Over the weekend we hit the magic mark on Ballpark Digest, setting a record for annual page views. And it’s only September! Thanks to each and every one of you for your patronage and support: We couldn’t do it without you. So far in 2014 we’ve generated 10,613,070 page views. That breaks last year’s mark […]
Tag Archives | 2013
Attendance news: Akron RubberDucks up almost 16 percent in ’14
A second straight year of attendance hikes for the Akron RubberDucks (Class AA; Eastern League), as the team enjoyed a 15.7 percent rise in 2014 over 2013 at Canal Park. This season’s total attendance was 350,704 in 68 openings, a 15.7 percent increase over 2013’s total attendance of 295,459 in 70 openings. That rise is […]
Ten million thanks this holiday season
Sometime late afternoon Saturday Ballpark Digest set a record for annual page views, with 10,265,887 so far for 2013. That’s slightly more than 2012 and 23 percent more than in 2011. When we launched ballparkwatch.com a decade ago, we didn’t dream it would turn into a full-fledged publishing company with multiple websites and books in […]
Charlie Eshbach crowned 2013’s King of Baseball
Today’s big news at the Winter Meetings: Minor League Baseball crowned Portland Sea Dogs (Class AA; Eastern League) President Charlie Eshbach the 2013 King of Baseball. The King of Baseball is a long-standing tradition in which Minor League Baseball salutes a veteran from the professional baseball world for long-time dedication and service. Eshbach celebrated his […]
AFL’s McGrath named Woman Executive of the Year
Another nice award: Arizona Fall League senior administrator Joan McGrath will be awarded the 37th Rawlings Woman Executive of the Year Award at this year’s Baseball Winter Meetings. As one of the Arizona Fall League’s five original staff members, Joan is the only remaining staff member and her resume boasts 22 seasons of continued service […]
Ballparks of the World Series: Boston and St. Louis
When the Boston Red Sox and the St. Louis Cardinals open the 2013 World Series tonight, it will mark the fourth time the teams have met in the ultimate postseason play. Here’s a look at the ballparks hosting the four Series. In 1946 the Cards defeated the Red Sox, four games to three, in a […]
Atlantic League schedules released; same lineup as ’13
Several independent Atlantic League teams released schedules for the 2014 season, with a league lineup remaining unchanged for the coming year. The league lineup: Bridgeport Bluefish, Camden Riversharks, Lancaster Barnstormers, Long Island Ducks, Somerset Patriots, Southern Maryland Blue Crabs, Sugar Land Skeeters and York Revolution. Left off the schedule: the Loudoun Hounds, who are facing […]
Rangers to reassign Purpura
In the wake of a disappointing season, the Texas Rangers are shaking up their front office and will reassign Tim Purpura, the team’s senior director of player development, to new duties for 2014. The news was reported by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Purpura is well-known at almost every level of baseball. Besides serving as general […]
New Charlotte Knights ballpark rendering posted
It just seems like yesterday saw the end of the 2013 season, and here we are looking forward to the 2014 season with this spiffy rendering of the new Charlotte Knights (Class AAA; International League) ballpark. The first game at BB&T Ballpark is set for April 11, 2014. The team spent 24 seasons at Knights […]
MiLB hits 41M fans for ninth consecutive year
A nice postscript to the attendance figures we posted yesterday: in 2013 Minor League Baseball attracted over 41 million fans for the ninth year in a row. MiLB recorded a 2 percent hike in attendance, hitting 41,553,781 total fans in 2013, some 275,000 over 2012’s total. “To experience increases in total and average attendance is […]
2013 Promotions of the Year: Lehigh Valley IronPigs
Normally we select a single promotion to honor during awards season, but this year the Lehigh Valley IronPigs blew that model out of the water with a trio of noteworthy promotions. The team is the winner of the Best Promotions in the 2013 Ballpark Digest Annual Awards. “As we reviewed submissions for best promotions in […]
2013 Baseball Attendance by Average
Here is the Big Kahuna of attendance rankings: we’ve combined our 2013 rankings of affiliated, independent and summer-collegiate attendance rankings into one, huge, 390-team list. This covers every affiliated, most independent and most summer-collegiate teams, ranked by average. A few indy leagues don’t report attendance, and many smaller summer-collegiate leagues either don’t charge for admission […]
2013 Independent Attendance by Average
Our final independent-baseball attendance ranking of the day: Here are 2013 independent attendance numbers, listed by average. These numbers are for the top indy leagues who actually report attendance figures; there are others who do not. There was stability in the four major independent leagues, with only one new team and no other franchise shifts. […]