with lousy 1-5 records against each other: Patrick Corbin and David Peterson. Corbin showed that his recent improvement is a very real thing, going 6 full innings and only giving up 2 runs. Once again Joey Meneses got an RBI in the 1st inning, this time on a double, the first of 3 doubles he hit. Combined with a single (also an RBI), Meneses went 4 for 5 today, raising his batting average to an even .300!!! He is definitely the slugger that Nats fans were hoping he would be this year, but thus far he has only had two home runs. Later in the game, young shorttop C.J. Abrams homered once again, and the Nats won the series finale by a whopping 10-3 margin. Their record has risen to 18-23 (.439), hot on the heels of the Mets, Phillies, and Marlins. It is worth pointing out that at about this time four years ago, the Nats had a record of 19-31, and then rebounded in historical fashion to make it to the postseason and win the World Series. Expectations for this "rebuilding" team are obviously much lower than for the 2019 Nats, but anything is possible!

Are you ready for some football?

In non-baseball sports news, the XFL championship game took place Saturday night in San Antonio's Alamodome. The heavily-favored D.C. Defenders (11-1 record) failed to live up to their name, letting the Arlington Renegades (5-6) score multiple times and take a big lead in the first half. The "Defenders" mounted a counteroffensive in the second half, but kept making blunders, and the final score was 32 to 20. So much for Washington's hopes of winning its first football championship since the 1992 Super Bowl!

Actually, this news item is related to baseball because the Arlington Renegades make their home in Choctaw Stadium, which is the new name of the reconfigured version of the former home of the Texas Rangers, Globe Life Park. (They began playing in their new retractable-roof facility Globe Life Field in July 2020, but that was during the pandemic when no fans were allowed.) I should also mention that the Alamodome has hosted a few MLB exhibition games, and one of these days I'll probably get around to doing a diagram for it, just as I did for the Superdome, which has a similar MLB history. But wait! There's another stadium used by an XFL team in which MLB games have been used in the past: Cashman Field, in Las Vegas, Nevada! (The Oakland Athletics used it briefly in April 1996, while construction on the "Mount Davis" expansion of Oakland Coliseum was completed.)

The original XFL played for just one year (2001) before going out of business, and was resurrected in 2020 by professional wrestling promoter Vince McMahon. Just then, covid-19 struck, and the "new" XFL went bankrupt just like its predecessor. After some legal and financial wrangling, movie actor Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson led a group that acquired the XFL, and play began last year. Maybe it will actually last this time.

Believe it or not, there is yet another professional football league in opration this year: the United States Football League, USFL. There are also eight teams with nominal "home" cities, but in fact, all of the games are being played in one of two venues: Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium in Canton, Ohio and at the new (2021) Protective Stadium in Birmingham, Alabama. It replaced the old Legion Field, where rival universities Alabama ("Crimson Tide") and Auburn ("Tigers") used to play their annual "Iron Bowl." In fact, most of Alabama's big games were played at Legion Field until Bryant-Denny Stadium (on the main campus in Tuscaloosa) was expanded to a capacity of 70,000 in 1989. There is another connection to baseball: Alabama used the minor league Rickwood Field as its home stadium 1912 to 1927! (I heard a rumor that MLB might hold a nostalgia-oriented game at Rickwood Field some day. If so, it would be similar to the "Field of Dreams" games in Dyersville, Iowa, which will not be held this year.)

How about some hockey, then?

Baseball season revs up into high gear just as the postseasons for the National Basketball Association and National Hockey League enter their middle phases. I have only the vaguest clue as to who is competing in these interminable playoffs this year, but I do know that the Washington Capitals were eliminated from contention a few days after I saw them play on April 2. Believe it or not, it was my very first time inside Capital One Arena, which used to be called Verizon Center. I was glad to see their star player Alex Ovechkin for the first time, but the home team was soundly defeated by the visiting New York Rangers, 5-2. It is worth noting that the Capitals won the Stanley Cup championship in 2018, just one year before the Nationals won the World Series. Various Capitals and Nationals players (including Ryan Zimmerman) made a point of attending each others' games in those glory years, creating mutually beneficial good vibes.

Capital One Arena, from the lower level, before the April 2, 2023 hockey game between the Washington Capitals and the New York Rangers.

Alex Ovechkin (right) and others at net, during the April 2 game against the Rangers.

May 11, 2023 [LINK / comment]

Baseball ticket prices, way back when

As Major League baseball franchises struggle to maintain customer loyalty in the face of rising payroll expenses, many fans have balked (!) at the insane cost of passing through the turnstiles these days. Then there's the cost of a beer and a hot dog! While doing a bit of research today, I was thumbing through my copy of Kessler's ("Smooth As Silk!") 1967 Baseball Fan's Guide, and noticed that it listed the ticket prices for each of the 20 MLB stadiums then in operation. I thought it might be of interest to baseball fans. They are listed here in the same order as in the booklet, with ten National League teams followed by ten American League teams. (I remember back in the 1960s reading my father's copies of those fan guides, and bought myself one on eBay a few years ago.)

To me it is striking how consistent the prices are from one city to the next. (Exception: Why did the Atlanta Braves charge so much?) To get a more realistic idea of the cost of seeing a baseball game back then relative to the overall cost of living, you should multiply those ticket prices by eight. According to my 2022 World Almanac, the Consumer Price Index in 1965 was 31.5 (1982-84 = 100), compared to 258.8 in 2020.

In summary, I know it's unrealistic to expect any major across-the-board reduction in ticket prices. Most MLB teams have various special deals, such as setting aside a few hundred cheap seats (e.g. $5.00 at National Park, I think) for fans who arrive early and get in line. That approximates the "good old days" when many if not most tickets were sold as "general admission": go to the appropriate sections and get the best seat you can find! At the very least, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred should push the 30 franchises to expand general admission ticketing, and fill some of those empty seats. Reducing the number of ticket price categories and getting rid of "dynamic pricing" or whatever they call it, would also help! Economic prospects just aren't what they were 20 or 30 years ago when most current MLB stadiums were built, and with a shrinking middle class, ticket sales are bound to keep slumping. It's just a shame that most newer MLB stadiums don't even offer bleacher seating. That is a significant defect in Nationals Park, IMHO.

SOURCE: Kessler 1967 Baseball Fan's Guide, published by Pearson Productions Inc., New York, NY

NOTE: Parentheses ( ) indicate multiple ticket prices within this category.

Underlines denote new stadiums, i.e., those built in the 1960s.

Nationals slay the Giants

After escaping Phoenix with a win to avert being swept, the Washington Nationals headed to San Francisco to face a Giants team that is somewhere in the middle of the pack. On Monday, Jake Irwin followed up his splendid debut performance last week by going 6 1/3 innings without giving up a run. It was his first career win! The Nats stunned the hosts by scoring five runs on seven hits in the first inning, and that was all they needed. Anthony DeSclafani was uncharacteristically drubbed, as his ERA rose to 2.80. On Tuesday, an error by the Nats' young shortstop C.J. Abrams in the first inning made things difficult for Patrick Corbin, who still only allowed two earned runs over six innings (a quality start), but he didn't get much run support. Final score: 4-1. Yesterday the Nats staged four-run rallies in both the 2nd and 3rd innings, building an almost insurmountable lead. Second-string catcher Riley Adams hit a 3-run homer, and Lane Thomas hit a solo homer later in the game. The Giants closed the gap in the last two innings, but fell well short, 11-6. Thus the Nationals won their fourth series out of their last six.

So now the Nationals are "threatening to crawl out of the cellar" (as Bob Uecker used to say), with a quite respectable 11-16 record. The hitting and pitching numbers tell an interesting story: the Nats rank 8th (tied) in the majors with a team batting average of .258, but are 29th in home runs (24) and 26th in RBIs (143). In a year when most teams are stealing more bases thanks to the new rules, the Nats rank 27th with just 20. The younger players are getting lots of hits, but they are far too prone to leave runners on base in those clutch situations. They need more discipline! As for pitching, the Nats rank 18th in terms of ERA (4.44), but that number is likely to improve. Patrick Corbin has been doing much better, while Jake Irvin may find himself as a regular member of the rotation, even if Chad Kuhl returns soon. (By the way, the Washington Post recently had a story by Barry Svrluga about Kuhl's wife, who is dealing with breast cancer, and those kind of troubles must be putting a lot of pressure on Kuhl. They have a young son named Hudson. If you are in a generous mood, go to give.nats4good.org/CancerIsntKuhl.)

After resting up today, the Nationals will welcome the New York Mets to Nationals Park on Friday night. The last I checked, the Mets haven't decided who will pitch any of the games in this four-game series. Max Scherzer was suspended a couple weeks ago for using a sticky substance on the ball. Was he really culpable, or was it one of those "gray area" situations that are hard to judge?

Miscellaneous items

In other news, the Pittsburgh Pirates have suddenly fallen on hard times after their best first month in many, many years. They have only won one game in the last ten, but are still (just barely) clinging to first place in the NL Central Division because the Milwaukee Brewers have a 2-8 record in their last ten games. Meanwhile, the 3rd-place Chicago Cubs have a 3-7 record; it's as if nobody wants to take first place in that division!

Meanwhile, the Atlanta Braves remain dominant atop the NL East while the L.A. Dodgers have surged past the Diamondbacks to take 1st place in the NL West. (You'll never guess who is pitching in the Dodgers' bullpen now: none other than the famously ineffective former Nat reliever Wander Suero!)

In the American League, the Tampa Bay Rays lost two of three games to the Orioles in Baltimore, and their lead in the AL East is now down to just 5 1/2 games -- even though their win-loss record is an astronomical 29-8!!! Attendance is up only slightly at Tropicana Park, and it's a shame that the Rays don't get much more fan support. In the AL Central, the Detroit Tigers continue to climb toward the top, taking second place from the Cleveland Guardians. How long can the Minnesota Twins keep the lead? In the AL West, the Texas Rangers have a 22-14 record, enjoying 3-game lead over the Angels and the Astros. Lots of nice surprises in this year's pennant races!

R.I.P. Vida Blue & Dick Groat

Former Oakland Athletics pitching sensation Vida Blue passed away on May 6, a couple months short of his 73rd birthday. He was with the A's from 1969 through 1977, during the glory days when they won three consecutive World Series titles. He later played with the San Francisco Giants (two separate stints) and the Kansas City Royals. His career won-loss records was 209-161, and he threw 2,175 strikeouts and finished his career with a 3.26 ERA. In the Washington Post, Candace Buckner wrote that Blue (who was born in Mansfield, Louisiana) gave everything he had to the sport of baseball, but was never given enough appreciation in return. The latter years of his career were shortened by drug use, apparently.

Long-time Pittsburgh Pirate shortstop Dick Groat passed away on April 27 at the age of 92. He was with the Pirates from 1952 through 1962, except for military service in 1953 and 1954 during the Korean War [and aftermath]. He also played in the National Basketball Association for two years, one of only 13 men to play at the top pro level in both sports! His last three years in baseball were with the St. Louis Cardinals. He amassed 2,138 hits and a batting average of .286 during his 12 years in big league baseball.

At some point I will gather my newspaper clippings and at least make mention of other baseball greats who have passed away since last year.

Incommunicado again

Long-time fans of this website are well aware of my conflicting obligations, and how that affects my ability to keep up with baseball news and to respond to public inquiries. That doesn't excuse my lack of communication, but hopefully explains it. I am starting to get caught up with email messages today. Thanks for your understanding. Now that the spring semester is officially over, I am devoting top priority to updating diagrams and blogging about baseball in general!

By the way, someone asked me about getting my Rogers Center diagrams updated, and I responded by saying I just haven't seen good enough photos of the revamped outfield to do so accurately. If anybody has been there lately, and can help me out in that regard (especially closeup photos taken from near the respective foul poles), I would really appreciate it.

[UPDATE: Multiple spelling errors have been corrected.]