Letters to the Editor
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A great WHAT?!
Dwyane Wade is a great flaming pile of fantastitude...
That, ladies and gentlemen, is why King Kaufman gets paid the big bucks.
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Average attendance or average weekend attendance?
Is 29,148 the average attendance or the average weekend attendance? Weekend games already draw more fans.
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Interleague play's time has passed (if it ever had a time)
Try as MLB might to create fake rivalries or "bragging rights" in cities with 2 teams, there is just no draw or intrigue in interleague play.
The only saving grace is when an American League team plays in a National League park, and we get to watch Career-AL pitchers like Mike Mussina take an at-bat, or an offense-heavy NL team get the advantage of a DH. But even that is fleeting and gets old fast.
If MLB insists on keeping Interleague play, then it should at least cut back a bit. Maybe one rivalry weekend, where the Mets/Yankees, Angels/Dodgers, Giants/A's, Cubs/Sox, etc play. Otherwise, I would honestly rather watch the Cubs and Cardinals play 6 series in a season, and ditto for the Yanks & Red Sox.
Baseball is about rivalries. But they need to be legitemate rivalries. No one cares about the Cardinals playing the Royals, at least since 1985. Or the Indians playing the Reds. Or Tampa Bay playing, well, anyone.
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Interleague Attendance
The Associated Press and others dutifully reported earlier this week that the first weekend of interleague play "drew a 26.4 percent attendance increase."
The 42 interleague games over last weekend drew an average of 36,483 fans, up 26.4 percent over the season average of 29,148.
That's a news story? Wow, that's pathetic.
When I saw the subtitle in the post, I assumed that the relevant comparison was with last year's interleague attendance, not the rest of this year.
That anyone thinks it's news that interleague games would bring out more fans, they are hopeless. Heck, rivalry-related hype aside, if nothing else the games are played with double the fanbase!
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Percents Math Lesson
Sorry, but these kind of things drive me crazy.
If attendance goes back to the regular average, it won't be down by 26.4% because your baseline will have changed.
The 26.4% is derived from (interleague attendance - average attendance)/ average attendance
you get something equivalent to 26.4/100 = 26.4%
The new calculation for the drop in attendance will be:
(average - interleague)/interleague
or something equivalent to 26.4/126.4 (about 20.9%)
Maybe the AP will use this number to say that as a result of interleague play interest in baseball actually has risen 5.5%
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Big Diesel
What is it that Big Diesels leak?
Never mind. I don't want to think about it any more.
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Another saving grace of interleague play
It is also fun to watch National League hitters trying to hit curves or changeups, in particular when they are thrown on an 0-0 or 3-1 count. A close second is the look on National League pitchers' faces when an AL hitter nails a 0-0 or 3-1 fastball (wow, it was like he knew it was coming!). As a Red Sox fan, I was sad to see Bronson Arroyo go and am thrilled at his success in Cincinnati; but he wasn't close to being the best pitcher in the AL last year and who is to say he is not in the top 2-3% of all NL pitchers?
I can live without interleague play. And, I can live without stories (sports or news) that throw out statistics with no context.
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I don't need no stinking subject
Regarding interleague play, I don't hate it. But when I was growing up, it was soooo cool that we had a sport with two completely distinct leagues that sent their champions off to play one another. I think it is ever so sad that we have lost that. In fact, I DO hate that loss. I wish we could get it back, but it is too late to put that genie back in the bottle.
- Kevin Madigan
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Press Release -----------> Article!
I'll bet anything those "articles" were copied almost word-for-word from a press release sent out from Major League Baseball. That's the saddest part of this story-- that a company sends out a press release that functions essentially as an advertisement, and newspapers print it with few to no changes.
My husband was a reporter for two years, and I know that kind of thing happens often, particularly at smaller papers. I wish every reporter or editor would give it the once-over you did, King. We'd have a far better media if that were the case.
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I love interleague play
Of course attendance spikes, because the games are intended to be interesting.
I know this is anathema to self-decribed purists, who see it as their sacred duty to ensure that baseball is as boring as possible.