White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf, responding Sunday to criticism of his team and its ballpark, blamed bad weather and the absence of a collective-bargaining agreement for small crowds at Comiskey Park.
“Would you buy a ticket to come out here today?” asked Reinsdorf at an on-field news conference before Sunday’s 10-5 loss to Oakland in 39-degree weather and a 17-m.p.h. east wind. “It’s brutal. The people who come out should be praised.”
The Sox averaged 19,221 tickets sold as they completed their first homestand of the season.
“There are 25,000 good lower-deck seats,” said Reinsdorf. “The park was filled from 1991 through 1994. It’s much better than old Comiskey Park where concrete fell.”
Reinsdorf said he favors scheduling a cutback from 162 to 154 games “if the players pitch in too” and accept lower salaries for the shorter season.
“No, the fans are not 100 percent back to baseball,” he said, “and they won’t be until we have a labor agreement.”
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Foul play: Pitch counts weren’t popular 50 years ago when Sox shortstop Luke Appling was annoying pitchers by fouling off a half-dozen or more pitches in a single time at bat.
But in the mid-1990s, when a high pitch count can hook a starter almost as often as a rash of base hits, maybe a team could use a “designated fouler.”
The subject came up after 36 foul balls off Oakland bats raised Wilson Alvarez’s pitch count to 122 and caused him to be lifted after 5 2/3 innings of shutout ball Saturday.
What would happen if a contact hitter, such as shortstop Ozzie Guillen, tried deliberately to foul off pitches to run up an opponent’s pitch count?
“I’d be up there a long time,” said Guillen. “I can make contact. I’d foul them off.”