Picking the pennant races should be enough for any baseball Boswell. But the information that major-league attendance, on an average, was up 21 percent in Tuesday’s 11 openers urges comment and another prediction. So we’ll let it fly:
It should be an outstanding season for America’s outdoor national pastime.
The aggregate average gate for Tuesday’s openers was 45,324 compared with 37,379 last year–certainly an impressive gain.
“Yes, I saw that,” acting Commissioner Bud Selig said Wednesday. “I watched games all day long. It’s always exciting when the season starts. I see this as the beginning of a renaissance. It’s the beginning of spring, and summer is not too far behind. I loved it. I’m sure I echo the sentiments of millions of people. It’s great watching baseball.”
Selig, in his fifth season as baseball’s primary caretaker, is supposed to plug the grand old game but, unlike a few of his predecessors, he is a genuine fan. More than likely, he has seen more games during his stewardship of the Milwaukee franchise than any other owner.
“What’s so wonderful about baseball is its unpredictability,” Selig insisted. “You can really figure out other sports, but you can’t do it in baseball. That’s what makes it the greatest game in the world.”
This was apparent again Tuesday in Toronto, when the White Sox opened with a 6-5 extra-inning victory over the Blue Jays. Sluggers Albert Belle and Frank Thomas, together, were 4 for 9, with three RBIs and a home run.
But the Sox didn’t win with power. The winning run scored on Ray Durham’s sensational scamper from first to home on an infield scratch that was accompanied by an error. The unpredictable scenario also was fueled by Norberto Martin’s ninth-inning, game-tying home run, his fifth homer in 446 major-league at-bats.
Like others, Jerry Reinsdorf, the White Sox chairman who was watching the game on television, almost fell out of his chair.
“It proves what I’ve always said,” Reinsdorf noted. “The guys on the bench can help win a lot of games. It was that way in ’83, when we won the division. The guy who lit the spark was Jerry Dybzinski, a utility infielder.”
Reinsdorf chuckled at the recollection.
“We have (a lot of) games to go. I don’t think we’ll remain undefeated.”
He was asked if Tuesday’s attendance was an indication the fans will be returning.
“If they like what they see, they’ll come back, not just here in Chicago but all over,” he replied. “It won’t happen in one bite. The people will have to come back in stages.”
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He also said he was pleased Thomas and Belle hit well in the opener.
“Now we can stop talking about how they only hit one home run between them in spring training,” he said. “I’m sure everybody understood they would be ready when the bell rang.”
Reinsdorf chided the media coverage of the Cubs’ Opening Day 4-2 loss to the Florida Marlins.
“I was very annoyed the way everybody banged the Cubs,” he said. “It was only one game. And anyway, very few teams look good against Kevin Brown.”
Whatever, win or lose–and all clubs will do both–an exciting season appears to be ahead. Chances are there will be a continuation of last year’s record home run barrage.
The two home runs by Seattle’s Ken Griffey Jr. on Tuesday were exciting, but older White Sox fans recall that even little Nellie Fox opened with a game-winning homer in Detroit in the pennant year of 1959.
This will be the first season of interleague play, which initially was recommended in the early 1920s by Bill Veeck’s father, William L. Veeck, who served as both the president and general manager of the Cubs. Baseball is slow in moving, which is among its charms. The bases are still 90 feet apart and three strikes and you’re out.
There will be a total of 214 interleague matchups, offered in three segments: June 12-18, June 30-July 3 and Aug. 28-Sept. 3.
Myself, I’m not sure I like the idea. But the boosters insist you can’t stop progress, etc. I disagree, but many of the moderns insist it will be a smash. We shall see.