A few curious fun baseball stats to point out to my fellow dedicated and tortured Phillies fans out there...
-In 1980, when the Phillies last sipped from the Stanley Cup (err, raised the Lombardi Trophy, err, sorry, it's been so long I forget what happens when a team wins the World Series), the team averaged 32,736 fans per game in the cavernous Vet Stadium which held over 60k. The team that year also had some of the most talented players this city's ever seen: Rose, Schmidt, Carlton, among others.
-In 1994, AFTER the Phils lost the World Series, the team averaged 38,183 fans per game to watch a comparatively wearier squad whose season got cut short by the infamous strike before the end of the year.
-Apparently Philadelphia is not very nostalgic about its ballparks. In 2003, the Phils attracted only 27,901 per game during the last ever season at the Vet, less than half the capacity. Ditto for the last season at Connie Mack Stadium when the attendance averaged 8,853 compared to a capacity of about 20,000. However in each of the following years, the attendance jumped about 50% and 120% respectively. Out with the old, in with the new!
-The Phils' first year of averaging over 10,000 people per game came in 1946, after WWII, when about 13,401 people came per game. Prior to that, the team's highest average attendance came in 1916 with 6,524 folks per game.
-Lastly, the Phils have had two years of 3,000,000 fans: 1993 and 2004. The Yankees, for comparison, have had 8 years in a row up through last season of 3,000,000+ fans. But I guess it helps being located in a city that has 6 times as many people in it than Philly has. But sheesh, every Yankees game should be sold out with 8 million people hanging around the city every day!
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