The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Schudel: Turnover hurts game attendance
Rosters are so fluid fans cannot count on their favorite player being on their favorite team for long.
Major League Baseball Commissioner Robert Manfred keeps coming up with theories about why attendance keeps dropping. His latest brainstorm, really more of a light drizzle, is to make relief pitchers face a minimum of three batters. That way restless fans won’t have to spend so much time at the ballpark because fewer pitching changes will make games end sooner.
If and when baseball start up in 2020, it might be played in empty stadiums in Florida and Arizona because of the novel coronavirus pandemic. But someday things will return to normal, and then the “What’s wrong with baseball?” debate will resume.
I believe the bigger problem is rosters are so fluid fans cannot count on their favorite player being on their favorite team for long. He might leave through free agency. He might be traded or simply replaced by someone younger.
Rarely does he retire to a standing ovation the way David Ortiz did in Boston or Derek Jeter did with the Yankees.
I began this project by going back to the Indians’ opening day roster in 2016 to recall how many players from that World Series team are still on the roster. Carlos Carrasco is the only pitcher remaining from that team. Roberto Perez, now the starter, backed up catcher Yan Gomes. Tyler Naquin is the only outfielder still around.
Shortstop Francisco Lindor, third baseman Jose Ramirez and first baseman Carlos Santana were on the 2016 team, but Santana should have an asterisk next to his name because he was reacquired in a trade with Seattle in 2019 after signing with the Phillies as a free agent in 2018.
The Indians are actually more stable than other teams.
The Pirates had the fourthlowest home attendance in the majors last year with an average crowd of 18,412 in PNC Park, one of most fan friendly stadiums in baseball.
Outfielder Gregory Polanco is the only player on the Pirates 2020 roster that was on the team in 2016.
The Royals won the 2015 World Series. Four Royals are back from their 2016 team: Catcher Salvador Perez, outfielder Alex Gordon plus pitchers Danny Duffy and Ian Kennedy.
Baseball wonders why young people are more attracted to the glitz of the NBA than the tradition of baseball. Basketball has its own issues with free agency, as evidenced by the Cavaliers’ demise since LeBron James used free agency to leave a second time.
The difference is young people follow their NBA heroes more than they follow a particular team. A 10-year-old might follow the Bucks now because he likes Giannis Antetokounmpo. If “the Greek Freak” signs with another team, then his team will become that youngster’s favorite team.
Baseball is also different because a fan’s favorite player gets the chance to do something special maybe four times a game
when he gets to home plate. Antetokounmpo might touch the basketball 60 or more times a game.
Lindor is the favorite player of multiple generations of Indians fans. The older crowd knows Lindor’s days in a Tribe uniform are numbered. Fans might circle their calendar when Mike Clevinger or Shane Bieber pitch, but they are on the mound only once every five days.
Young fans need heroes. For that matter, older fans still want heroes in stay a hometown uniform. Maybe it makes those of my generation think back to the days when we would put a transistor radio under the pillow and try to stay awake to hear Vic Davalillo, Tito Francona or Woodie Held bat one more time.
Manfred can go a long way to solving baseball’s attendance woes if he could discover a way to assure fans their favorite team won’t keep going through constant change.