The Count: Does Interleague Play Really Boost Attendance?

One of the top justifications for Major League Baseball's interleague play, now in its 13th season, is that it increases attendance.

Last month MLB.com spotlighted the 100 millionth fan to attend a game pitting a National League team against an American League opponent in the interleague era, which replaced the previous era in which AL-NL matchups came only during the All-Star Game and the World Series. "Now in its 13th season, Interleague Play has been a big hit with baseball fans," MLB.com reported, adding, "From 1997-2008, attendance at Interleague games was 11.8 percent higher than the average attendance for intraleague games." Commissioner Bud Selig said, "Major League Baseball has set its attendance record in four of the last five years, and Interleague Play has been a key to that success."

But that 11.8% increase is highly misleading, according to Eric Rosen's analysis of the numbers for interleague games between 2000 and 2008 at Beyond the Box Score. Rosen noted that two-thirds of interleague games were played on Friday, Saturday or Sunday, compared to 45% for intraleague games. And it's always easier to draw a crowd for weekend games. Correcting for day of the week, Rosen found that the supposed increase was roughly halved.

Moreover, 87% of interleague games were played in June and July, prime months for baseball attendance. Compared to other games in those months on the same day of the week, interleague games had higher attendance of just 0.4%. "If the interleague games weren't lumped onto Friday, Saturday and Sunday, there would be practically no difference in attendance [about 1000 total extra tickets per team per year, maybe 100 per game]," Rosen wrote.

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Three Strikes: Hall of Fame Tag Team Edition

STRIKE ONE -- HALL OF FAME TAG TEAM DEPT.: In the last edition of Three Strikes, I passed along my favorite little Jeff Kent pearl -- that his career and Greg Maddux's career ended in the same game (NLCS Game 5), and, in fact, Maddux's farewell came when Kent pinch-hit for him.

So the question was: If they both turn out to be Hall of Famers, how unique would that be?

Well, the great thing about having such an astute audience is that all I had to do to find out was something that always pays a better rate of return than my money-market account: I turned this research project over to all you Useless Infomaniacs out there.

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Another relentlessly inventive loyal reader, Eric Rosen, embarked on a slightly different project -- Hall of Famers whose careers ended on the same day, but not in the same game:

• Oct. 3, 1993 -- Robin Yount and George Brett
• Sept. 30, 1956 -- Monte Irvin, Bob Feller and Jackie Robinson
• Sept. 29, 1935 -- Rabbit Maranville and Earle Combs
• Sept. 2, 1918 -- Bobby Wallace and Hughie Jennings
• Sept. 4, 1916 -- Christy Mathewson and Mordecai Brown
• Sept. 5, 1910 -- Willie Keeler and Vic Willis

The coolest duo in that group? Mathewson and Brown, who pitched against each other in the final game of both of their careers.

Three Strikes: A whole lot more of Rickey

STRIKE ONE -- THE WINNER IS DEPT.: I wonder if Rickey Henderson has ever heard of Burleigh Grimes. Well, their Hall of Fame plaques are about to be roommates, so it's worth wondering. But that's not all.

According to the astounding work done by two especially amazing loyal readers -- Leon Chen and Eric Rosen -- Grimes and Waite Hoyt are the answer to the question: Which current Hall of Famers played with the most other Hall of Famers?

Grimes and Hoyt are tied, with 36 -- yes, 36 -- apiece. But Rosen broke the tie by determining that if you count only teammates who made the Hall as players, Grimes wins this duel, 35-33. Who knew?

Want a list of all the other Hall of Famers with more than 20 HOF teammates? Here's the identical list Chen and Rosen compiled:

Leo Durocher: 30
Dan Brouthers: 26
George Kelly: 26
Rogers Hornsby: 25
Frankie Frisch: 23
Freddie Lindstrom: 23
Al Simmons: 21
Dazzy Vance: 21