Major-league attendance is down some six percent from last year and commissioner Rob Manfred points to horrendous early-season weather as one of the major reasons for the drop.
But, while there are races going on in most of the divisions other than the American League Central, there are many teams, mostly in the American League, that have no shot at competing for anything. That suggests that those teams’ attendance will be going south the rest of the season.
Detroit, Kansas City, the Chicago White Sox (perhaps Minnesota), Tampa Bay, Toronto, Baltimore, the Los Angeles Angels and Texas all are likely to be playing their final games of the season Sept.