The first spring training of the replacement era is putting a new twist on an age-old riddle:
If a pop fly drops in between two outfielders but no one is there to see it fall, does it make a sound?
That question is being answered as teams from West Palm Beach to Tucson are finding out what it’s like to play in noise-free ballparks. While some may argue the caliber of baseball being played in Florida and Arizona is better than expected, there is no debating the fact that few fans are plunking down the cash to watch the non-major-leaguers play.
Kansas City drew fewer than 1,000 fans in its two home games, while the White Sox are about 5,800 below their 1994 home exhibition average.
The Cubs, who averaged 8,496 last spring, have sold an average of 3,508 tickets to their three games so far. However, fewer are actually attending. For Wednesday’s game, 2,522 tickets were sold but only 1,513 attended. For the first two games (which drew 4,061 and 3,942), actual attendance appeared to be less than half the number of tickets sold.
The attendance issue even caused a change in Cactus League policy: Beginning Wednesday, teams announced the number of fans who actually showed up as well as tickets sold.
It’s the same story everywhere, though some maintain that the only numbers that matter will come when the regular season begins.
“What most people lose sight of is there are a number of fans who make plans to go to Florida and to the spring training cities,” Atlanta General Manager John Schuerholz said. “They plan those vacations around those baseball teams, and when they saw the major-league players were continuing their strike, they came to the realization, I suppose, that they didn’t want to spend their money. So spring training attendance is off, but that’s understandable. That’s no reflection of the acceptance of spring training baseball.”
Attendance figures for the first 20 home games in the eight-team Cactus League was almost exactly one-third of last year’s figures: 120,140 for the first 20 games of 1994; 41,878 for the first 20 games of ’95. And those numbers mainly reflect tickets sold, not actual attendance.
Teams are acting to help regular-season attendance. On Wednesday, the White Sox announced discounts of 50-75 percent on tickets for the first 13 home games, regardless of whether the strike is settled. The Cubs had already announced tickets through May 3 would be half price.
White Sox catcher Ron Karkovice believes the paltry numbers will provide an impetus for the owners to compromise and end the seven-month-old dispute.
“I’d think so,” Karkovice said. “That’s a lot of money they’re going to lose. We’re losing money, too, but they’ll still have to pay the replacement players. I think it might influence them to get something done.”
Will the lack of interest by fans make owners push harder for a settlement?
“I don’t know that it will have any bearing whatsoever,” said Baltimore general manager Roland Hemond replied.
With fewer fans buying advance tickets, some clubs are quicker to cancel games. Monday, two of the four Cactus League games were canceled due to poor weather, though in any other spring they would have tried to get them in. The other two games drew a total of 2,000 fans.
Many of the games, if not most of them, have been relatively well played, albeit not on the same level as a typical major-league game. But when they’re bad, they’re really, really bad.
Wednesday afternoon, the White Sox committed seven errors in a 7-6, 10-inning loss to Detroit in Lakeland, Fla., including two by Pete Rose Jr. that led to the Tigers scoring the tying and winning runs. In one San Diego-San Francisco game last week, played before 612 fans, there were 12 walks, 4 errors, 3 wild pitches and 2 passed balls.
“Some plays are entertaining,” said San Diego manager Bruce Bochy. “I’m not going to lie. You chuckle a little bit.”
White Sox replacement pitcher Dennis “Oil Can” Boyd said he doesn’t mind pitching in front of crowds smaller than those at high school basketball games.
After averaging 7,260 fans last year, the Sox drew 1,504 and 1,345 in their first two home games.
“That’s fine,” Boyd said. “That’s the most I’ve seen at a spring training game. When I was in Winter Haven with Boston most of my career, there were a lot of days with crowds like that.”
Pirates replacement pitcher Jimmy Boudreau blamed the media for the sparse crowds.
“Unfortunately, the press has targeted more of the negative than the positive,” he said. “They build everybody as being out of shape and old pickup games kind of. It’s unfortunate when you see a picture in the paper, they show the two fans way out in the left-field bleachers as opposed to the other ones.”
Pittsburgh manager Jim Leyland said he doesn’t think about the lack of crowd noise during a game. He’s simply trying to get through the most agonizing spring training of his life.
“The first day was a real tough day, but after the initial shock, I think you set back and realize you have to do what you have to do and just go about your business,” Leyland said.
“Sometimes, you’ve got to do things that aren’t pleasant to do,” said St. Louis manager Joe Torre. “If you only had the chance to do things you wanted to do, the job would be easy. The way I look at it, every once in a while, you have to go to the dentist.”
Managers, players and fans have been feeling like yo-yos of late, getting their hopes up with news of a breakthrough in talks, and then getting those hopes dashed in short time.
“The one tough part is that you hear a sign of hope, and then the next day they break off talks,” Leyland said. “And then another sign of hope and they break off talks. Right now, we have to assume this is what we’re going to be dealing with. For how long? We don’t know. We’re just going to have to make the best of an awkward situation.”
