As for Baltimore’s series with the White Sox, those four games were during the week leading up to the Baltimore Grand Prix, which requires the city to shut down traffic in roads all the way around Camden Yards. A lot of people who work in the offices in the area don’t even go to work that week, due to parking and traffic issues, so even fewer were going to go to a ballgame. But yeah, a lot of the media took cheap shots at Baltimore over that without bothering to look in to why it was happening.

In the AL: attendance in Tampa Bay and Oakland still ranks at the bottom of the majors. Baltimore attendance is up by 4,033 over last year, but it still ranks 22nd in MLB and most of their post-break crowds, prior to last weekend’s Yankees series, have been pretty weak. (A weekday series hosting Chicago at the end of August averaged 11,758 announced ticket sales over 4 games.) Detroit attendance is up by 5,208 per game, although offseason spending and close contention for the division lead are probably more important drivers than their marginal contention in the wild card race. Angels attendance is strong, as usual, but down from last year as the team has played below expectations.

In the NL: Dodgers attendance is up, although still below 2004-10 levels; but there were some off-field reasons why it dipped last year, and I think their gate would have begun to recover this year, anyway (especially given the sale of the club and a team that led the division for most of the first half of the season). The usually strong St. Louis attendance is up 2,230–as one might expect after winning the World Series–ranking 6th in MLB, same as last year. Pittsburgh, which may have its first winning season since Bonds left, is up 2,347 at the gate and ranks 21st in MLB; lately, the Pirates are drawing good crowds on the weekends, but weekday series with the Cards and Astros in town weren’t so well attended. In Atlanta, although the Braves have the best record of NL teams in wild card position, attendance is down; as in Pittsburgh, they’re getting some good crowds on weekends, but weak midweek draws in the last month.

So, does it seem like fans are especially excited to see their teams in contention for a wild card spot? I don’t really see it.