The Angels for last night's game against the Mariners drew the smallest home crowd of the season, as many fans were "no doubt in front of their televisions" to watch the Rams' first game since moving back to L.A., according to Jeff Fletcher of the ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER. Announced attendance was 29,932, but the actual crowd at the Angel Stadium "seemed to be significantly less than the paid total" (ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER, 9/13). In L.A., Pedro Moura notes at first pitch, the outer sections down either foul line "were entirely vacant." By the ninth inning, "no more than a few thousand fans" remained at the ballpark. The Angels' 29,932 tickets sold was the "lowest number they had announced since June 3, 2015" (L.A. TIMES, 9/13).
LONG DIVISION: In St. Louis, Rick Hummel writes attendance is "down in the major leagues by an average of 304 fans per home game, and it’s only going to get worse with school starting and few races of significance." The "only real division race going this year" has been the AL East. This has led to a "drop of some 738,000 across baseball's board." There were nine MLB games last Wednesday alone that "attracted under 20,000 fans." The Reds are "down about 468,000 from last year." The Orioles are AL contenders, but the team is "down 226,000." Hummel: "Surely, part of the overall decline is due to the lack of division races" (ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, 9/13).
