"Too Much Information" is an underrated Police song, as well as very appropriate in this day and age. It happened to come on my playlist as I was walking home from Citi Field after Tuesday night's loss to the New York Mets of my native borough of Queens. Being the information addict I have now become, I regularly check my Twitter account now on my magic Internet phone. The past few days the talk has been the attendance of this premiere, fully packed, we're going to charge you more money to see it , crosstown, over the Triboro Bridge interleague matchup between the Yankees and Mets. Well I was there and I can confirm it was not packed. I can also confirm that Yankee Stadium has better nacho toppings than Citi Field. It's the small victories.
You should very well know that I dislike interleague. While the Mets and Yankees facing off against each other might be fun, I dislike the notion of it and what it has done to the baseball scheduling and yada yada yada you know the drill. Having said that, I've been to my fair share of Mets/Yankees interleague games. I won't lie that I prefer seeing these match ups in Queens. It's not that I like Citi Field better than Yankee Stadium, because I don't. Except for the food. It's that Citi Field is a twenty five minute walk from my house while Yankee Stadium is a train/bus ride away. Needless to say I've been to interleague games at Old Yankee Stadium, New Yankee Stadium, Shea, and Citi Field. You know, to ironically show how much I dislike it with my cheering and paying more money and such. That'll learn 'em.
Back to attendance. It was down and during my walk back home I was going over the reasons why. It could be quite a number of things. Mets fans do not have much to look forward to this season, considering their troubles. Even though Tuesday was what I've heard my Mets fan friends refer to as Matt Harvey Day, it was still not enough to draw a full crowd in Citi Field to see him out pitch Hiroki Kuroda and the Yankees. Speaking of the Yankees, you've seen their lineup. When Lyle "Four days of training" Overbay is batting cleanup, it doesn't exactly fill your pinstriped heart with much glee no matter how many clutch hits he may have. It's still Lyle "No really, he had four days of training and wasn't Juan Rivera awful" Overbay batting cleanup. Zippidy Do Dah! (Sorry, still have the brain on Disney)
I also factored in the pouring rain as well. It was like Prospero wanted Jeter, Tex, and Granderson restored to their rightful place in the lineup. I know I'd like that. I'd also like to control the weather as well. Magic or not, no one was certain that the game would actually be played that night. That could have kept fans away for the evening. The one thing to consider though is that most of these tickets are bought in advance so the rain was probably not that big of a deterrent. We'll cross it off the list. Screw you, Prospero.
Another factor is the timing of these four games. Unlike most Mets/Yankees interleague series, these were played during the week instead of the usual weekend Buck & McCarver/ESPN Sunday Night Baseball handjob fests they usually are. I'm told people work during the week and can't always take the time to go see a baseball game at night when they have to be up 6-7 hours the next morning. Especially when both Citi Field & Yankee Stadium charge extra for the privilege of seeing Jayson Nix and Ruben Tejada play live to the tune of $9 for a beer.
One thought I also considered was that we've finally reached a point where we have too much interleague. Interleague used to be a limited thing and now there's just an abundance of it. Perhaps so much so that even the fun of crosstown matchups have been drowned out. The Big Apple isn't the only one to feel the effects. The Cubs and White Sox attendance was lower as well in the Windy City. I'm sure Hawk's enthusiasm will make up for it though. Maybe fans are just bored of it now.
One or all of these factors could be behind the lower attendance during these four games. It could be anything really. Perhaps Yankee fans are saving their hard earned cash to spend on the upcoming Red Sox weekend series that will contain the aforementioned Buck & McCarver/ESPN Sunday Night Baseball handjob for the TV viewing fans to witness. Previous years I would hope that lower attendance for these games might mean that interleague would be coming to a stop. That's no longer a possibility now.