Abouta week ago I was listening to "A Call to the Bullpen," an all- baseball talk show on WDCR. One of the major issues that the three hosts were discussing was the fact that attendance at major league baseball games this season has been, shall we say, disappointing. After all, this is supposed to be America's Pastime.
Yet routinely this season's games have been played in front of record low crowds. For the first time since opening Skydome, Toronto Blue Jays' games are playing for crowds that are nowhere near capacity. The Florida Marlins have drawn the seven smallest crowds in their three year history. Games in cities such as Pittsburgh have routinely had crowds under 10,000.
Baseball fans and analysts generally attribute these facts to the fans' general disgust with last year's strike that forced the cancellation of the 1994 World Series. Because they are fed up with what many perceive as petty economic fighting, many have decided to boycott the ballpark this season.
To me, this response is disappointing. One would be hard pressed to find a fan that was more bitter than myself when the strike came last August. After all, I am a Yankee fan, and it seems fair to say that the Yankees were going to make their first appearance in the post season in nearly 15 years. Then there was the strike, and I watched my dreams of the Pinstripes in the playoffs go up in smoke.
Yet I am more excited than ever for this season and would certainly not think of boycotting games. Boycotting baseball out of anger is a poor choice for two reasons.
First of all, the baseball fan's relationship to the game is perhaps the one pure aspect remaining in sports. By pure, I mean devoid of financial considerations. It seems that nearly every other aspect of major sports is driven by money is some way. Throughout the strike I generally ignored the financial discussions that were going on between the owners and players. For most baseball fans their interest and passion lie with the love for the game.
Once baseball fans start protesting games and limiting their interest due to the financial squabbling between the owners and players, we lose the last bastion of purity. Consider furthermore that baseball is the only sport that offers this purity. A trip to the arena in any other sport is a major financial undertaking. Granted one usually pays in excess of two dollars for a hot dog but baseball tickets are generally not that expensive.
Secondly, if the poor attendance continues for an extended period of time, the entities involved, the owners and players, may see an apathetic fan base as inevitable. Those who boycott games claim that they do so because they are unhappy with the financial bickering and want to send a message. They want to show the owners and players that they are not going to go back blindly.
Well, at this point the message is sent. If fans continue to stay away they take themselves out of the equation. Thus the owners stop worrying about what the fans think since they assume they cannot get them back anyway.
I myself will continue to watch and love baseball. To those who insist on boycotting the games, I hope they realize that they are missing some incredible performances on the diamond these days and that each day they stay away they not only deprive themselves but they continue to diminish their leverage.
