Well, those 1st round Wild Card Games seemed to be one and done. All teams won without having a third game.
Two teams on the road won and two home teams.
Maybe what I said yesterday...
2023 MLB playoffs: Rays See Historically Low Attendance for Game 1 of AL Wild Card Series vs. Rangers
The Rays had the lowest attendance for a playoff game in over 100 years
The Rays have been the target of low attendance for years now, and their average attendance was 17,781 in the 2023 regular season. That ranked 27th, and only the Kansas City Royals (Jonn?!?), Miami Marlins and Oakland Athletics were lower.
So, the Florida MLB teams, both of whom are in the play-offs, don't even draw attendance???I'm looking to see if I can find any reason for that?*
*So one thing I read, the Tampa area isn't that populous, perhaps, to support a large attendence. Another thing I read says a lot of people who live in Florida come from other states and hold their allegiances to the teams where they're from.
Maybe the low attendance for the Rays and Marlins had
something to do with the their losses? One at home (Rays) and the other on the road (Marlins). On the road the Marlins might have been unnerved by all the noise in the stadium they aren't used to with teams that draw fans. At home playing in front of few fans the Rays may have felt unappreciated or unloved and who knows if this might be a factor? I know the Dodgers players love it on the road when so many Dodgers fans travel to their away games. Maybe some players don't care. Maybe that's why the Rays got to the World Series in 2020, because of all teams they were used to no fans in the stands and it didn't bother them. Just wondering about this.
In any case, Fritz and Jeff, in the next round, we three are all rooting for teams that are not playing against each other, to start!
Texas at Orioles, Phillies at Atlanta and Arizona at Dodgers! That leaves Twins at Astr*s. For that series I believe it's clear who I'm rooting for!
I looked to see how the Twins fared playing them this year:
@ Home
Thu, Apr 6: POSTPONED
Fri, Apr 7: W 3-2 F/10
Sat, Apr 8 W 9-6
Sun, Apr 9 L 5-1
@ Astr*s
Mon, May 29 W 7-5 F/10
Tue, May 30 L 5-1
Wed, May 31 W 8-2
The Twins won 4 of the 6 games. This may not mean much as all of the games were in the 1st 1/4 of the season and things can change with teams by the end, but it's hopeful! Two of the games they won in extra innings as well. I'm confused about that POSTPONED game. Did they play it? Teams normally play Fri., Sat. and Sundays. Thursday's are usually off days for teams. They wouldn't have been scheduled Thurs.-Sat.? The Twins total games W/L is 162, so they played all their games.
Not that any of this matters to anyone else, but I did look up their schedule on the MLB site. That Thursday game was listed as Apr 6 POSTPONED: INCLEMENT WEATHER. MAKEUP ON APR 7. They were in Florida on Wednesday and were supposed to play at home on Thursday and have Friday off, then play the same team again on Sat. and Sunday? Doesn't make sense. The postponed game was also their home opener. They also had a game at home with the White Sox on Monday, another mostly off day, so maybe they were given a strange schedule, but I don't get the reasoning!
