(Man, this ended up longer than I planned.  Be warned, I’m talkative today!) If you go to a ball game and stay long enough to see the attendance boasted on the video board, you have often looked around and asked, “Where are these people?”  Most fans of MLB who go to more than a few games figured out easily enough that the announced attendance and the amount of butts in the seats usually aren’t the same.  Back in the day (“the day” being between 2003 and 2005) the figures at Fenway were probably a lot more in sync with each other but anyone can look at the film of last night’s Red Sox/A’s game and see that there certainly weren’t 37,225 people in the park. The thing that annoys me about announcing the attendance during a game is every team that does it (do they all do it?) does it in the late innings in an effort to try and make the fans think they’re telling you how many people passed through the turnstiles.  Technically, MLB makes no secret that the attendance they count is tickets sold but once you get to the park they must think the beer and [...]

read more: Dear Rays fans: Go to a damn game