It sure was amazing to watch that Twins vs. Tigers one game tiebreaker the other night. The metrodome was literally jumping with these fans desperate to cheer their team on into the playoffs.

Meanwhile, about a week or 10 days before that I was at the second game of the Marlins series in Atlanta (remember, the one that ruined our 15-17 run and saw us start our losing streak?) There were about as many empty seats as I've ever seen at a game in september, and keep in mind, we haven't been contenders that late in the season since...well...a long time. I don't know if i actually know the last time we were playing meaningful games in sept. (seems like we always locked up that division earlier than that)

ANYWAY, Here is a little list of what i think keeps people away:

5. Location: The Ted is in the middle of a pretty sketchy neighborhood. I personally like it, and i have a lot of friends who live in grant park (the next neighborhood east if you're not familiar) I don't know how big of a factor this one is, but i remember the location being considered the second more "dangerous" in some study a few years back.

4. Poor Public Transportaion: If you're a native ATLien, you know marta is more or less a joke. I think they do a good job with their ballpark service. But it's still a hassle. People just want to go watch some braves baseball and get drunk with their friend most of the time. If marta was a little deeper, maybe more people would feel like coming out on a weeknight.

3. Economy?: I guess so. Wasn't baseball attendance up like...by a lot this year tho? Phillie and Boston both set records in attendance this year (thanks chip carey!)

2. The Atlanta Braves doesn't market towards baseball: This is my real number one. I think it doesn't make very much difference how well the braves are playing, Turner Field wants family's to come to the game, and run the bases at skyfield, and drink coca-cola with their hotdogs. And thats cool...i was a kid once, and i LOVED braves game more than i can even explain. But, I feel like the Atlanta Braves really don't market their style/play of baseball as much as they offer good deals for you to come and "hang out" at the ballpark and try to guess which napa cap the bottle cap is under.

1. Spoiled: On MLB network they were showing game 1 of the 1995 world series. Fulton-County stadium was PACKED. People were screaming. Everybody had a tomahawk. The Chop was spontaneously breaking out. God, it was amazing to watch. Well, it's about to be 15 years later, and somewhere along the way, some of these fans lost the same interest in the braves. Knowing that the post-season was a given, i guess i understand why people didn't have the same passion for this team. It's really sad.

I'd love to know what anybody thinks.