Attendance Is Not as Hot in Arizona

Bank One Ballpark is still something of a gold mine in the desert, but the Arizona Diamondbacks’ attendance was off a major league high 184,362 entering the weekend, a surprising plunge considering the off-season addition of Randy Johnson and others, along with the improved performance.

Of course, the expansion Diamondbacks had set a high standard last year by selling 36,000 season tickets and drawing 3.6 million to their retractable-roof ballpark. There was a curiosity factor that figured to ebb.

“Everyone in baseball had told us that attendance doesn’t really kick in during the first month or until school is out,” club president Richard Dozer said. “We had something of a first-year honeymoon in which people wanted to be part of it from the start.”

The honeymoon is over, which is not to say the Diamondbacks are hurting. They expected 40,000 or more for each of three weekend games against the Colorado Rockies and probably will draw more than three million again.

However, Arizona attendance may not be the automatic that it is in Colorado and Baltimore. As Dozer pointed out, the presence of the Cactus League enables Phoenix area fans to get their fill of baseball in March. In addition, there tends to be a desert exodus during the heat of summer.

After spending $118 million on free agents, the Diamondbacks raised ticket prices an average of 12% during the off-season, contributing to a loss of 10,000 in season sales.

Eleven major league teams currently show an attendance falloff, which speaks more to competitive disparity than a robust recovery from the prolonged labor dispute.

In Phoenix, however, the early elimination of the basketball Suns and hockey Coyotes from their respective playoffs has helped put the focus back on baseball, said Dozer, confident the decrease will not continue to increase.

The Houston Astros were dealt a twin blow during the off-season. RBI leader Moises Alou was lost for the year because of a knee injury and 11-1 Randy Johnson--in no surprise-- left to join his hometown Diamondbacks. In their bid for a three-peat in the Central Division, the Astros have survived nicely. They continue to boast the league’s most productive offense, and no pitching staff has permitted fewer runs.

Among the keys to that pitching: Touted rookie Scott Elarton, a future starter who the Toronto Blue Jays had insisted be included in any deal for Roger Clemens, has been brilliant in a setup role to closer Billy Wagner, and Jose Lima is 6-1 with a 2.86 earned-run average, improving to 22-9 since Manager Larry Dierker reluctantly put him in the rotation last year to replace injured Chris Holt, Ramon Garcia and Pete Schourek.

Lima is motivated by the skeptics.

“A lot of people talk about me being a fluke, and that offends me because I was consistent all of last season, and I’ve been consistent so far this season,” he said. “This is not a fluke.”

Amid the good start, however, the Astros had a bad week.

Rookie catcher Mitch Meluskey had season-ending shoulder surgery; reliever Doug Henry went on the disabled list because of elbow chips; first-base coach Jose Cruz took a leave of absence because of treatment for an irregular heart beat, and hitting coach Tom McCraw leaves today to begin treatment for prostate cancer.

Visiting San Diego this week, Florida Marlin Manager John Boles, tongue in cheek, expressed offense at a suggestion that the Padres had conducted a fire sale to rival that of Florida’s. No way, said Boles. After all, the Marlins are going down “as the king of dismantlers. I mean, ours was dismantling at its finest, record breaking.” Can anyone argue?