Page 22 - ARUBA TODAY

A22 SPORTS
Monday 28 May 2018

Attendance drop

Continued from Page 18 The players’ association \
filed a grievance on Feb. 23
Yet, there are troublesome accusing Miami, Oakland,
signs beyond the weather, Pittsburgh and Tampa Bay
related to a club’s compet- of failing to appropriately
itiveness — and percep- spend revenue-sharing
tions of a team’s prospects money. No hearing has
heading into the season. yet been scheduled in the
Among the teams experi- case.
encing drops in home av- “Think about Tony Clark,
erage attendance com- the teams he was (refer-
pared with the day before ring) to,” Manfred said, re-
the holiday weekend last ferring to the union head.
year were Miami (21,641 to “Oakland’s above .500,
10,603), Toronto (36,869 to Pittsburgh’s played great,
27,707), Baltimore (27,992 quite frankly Tampa’s
to 19,404), Detroit (27,699 played OK in a really rough
to 19,837), Pittsburgh division. So you get into this
(23,727 to 16,497), Kansas cycle where through public
City (26,154 to 19,757), the comments people are do-
Chicago White Sox (20,864 ing damage to clubs that
to 15,987), Texas (31,940 to actually turn out to be OK.”
27,198), Cincinnati (21,681 The players’ association
to 17,848) and Cleveland called Manfred’s com-
(20,780 to 17,630). ments “unfortunate and at
Teams with notable in- best misleading.”
creases were World Series “Competitive integrity is,
champion Houston (27,609 and always has been,
to 35,556), Milwaukee the cornerstone of Major
(28,346 to 32,353), the New League Baseball and we
York Yankees (36,280 to will continue to talk about it
40,271) and Arizona (22,649 when it is threatened,” the
to 25,638). union said in a statement. Chicago White Sox pitcher James Shields throws against the Detroit Tigers in the first inning of a
Drops include several fran- Baltimore, the White Sox, baseball game in Detroit, Sunday, May 27, 2018.
chises that have gone into Cincinnati. Kansas City and Associated Press
a rebuilding cycle: the Mar- Miami are on track to lose 138 more hits than strike- little more pronounced this to later this season.
lins, Tigers, Pirates, White 100 games or more. The outs. Through Saturday, year, perhaps in part be- With restrictions on trips to
Sox and Reds. When teams only season in which more there were 5,882 strikeouts cause of the weather, but the mound, the average
jettison stars and media fo- than three teams lost 100 and 5,742 hits in May. it is something that we’re time of a nine-inning game
cuses on a perceived lack was 2002, according to the Average home runs per watching, and there in- has dropped from a record
of competitiveness, ticket Elias Sports Bureau, when game, which rose to 2.31 creased conversation in 3 hours, 5 minutes to 3:00.
sales often fall. Detroit, Kansas City, Mil- in 2016 and a record 2.51 the industry about being And the average mound
“I would say the weather waukee and Tampa Bay all last season, have dropped more aggressive beyond trips without a pitching
has been the overriding reached triple digits in de- to 2.26 from 2.43 at a similar just pace of play in terms change has fallen from 7.41
factor but certainly the feats. point last year. of managing the way the last year to 3.98 this season.
negative publicity sur- At the same time, manage- “I think that a lot of us in the game is being played on “The most important thing
rounding some teams as ment worries about on-field game are watching the the field.” for us given the last two
played a part, as well,” trends, such as the rise in way we’re playing very, Still, there is much MLB years is not going the other
Manfred said. “I think it’s strikeouts. very closely, everything is happy about. Rookies direction,” Manfred said.
clear that publicity sug- There were 6,656 strikeouts from fewer hits, more strike- Shohei Ohtani, Gleyber “Not only did we stem that
gesting a lack of competi- and 6,360 hits in April, ac- outs, more times between Torres and Ronald Acuna tide, we’ve cut a few min-
tiveness by a team is really cording to Elias. The previ- balls in play,” Manfred said. Jr. have excited fans, and utes off. And I think that’s
problematic in terms of at- ous low differential was in “These are trends that are Vladimir Guerrero Jr. could positive. It’s not huge, but
tendance.” April 2017, when there were not new. They’ve been a make his debut with Toron- it’s positive.”q