Hey, if Boston doesn’t want to run away with the division, that’s cool. An old-fashioned pennant race would be awesome (go away Tampa, nobody invited you.) The wild card is not as attractive as it was in the past.
They do sell out. Right now, the Cubs typically play day games on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at home. Monday-Thursday games are typically at night except for the occasional getaway day games to conclude a series on a Wednesday or Thursday. As a popular ESPN team, they also have the occasional Sunday night game.
Wrigley night games SUCK in April and early May. I hate watching baseball in the cold, and I’m a real baseball fan. A couple of years ago, the Cubs opened on a Sunday for ESPN. During the day, the weather was quite pleasant, sunny and quite acceptable warmth for April. Once the sun went down, it turned quite cold and was a miserable night for baseball.
I am going to assume they want more night games because of all the changes to the surrounding area. They’ll sell a lot more beer and food at Cubs owned areas outside Wrigley for games starting at 7 PM than at 1 PM.
What about tv ratings? I’d assume they would be higher at night, but a quick Google isn’t giving me confirmation.
That is probably true. It will be very interesting to see how the cable cutting goes whenever the Cubs current broadcast contract is up. I’m sure they’d love to strike gold with their own cable network, but that ship may have sailed with the cable cutting trend.
Does that even mean anything, though?
What would drive a team’s road attendance up?
- They have fans away from their home market or fans who will travel to see them play elsewhere
- Rival fans go out of their way to see a really good team
I’m inclined to completely dismiss point 2 as even being a thing. I’ve never in my life known anyone who said “I’m not a fan of Team X, but they are in first place, so on the one occasion I can see a game, I’m going to that one.” People generally can’t make their plans that way. If I’m going to take the family to see a game, I’m going to pick the date based on what works for us; the opposing team is not even something I consider. Either that weekend works or it doesn’t.
As to the first point, there may be something there, and it would explain why the list is topped by LA, Chicago, and Boston, who have
- Wide popularity
- Relatively short trips to other MLB ballparks, including divisional rivals
The Reds are a weird outlier, but maybe it’s just who they’ve played.
There have been a few times I’ve gone out of my to base my attendance at a game based on a player on the other team who I was eager to see play live. I have done it for Pavel Bure in hockey and Tony Gwynn in baseball. But, I’m a huge sports fan and I agree that I’m an outlier and the average fan picks their games to go to based on when it is convenient to them and doesn’t really think about the opposing team unless it is a rivalry game.
Random question without much in the way of real-world implication: how common is it at the roughly 100-game mark of the season to have two teams on pace to win more than 100 games AND two teams on pace to lose more than 100 games?
Boy, Hawk Harrellson is going nuts[sup]*[/sup] over Lackey hitting three White Sox in the same inning. Not only is he not hoping for any warnings issued (so that the Sox can retaliate by drilling Lackey), but that the Sox should wait until after the game to exact revenge.
[sup]*I mean, more nuts than usual.[/sup]
- They’re in a division with teams that have high attendance.
An obvious candidate.
Not exactly obviously true though. LAD, first in road attendance, shares their division with:
SF: 3rd
COL: 8th
SD: 19th
ARZ: 22nd
The Cubs are second. In their division:
STL: 2nd
MIL: 15th
PIT: 24th
CIN: 25th
Boston is third:
TOR: 4th
NYY: 5th
BAL: 18th
TB: 30th (by a frightening margin)
Maybe, I dunno. Every division has some dogs. I haven’t done a lot of math tho.
The Dodgers have now won 48 straight games in which they have held a lead at any time during the game. That’s some nice relief pitching.
Even without Kershaw this team is a juggernaut. It’s sort of insane that any team could lose a pitcher like Kershaw for 2 months and just not skip a beat, but their depth is amazing.
I read an article recently in fangraphs making the case that they should not panic buy Darvish like everyone expects them to because as good as he is, he can’t move the needle much because it’s already so far over.
The Red Sox have rented Eduardo Nunez from the Giants. Good move; lets them break Devers in more gradually. But that’s still only 1 guy in the lineup who’s been hitting lately. Gotta shake something up beyond that.
The impact of any one player is always wildly exaggerated. Clayton Kershaw is a great pitcher, but the difference between having him and not having him for six weeks is - on the high end - two games in the standings. I know that sounds weirdly low, but it’s true (and makes perfect sense if you really think about it.)
Given that the Dodgers have effectively buried the division, trading ANYTHING of any value to replace Kershaw for two months would be stupid. He’ll be back in plenty of time to get a few starts in before the playoffs begin (the injury is not quite as serious as initially reported) and the Dodgers will be in first place, so, really, nothing will be different.
Because the last time the Sox got a 3B from SF, it worked out so well. We’ll see.
Well Nunez can field at least and he’s been hitting this year. As a bonus he can play more than just third.
Though as a Yankee fan I hope it works out as well as the Panda did.
I’m not really familiar with the minor leaguers Boston gave up, so I say it’s a fine move. Nunez is kind of a journeyman, but as you say, hopefully he’ll allow the team to easily transition Devers to full time.
Speaking of arranging game attendance based on seeing players, I have had the worst luck seeing players I want to see in person. When I was a kid my dad took me all the way to Chicago to see Nolan Ryan pitch. He was scratched that morning and I saw Charlie Hough, instead. Man, I was pissed. And Wade Boggs was my favorite player, so we tried to see the Red Sox whenever they were nearby. Of the dozen or so times I saw Boston while Boggs was on the team, I only actually saw him play twice. And last year we went to Toronto to see the Red Sox over Memorial Day so my son and I could get to see David Ortiz one last time. R.A. Dickey pitched for the Jays, so Papi took the day off. Terrible luck, I’m telling you.
That has to be the single most “opposite” experience one can imagine: from fireballing strikeout artist to practitioner of the slowest pitch in baseball. 
I admit to being a little puzzled as to why the transition can’t simply be “Rafael plays third base now.” Is he ready for MLB or not?
If he’s not - and he’s not even 21, so that would be very understandable - then why bring him up? Let him beat up guys at Pawtucket so he’s hitting every day and give him a taste in September.
R.A.Dickey’s knuckler nears 80. I’ve seen curves thrown in the high 60s to low 70s.