Baseball attendance is down.

Saw this on the (surprisingly sparse) MLB Reddit page...

Attendance is down in MLB this year.  Average MLB game this year (to the All-Star Break) now has an attendance of 28,576, down 5.3% from the 30,168 last year.

Only nine teams saw an increase from last year  (all standings as of 2:00 PM Pacific time 7/24/2018):

• Milwaukee (+19.9%, leading NL Central decent part of the first half, now 2.5 out of first in the NL Central, best 2nd-place record in the NL)
• Houston (+18.5%, defending "champs", lead AL West by five games, 2nd best record in baseball)
• Seattle (+9.5%, 2nd in the AL West, 2nd in the play-in by 2.5 over Oakland)
• Yankees (+8.1%, 2nd in the NL East, 1st in the play-in.  Six back of Boston.)
• Arizona (+7.6%, led the NL West most of the first half, 1.5 back of the Dodgers now, half-game out of the play-in.)
• Atlanta (+4.9%, led the NL East a good part of the first half, now a half-game behind the Phillies, and the afreomentioned half-game ahead of Arizona for the play-in)
• Dodgers (+4.6%, NL defending champs, a great run after an abysmal 16-26 start, 1.5 game lead in the NL West.)
• San Diego (+3.2%, God knows why)
• Angels (+0.1%, had a run but sputtering out.)

That's it -- the top seven teams year-over-year are all in the decreasingly-few competitive teams left.

• Boston?   #17 at -1.9%.
• AL Central leader Cleveland (now 8.5 up on Minnesota and the only team in the division not 8 or more under .500):  #12 at -0.3%.
• Oakland, only 2.5 back of Seattle, but #22 at -14.3%.  Ten teams are down at least that much.
• Philadelphia, leading the NL East by half a game, just a tick behind Cleveland at -0.4%.
• The Cubs have the best record in the National League.  They also are a tick behind Boston at -2.0%.

And here are the bottom six:

• Detroit:  -22.3% attendance.  Sixteen under .500 and no shot.
• Baltimore:  -23.1% attendance, and a real shot at the 40-120 Mets.  28-73 through 101 games.  42.5 out of the division with 61 to play.  32.5 out of the play-in.  They might not even see September.
• Pittsburgh:  -23.8%.  And they're three games over .500 and only 7 out in the division!
• Kansas City:  -23.9%.  And they've only won 30 of their first 99.  They're only three games ahead of Baltimore!  24 out of the division, 29.5 out of the play-in.
• Toronto has lost a quarter of it's attendance year over year:  -25.2%.  Seven under .500, 23.5 ou of the division, 13 1/2 out of the play-in.
• But nothing holds a candle to Project Wolverine in Miami.  Derek Jeter's boondoggle should get him banned in the Best Interests of Baseball:  Attendance has HALVED -- and WORSE!!  Attendance is down FIFTY-FOUR POINT THREE PERCENT!  Average attendance: 9,559.