Thursday, June 21, 2007

Peavy is a hot ticket

The Jake Peavy factor is alive and well in San Diego.

Did you see where the Padres drew 26,931 for Wednesday night’s game against Baltimore?

Did you see where the attendance was 11,250 fans more (38,181) when Peavy pitched Tuesday against the Orioles?

Taking it back one step, the Padres drew 40,631 in Peavy’s previous home start June 7 against the Dodgers in the final contest of a three-game series. The night before, the attendance was 31,541 (9,090 fewer than when Peavy pitched.)

That means there has been an attendance increase of 20,340 fans in Peavy’s last two home starts, both on weekdays, in comparison to the day before or after against the same team.

Once again, this is the Randy Jones theory in San Diego. The Padres used to draw about 10,000 fans more per game during Jones’ Cy Young award season of 1976, and the Peavy influence seems to be about the same.

The Padres’ ace will make his next start Sunday against the Boston Red Sox. Since the entire series is sold out, the Peavy factor will not come into play.

Let’s see the attendance difference when he pitches after the Padres begin their next homestand July 2.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I noticed there were 40,000 people at the game today. Guess it means people like to go out in the sun and ditch work ... whether or not Peavy pitches. We'll see if your theory holds true next time Peavy pitches here in San Diego.

Ralph