The numbers are in and it’s looking like 2014 season will be more conducive to foul ball grabbing that the 2012 and 2013 seasons were. The reason, as the below graph shows, is because so many parks saw a decrease in attendance.
| Team 2013 Rank | 2013 | 2012 Data | |||||||
| RK | TEAM |
|
|
|
RANK |
|
|||
| 1 | LA Dodgers |
46,216 |
5 |
41040 |
5176 (#2+) |
||||
| 2 | St. Louis |
41,602 |
6 |
40272 |
1330 |
||||
| 3 | San Francisco |
41,584 |
4 |
41695 |
111 |
||||
| 4 | NY Yankees |
40,488 |
2 |
43733 |
(3245) |
||||
| 5 | Texas | 38,759 |
3 |
48114 |
(9355) (#1-) | ||||
| 6 | Detroit |
38,066 |
9 |
37387 |
679 |
||||
| 7 | LA Angels |
37,277 |
7 |
37799 |
-522 |
||||
| 8 | Philadelphia |
37,190 |
1 |
44021 |
(6831) (#3-) |
||||
| 9 | Boston |
34,979 |
8 |
37567 |
(2588) |
||||
| 10 | Colorado |
34,491 |
13 |
32474 |
2017 |
||||
| 11 | Washington |
32,745 |
14 |
30010 |
2735 (#3+) |
||||
| 12 | Chicago Cubs |
32,625 |
10 |
35589 |
(2964) |
||||
| 13 | Atlanta |
31,465 |
15 |
29878 |
1587 |
||||
| 14 | Toronto |
31,315 |
23 |
25921 |
5394 (#1+) |
||||
| 15 | Cincinnati |
31,288 |
16 |
28978 |
2310 |
||||
| 16 | Milwaukee |
31,248 |
11 |
34955 |
(3707) |
||||
| 17 | Minnesota |
30,588 |
12 |
34275 |
(3687) |
||||
| 18 | Baltimore |
29,105 |
20 |
26610 |
2495 |
||||
| 19 | Pittsburgh |
28,210 |
22 |
26148 |
2062 |
||||
| 20 | San Diego |
26,749 |
21 |
26218 |
531 |
||||
| 21 | NY Mets |
26,695 |
17 |
28035 |
(1340) |
||||
| 22 | Arizona |
26,355 |
19 |
26884 |
(529) |
||||
| 23 | Oakland |
22,337 |
27 |
20728 |
1609 |
||||
| 24 | Chicago White Sox |
22,105 |
24 |
24271 |
(2166) |
||||
| 25 | Seattle |
21,747 |
26 |
21258 |
(489) |
||||
| 26 | Kansas City |
21,614 |
25 |
21748 |
(134) |
||||
| 27 | Houston |
20,393 |
28 |
19848 |
545 |
||||
| 28 | Cleveland |
19,661 |
29 |
19797 |
(136) |
||||
| 29 | Miami |
19,584 |
18 |
27400 |
(7876) (#2-) |
||||
| 30 | Tampa Bay |
18,645 |
30 |
19255 |
(610) |
||||
The three parks with the worst odds for snagged a foul ball during a game are: Dodger Stadium (Odds weren’t bad last season, but the Dodgers’ success helped them increase average attendance by 5176 seats/game to beat out the Phillies, 2012s top attendance team, and the odds aren’t good), Busch Stadium (The Cardinals had a modest increase of 1330 seats), AT&T Park (The Giants’ 111 extra seats per game somehow bumped them up form 4th in 2012 to 3rd highest attendance in 2103).My table agrees with the one baseball-reference.com put up a while back, but I’ve focused on the “per game” attendance, since that’s what helps us figure out the odds of catching one during an average game.
Want to snag a foul ball during a game? Despite their success and having the first fan of the season to snag four fouls in one game (a Twins fan did the same thing later in the season, but he didn’t get all the publicity the Cleveland fan did), the Indians’ Progressive Field moved up from 29th last season to 28th. Want to improve your chances in this old park? Sit in the lower levels. Miami’s Marlin’s Park saw a slight dip of nearly 8000 fewer fans per game. They dropped from having the 18th highest attendance to 29th and now offer their fans the second best opportunity to snag a ball. The perennial champion for best park in which to snag a foul ball during a game remains Tropicana Field. The Rays remained the team with the worst attendance in MLB. But there’s “good” news for Rays fans, the odds of catching a foul became even better because the average game attendance dropped 610 seats.
Some things to note about both the above table and the one found at baseball-reference.com is that there was a modest drop in overall attendance per game—though the nearly 809,000 drop in overall attendance is a bit worrisome. My guess is that the economy, increasingly ridiculously high ticket and concession prices (in many venues) and the continued increase (real or perceived) in the length of games is slowly killing off attendance. Regardless, the drop in attendance is good news for fans trying to snag a ball.