Phillies’ attendance drop cause for concern

Come to the game. Buy tickets wherever you please. Tailgate. Bring the family. Bring a group. All seats are open. Concession stands, too.

Those have become the essential rules at Citizens Bank Park, give or take lines of fine print, in recent days. Yet with that, these were the attendance figures for three good games against the NL East champion Atlanta Braves this week: 13,125, 13,552 and 14,261.

Were Subaru Park fully open, those would be considered lousy crowds for the Union’s MLS matches.

So how can a pretty good (not great) team in baseball’s No. 1 monopoly market regularly leaves 30,000 tickets unsold for significant division games? Some theories:

• Baseball has an entertainment problem, with too many strikeouts, not enough scoring, close-to-four-hour games and a latter-day reliance on a defensive shift that runs counter to the spirit of the game.

• It’s risky to break loyal customers’ buying habits in any business. With the onset of coronavirus restrictions across the continent last season, baseball went along with a plan to keep ticketbuyers away from ballparks and replace them with insulting cardboard cutouts. The fans learned that there were other things to do, including plenty that didn’t require dropping half-a-grand for a family to watch David Hale pitch and pay concession prices.

• The loosening of attendance rules was gradual and fuzzy. Plenty of people truly remain uncertain if they are allowed to go to games or if they will be treated like hazardous waste should they dare cross Packer Ave.

• The press, including the electronic and cyber variety, has not been permitted to fully tell the stories of the players, most of them good and informative, the kind that strengthens the bond with the fans.

• Hector Neris is the closer. Beyond that, there are the usual challenges. Most schools are open. There is construction on just about every road leading to the stadium complex. Inflation. A club that hasn’t been to the postseason in 10 years. So … panic? Not yet. The Yankees are in this weekend, and attendance will spike. The division is tight, and maybe the Phils will be in the race. School will be out soon. The word will spread that the ballpark has reopened.

Soccer is not replacing baseball on the list of popular pro sports in Philadelphia. But there have been enough reasons lately to scare the Phillies straight.

• • •

This, all of it, in one game. The commentary is from Joe Girardi.

• Rafael Marchan allowed a critical 10th inning run to score on a passed ball.

“That was a ball that not all catchers are going to get to. So to me, I thought he did a really good job because he was all over the place.”

• Odubel Herrera failed to catch a ninth-inning home run before it slipped over the short centerfield fence.

“I think what might have happened was that he thought it was going over his left shoulder. Then the wind caught it and it went over his right shoulder. And when he jumped to catch it, he was too close to the fence.”

• Jose Alvarado allowed two runs in the 10th, one on a wild pitch.

“Yeah, I mean, it’s what you’re going to get, ground balls, strikeouts and walks. To me, in a situation where there is a runner on second and nobody out, you really like two of the three things you get. I mean, it happens to him.”

Any more reason to wonder why the Phillies play such sloppy baseball, just about every inning?

• • • The college football postseason tournament is about to grow to 12 teams. That way it can be ruined like college basketball, where TV blabbermouths literally begin discussing NCAA Tournament ramifications in the first halves of November games.

In that spirit, if that kid from Texas doesn’t rush for at least 140 yards in that August opener, he’s not going to win the Heisman.

• Rudy Gobert, who always wins the award, again is the NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year. Joel Embiid made him look like a traffic cone when he dumped a 40-piece on him in March.

• • • Pete Alonso of the Mets is alleging that Major League Baseball deliberately adjusts the liveliness of the baseball based on the positional makeup of the next free-agent class.

If that has been an ongoing conspiracy, and there is no evidence that it is, then it would be the biggest scandal in the history of sports.

Any uncovering of that story would win a Pulitzer Prize. Owners would be made to sell, TV advertisers would run for cover, the players would be awarded billions in back pay and the entire sport could collapse.

So that was one tidbit that made a little news last week. Another was that LeBron James is changing his uniform number. That made more.

JULIO CORTEZ - THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Some rather bizarre conspiracy theory thoughts from New York Mets slugger Pete Alonso has a few people around the team and MLB up in arms.