GetListy » Chicago Cubs

MLB attendance leaders 2008

Bill Sullivan — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 11:45:53 +0000

With the economy struggling and season ticket sales lagging for many Major League Baseball clubs, nervous owners and executives will be keeping an eye on the turnstiles this season, hoping recession-weary fans will still find enough cash to take themselves out to the ballgame.

Just a year ago, business was brisk. Two teams drew in excess of four million fans at home, while eight more topped the three million mark.

Who attracted the biggest home crowds last season? The answers probably won’t surprise. Here’s the list:

Rank	Team	Home Dates	Total Attendance	Average
1	New York Yankees	81	4,298,655	53,069
2	New York Mets	79	4,042,047	51,165
3	Los Angeles Dodgers	81	3,730,553	46,056
4	St. Louis Cardinals	81	3,430,660	42,353
5	Philadelphia Phillies	81	3,422,583	42,254
6	Los Angeles Angels	81	3,336,744	41,194
7	Chicago Cubs	81	3,300,200	40,743
8	Detroit Tigers	81	3,202,645	39,538
9	Milwaukee Brewers	81	3,068,458	37,882
10	Boston Red Sox	81	3,048,250	37,632
11	San Francisco Giants	81	2,863,837	35,356
13	Colorado Rockies	80	2,650,218	33,127
14	Atlanta Braves	81	2,532,834	31,269
15	Arizona Diamondbacks	81	2,509,924	30,986
16	Chicago White Sox	81	2,501,103	30,877
17	San Diego Padres	81	2,427,535	29,969
18	Toronto Blue Jays	81	2,399,786	29,626
19	Washington Nationals	80	2,320,400	29,005
20	Seattle Mariners	81	2,329,702	28,761
21	Minnesota Twins	81	2,302,431	28,425
22	Cleveland Indians	80	2,169,760	27,122
23	Cincinnati Reds	81	2,058,632	25,415
24	Baltimore Orioles	78	1,950,075	25,000
25	Texas Rangers	80	1,945,677	24,320
26	Tampa Bay Rays	80	1,780,791	22,259
27	Oakland Athletics	81	1,665,256	20,558
28	Pittsburgh Pirates	80	1,609,076	20,113
29	Kansas City Royals	79	1,578,922	19,986
30	Florida Marlins	80	1,335,075	16,688

Source: ESPN

2009 MLB team payrolls

Bill Sullivan — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 12:01:14 +0000

Think even a sluggish economy can’t affect the high price of baseball talent? While the very top players were able to negotiate fat free agent contracts in the past offseason, teams generally tried to trim their player budgets.

According to figures compiled by USA Today, 14 Major League clubs cut payroll from a year ago, and 10 of those reduced overhead by $10 million or more. That hardly means that your average big league player is going hungry, but times clearly aren’t quite as flush as they’ve been.

Here’s a list of 2009 team player payrolls:

Team	2009 payroll
New York Yankees	$201,449,189
New York Mets	$149,373,987
Chicago Cubs	$134,809,000
Boston Red Sox	$121,745,999
Detroit Tigers	$115,085,145
Los Angeles Angels	$113,709,00
Philadelphia Phillies	$113,004,046
Houston Astros	$102,996,414
Los Angeles Dodgers	$100,414,592
Seattle Mariners	$98,904,166
Atlanta Braves	$96,726,166
Chicago White Sox	$96,068,500
San Francisco Giants	$82,616,450
Cleveland Indians	$81,579,166
Toronto Blue Jays	$80,538,300
Milwaukee Brewers	$80,182,502
St. Louis Cardinals	$77,605,109
Colorado Rockies	$75,201,000
Cincinnati Reds	$73,558,500
Arizona Diamondbacks	$73,516,666
Kansas City Royals	$70,519,333
Texas Rangers	$68,178,798
Baltimore Orioles	$67,101,666
Minnesota Twins	$65,299,266
Tampa Bay Rays	$63,313,034
Oakland Athletics	$62,310,000
Washington Nationals	$60,328,000
Pittsburgh Pirates	$48,693,000
San Diego Padres	$43,734,200
Florida Marlins	$36,834,000

Source: USA Today

Related lists:

Hot Yankees gear

NL Most World Series Games

Bill Sullivan — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 02:16:26 +0000

If practice is supposed to make perfect, the National League has a lot more work to do when it comes to the World Series. Of the four teams that have represented the NL most in the Fall Classic, none has a winning record. In fact, of the 17 clubs that have gone to battle the hated American League, only the Cincinnati Reds, Los Angeles Dodgers, Florida Marlins, Boston Braves and Arizona Diamondbacks are on the plus side of the ledger.

Here’s a list of World Series games by team, with record for each. If you are an NL enthusiast, it is not a pretty thing to see.

105 — St. Louis Cardinals (52-53)
82 — New York Giants (39-41-2)
56 — Brooklyn Dodgers (20-36)
53 — Chicago Cubs (19-33-1)
51 — Cincinnati Reds (26-25)
49 — Los Angeles Dodgers (25-24)
47 — Pittsburgh Pirates (23-24)
31 — Philadelphia Phillies (12-19)
29 — Atlanta Braves (11-18)
24 — New York Mets (12-12)
18 — San Francisco Giants (6-12)
14 — Milwaukee Braves (7-7)
13 — Florida Marlins (8-5)
10 — Boston Braves (6-4)
    9 — San Diego Padres (1-8)
    7 — Arizona Diamondbacks (4-3)
    4 — Houston Astros (0-4)

Source: MLB.com

Sports’ Worst Losing Streaks

Bill Sullivan — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 12:56:21 +0000

With a promising season ending in all-too-familiar defeat, the Chicago Cubs spend another winter pondering the might-have-beens. Swept out of the National League Division Series by the lightly-regarded Los Angeles Dodgers, the Cubs will go yet another year without claiming their first World Series title since 1908.

The denizens of Wrigleyville, however, are hardly alone in their misery. Plenty of other sports franchises and their faithful fans have endured impressive runs of futility.

Forbes set out to identify the big losers — lovable and otherwise — of the jock kingdom. Here’s part of what they came up with:

– Los Angeles Clippers: 12 consecutive losing seasons (1993-2005)

– Golden State Warriors: 12 consecutive losing seasons (1994-2006)

– Detroit Tigers: 12 consecutive losing seasons (1994-2005)

– Milwaukee Brewers: 12 consecutive losing seasons (1993-2004)

– Chicago Blackhawks: 14 consecutive losing seasons (1946-60)

– Detroit Red Wings: 14 consecutive losing seasons (1973-87)

– Detroit-Fort Wayne Pistons: 14 consecutive losing seasons (1956-70)

– Tampa Bay Buccaneers: 14 consecutive losing seasons (1983-96)

– Philadelphia-Kansas City Athletics: 15 consecutive losing seasons (1953-67)

– Vancouver Canucks: 15 consecutive losing seasons (1976-91)

– Sacramento Kings: 15 consecutive losing seasons (1983-98)

– Philadelphia Phillies: 16 consecutive losing seasons (1933-48)

– Pittsburgh Pirates: 16 consecutive losing seasons (1993-2008)

To read about these epic losers, and to see a slideshow, visit Forbes.com.

National League All-Star Roster

Bill Sullivan — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 16:53:47 +0000

Here’s the roster for the National League for the 2008 All-Star Game, scheduled for July 15 at New York’s Yankee Stadium.

Starters

C — Geovany Soto, Chicago

1B — Lance Berkman, Houston

2B — Chase Utley, Philadelphia

SS — Hanley Ramirez, Florida

3B – Chipper Jones, Atlanta

OF — Ryan Braun, Milwaukee

OF — Kosuke Fukudome, Chicago

OF – Matt Holliday, Colorado

OF — * Alfonso Soriano, Chicago

Pitchers

Aaron Cook, Colorado

Ryan Dempster, Chicago

Dan Haren, Arizona

Brad Lidge, Philadelphia

Tim Lincecum, San Francisco

Carlos Marmol, Chicago

Ben Sheets, Milwaukee

Edinson Volquez, Cincinnati

Billy Wagner, New York

Brandon Webb, Arizona

Brian Wilson, San Francisco

Carlos Zambrano, Chicago

Reserves

C — Russell Martin, Los Angeles

C – Brian McCann, Atlanta

1B — Adrian Gonzalez, San Diego

1B — Albert Pujols, St. Louis

2B — Dan Uggla, Florida

3B – Aramis Ramirez, Chicago

3B – David Wright, New York

SS – Cristian Guzman, Washington

SS — Miguel Tejada, Houston

OF – Ryan Ludwick, St. Louis

OF — Nate McLouth, Pittsburgh

* Injured, will not play

Source: MLB.com