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COMMENTARY : Many Baseball Fans Just Don’t Seem Wild About Wild Cards

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ASSOCIATED PRESS

Good thing there’s a crowd of teams left in the wild-card race, because there sure aren’t any crowds going to see their games.

There were just 15,000 fans at Yankee Stadium this week and fewer than that at the Astrodome. There were 9,000 in Texas this month and only 500 left in the stands in Kansas City when Wednesday night’s game ended.

Wild-card fever? Where?

“A lot of baseball people have tried to make the wild card out to be some game-saving, season-saving entity,” said Toronto’s Paul Molitor, surrounded by empty seats in New York. “I don’t think a lot of fans are as turned on by it. It’s not quite the same.”

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A few days ago, Yankees manager Buck Showalter sat in his office, wondering how many people might show up in New York for Game 1 of the expanded playoffs.

“It’s not like you’re going to have a ticket stub you’ll want to show your grandchildren: ‘This is from the Yankees’ first wild-card playoff series,”’ he said.

Billed as a way to keep more teams involved in the race, the wild-card concept has worked. Going into the weekend, 10 or so teams could still wind up winning one of the two extra playoff spots.

But as a way to attract people to the parks, it’s not happening. At least, not yet.

“You’d think more fans would be here,” Houston pitcher Doug Drabek said. “It would be great to have more fans and it would help.”

“I don’t know the real reason, but I do know this is what the fans want and the players want, a chance to make the playoffs,” he said. “Maybe what happened last winter has something to do with it, but I can’t really say.”

Then again, declining attendance has been a problem all season, with crowds down about 20%. There are plenty of reasons, among them:

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--”I believe strike residue has something to do with it,” Molitor said.

--Attendance often drops, especially for weeknight games, when kids return to school.

--Many fans find it easier to follow their teams on television.

Still, this is a time when interest usually begins to build. So far, it hasn’t.

The Seattle Mariners, in position to make the playoffs for the first time in their 19-year history, had trouble drawing even 25,000 to see their push to win either the AL West or the wild card.

The Boston Red Sox, traditionally one of baseball’s top attractions, did not sell out Fenway Park on Wednesday night when they clinched the AL East. The Cincinnati Reds, on their way to the NL Central championship, had 9,000 no-shows and attendance of only 9,000 for a game this month, and couldn’t sell out their postseason tickets when they offered by phone.

Only fans of the Cleveland Indians and Colorado Rockies, it seems, are fully wrapped up in postseason prospects. Los Angeles and California, both in the races that might go down to the last day, have tickets available.

“Guess I’d be lying if I said it’s not disappointing that there’s not a little more interest, a little more excitement,” Yankees pitcher David Cone said.

There’s lots of room left in Kansas City, where crowds this week have been around 12,000 for games that are helping determine the wild-card chase.

“I can’t explain it anymore,” Royals vice president for operations Dennis Cryder said. “We’ve spent more money in advertising in 1995 than we ever have before.”

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Royals reliever Jeff Montgomery recently was talking about the trouble with pitcher Mark Gubicza, and neither came up with an immediate solution.

“We were wondering what would happen if we get into the World Series. Would we sell out then?” Montgomery said.

“I don’t think so,” he said. “I bet there would still be lots of empty seats.”

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