Phun with Numbers: Looking at the Phillies' Attendance Figures

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!

The Amazing Google Presents: Don Carman

For some reason, Don Carman's name popped into my head today. One of those bursts of disconnected thoughts while driving (yes, in my car, man) today. Yes, the unheralded Philadelphia Phillies pitcher of the mid-80s or so some how crept into my mind.

So I decided to put fingers to keyboard (the new version of putting pen to paper) and see what his name brought up in a Google search. Boy was I shocked when I saw so many occurences of his name (1,120,000 results to be exact)! Being the good guy that I am, here's a quick summary of what I found...

Take for instance, this news story from ABC in Philly. Apparently, Mr. Carman was going through his garage and found a box of 200 letters. He replied to all of them, and one happened to be to a kid who had requested an autograph on a baseball card. He courteously signed the card and sent it back to the guy... 16 years after receiving it. That's pretty cool!

I also like this list of cliches and wisecracks that Carman used when responding to questions from reporters. My personal favorite is: "We need two more players to take us over the top: Babe Ruth & Lou Gehrig." If you played for the Phils during the time that he did... I think even Ruth and Gehrig might have needed more help to get that team over the top.

And surprise, surprise... even Don Carman has his own Wikipedia page. He really must have made it big time! If the following statistic from that page is true, then I owe Carman some big props:

Carman held All-Stars Craig Biggio, Ken Griffey, Jr., Jeffrey Leonard, Pete Rose, Larry Walker, and Matt Williams to a .025 collective batting average (1-for-40)

And lastly, if this little anecdotee is true, then I'm about to go out and find where Carman lives and meet him at the bar...

Till next time, keep the Philly Sports Quest alive!

Charles Barkley: A Flaky Legacy?

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border="0" alt="" /> Most people remember Charles Barkley
as one of the bestrebounders to ever play the game. Indeed, having
12,546 rebounds in his career (not including the 1,582 he had during
his playoff career) will solidify that reputation. I certainly remember
his prowess under the boards during his years with theSixers.

But one of his lesser-considered or lesser-remembered legacies was his stance against "flaky white stuff" under the armpits. Ok, so maybe it wasn't his idea to campaign against this cosmetic faux-pas
as much as it was a marketing ploy, but he wound up being the ideal
model to fight against it since his arms were always up in the air
grabbing for rebounds.

And just think about how effective his
campaign was for Right Guard: watch a game of basketball today and I
guarantee that you will not see any unseemlyflaky white stuff under the
arms of basketball players. He undoubtedly revolutionized this scourge
over 10 years ago when most basketball players couldn't raise their
arms without exposing chunks of white deodorant in their pits.
Fortunately, we no longer have this problem.

Well done Sir Charles, well done!

Baseball Stirrups... What's the Deal?

Since the early days of tossing the ole' rawhide, baseball teams around the country had uniforms that involved players wearing stirrups. Indeed, some teams are even named after these laundry items. Red Sox, White Sox. (Intimidating names they aren't, but try changing their names and see what their fans think.)

Yet nowadays, players wear their baseball pants like chef pants-- big and baggy and hanging all the way down to the heel of their cleats, thus covering up any sign of socks at all. What happened there?

In fact I can't even find real stirrups in sporting goods stores-- just those bogus tube socks with a painted stripe down the side. Unreal!

I truly miss the days of bright, bold stirrups. They look like you stand for something. They look like they're part of a well-cut uniform. They accent the uniqueness of baseball.

Silly-looking, perhaps. But dammit, I want stirrups back in baseball.

The NBA: Ball + Basket = Billions

This past Wednesday, I went to see the Sixers play (and defeat) the Phoenix Suns at the Wachovia Center, the first game I've gone to in well over a year. The game was pretty good, save for the fact that Steve Nash was visibly not 100% and Shawn Marion was out for the game, thus rendering the Suns less potent than usual, but all in all it was a fun time.

While at the game I did some thinking. I saw Ed Snider-- the Sixers' President who represents Comcast, the team's owner-- walking around his establishment that holds around 20,000 fans on a full night. He watched his investments, errr, players who are collectively paid about $40-50 million run up and down the court. He undoubtedly smiled as he watched ticket-purchasing customers spend more hard-earned money by devouring overpriced food and beverages. And perhaps he thought about the income he would get from people who paid for parking, team gear, and other in-stadium purchases. And I'm sure he didn't forget the hundreds of ads that are plastered on the walls and other marketing messages announced throughout the game. He's got a lot to smile about... There's a lot of money floating around this building in just this one evening.

And all for putting a ball through a rim.

Think about it for a moment. A handful of guys in shorts, sleeveless jerseys, and sneakers run back and forth on a wood court trying to get a ball through a metal hoop. And people will pay tremendous amounts of money to witness it.

In fact, I did a quick estimate based on last year's Forbes Franchise Values and found that the NBA's teams are collectively worth well over $7 billion. All for getting that bouncy leather ball into a circular basket.

Is that unballievable or what?