Bob Saget Singing The National Anthem Won't Help White Sox Attendance Woes

By Chuck Sudo in News on May 29, 2012 7:20PM

First Snoop Dogg threw out the first pitch—and Tebowed—at last Thursday's White Sox-Twins game. Just when we hoped the bald spot we scratched in our head would grow back came this video of Bob Saget singing the National Anthem at Saturday's Sox-Indians contest. As Deadspin noted, it isn't bad, but it isn't good, either.

Snoop's first pitch and Saget's flight of song could be isolated incidents. Taken together, they only serve to highlight the White Sox' attendance woes to us. While over 38,000 people flocked to Wrigley Field to see the last place Cubs face a Padres team that was also going nowhere fast, 20,167 saw the Snoop Tebow, and 27,151 for Saget's anthem rendition.

Attendance at major league baseball games is up 4.2 percent this year over 2011. The Cubs, despite what has turned into a painful looking rebuilding plan, aren't hurting for fans and are eighth in the majors in attendance.

Seven teams are drawing fewer fans this season than last. Three of them are in the AL Central: Minnesota, Cleveland and the White Sox. The Twins have simply collapsed. Cleveland's pitching was exposed by the Sox this weekend. The White Sox, however, have done everything that was expected of them to compete in the AL Central. Their starting pitching is strong. The bullpen is lights out. The lineup is starting to hit. The bounce-back years expected from the players who underperformed last year have happened.

And still Sox GM Kenny Williams is taking to the press to beg White Sox fans to come to a ballgame. If this team stays in contention, Williams intimated that lack of fan support could affect how the team approaches the trade deadline.

“Every day that you don’t fill the seats at least to a greater degree than we are, it hurts. We’ve been able to find ways over the years to creatively add and improve the team. It’s par for the course.’’

So Sox fans should ask themselves if the still trust Williams and this team to be strong throughout the summer, or if they want to wait until the team names Shelly Long an official ball girl for a game.