Rays draw smallest MLB postseason crowd since 1919 with loss to Rangers

There were only 19,704 fans at Tropicana Field to watch the Tampa Bay Rays fall to the Texas Rangers 4-0 in Game 1 of the American League Wild Card Series. Here’s what you need to know:

• The last time a postseason game attracted so few fans (in a non-COVID-19 year) was Game 7 of the 1919 World Series, a best-of-nine series involving the Chicago White Sox and Cincinnati Reds. This series is best known for the betting scandal that led to eight members of the White Sox being banned for life (including pitcher Eddie Cicotte, who hit a complete-run win that afternoon at Redland Field).
• Tuesday’s game started at 3pm ET, and those who attended did not get a good showing from the home team. Tampa Bay played sloppy in its sixth straight postseason loss, recording four errors and managing just one extra-base hit despite an all-right-handed lineup against Texans’ lefty Jordan Montgomery. Rays shortstop Tyler Glasnow worked the sixth inning, walking five and allowing a wild pitch to score.
• Game 2 will be played in St. Petersburg on Wednesday at 3pm ET. With another loss, the Rays’ season will end before the divisional round for the second year in a row.

How does Tuesday’s game compare to other Rays games this year?

The Rays 31 had a larger regular-season crowd than Tuesday’s, but at least it was a larger crowd than usual. The Rays averaged 17,781 fans per game this season, their highest average attendance (in a non-COVID season) since 2014. They ranked 27th among baseball’s 30 teams in attendance this season, ahead of the Kansas City Royals The Miami Marlins and the Oakland A’s. . – Kepner

Continuing crowd struggles in Tampa Bay

This is the Rays’ ninth postseason appearance in the last 16 seasons, yet the team has always struggled to attract fans to its home stadium, which has the only non-recessed roof in MLB. Still, it’s a quirky and fun place to watch a game — real rays swim in a tank above the center field wall — but its location in St. Petersburg makes attending a game on the Tampa side of the Bay a chore for many fans. Game. The team hopes to build a new stadium, but it will also be located in St. Petersburg. – Kepner

What happened in 1919?

According to the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR), Game 7 of the 1919 World Series attracted only 13,923 fans because the Reds required fans to purchase tickets in groups of three games, and Game 7 was the fourth home game in the Series. Along with misunderstandings regarding individual ticket sales for Game 7, there were also long lines at the Reds ticket office which turned away fans.

what are they saying

“(The fans) that were there made it pretty loud, I feel like,” Rays shortstop Taylor Walls said. “It’s always nice to have the seats full, but at the same time, the people who showed up showed up and showed up. Hopefully tomorrow we can muster a little more effort and the atmosphere will be the same as it was today or a little better.

Required reading

(Photo: Mike Carlson/MLB Images via Getty Images)