October 10, 2003 [LINK]

They're all evened up!

Both series are now tied 1-1, and the Marlins get to unleash their secret weapon in hosting the Cubs tonight: the huge (postseason) crowds in Pro Player Stadium, home of the Miami Dolphins. Until the latter part of this season, in contrast, attendance at Marlins games rarely exceeded 12,000. Fair-weather fans in the City of Hurricanes! Tomorrow we get to see the second "final" farewell of Roger Clemens to Boston fans in Fenway Park.

Here's an oddity: In four of the six playoff series this year, the visiting team has won the opening game. Only a bare majority of the 22 postseason games have been won by the home team, casting in doubt reform proposals that would give a bigger home-field advantage to teams with a higher winning percentage in the multi-round playoff system; for example, scheduling the first three games of the first round in the higher-seeded team's home city.

On October 1 the Washington Post reported that MLB officials are seriously considering a bid from Monterrey, Mexico to become the new home of the Montreal Expos. (Is this a side-effect of NAFTA? Maybe Ross Perot was right!) Monterrey is the most prosperous city in Mexico, overall, but its populations base of 2.2 million is a little thin to support an MLB franchise, so it's probably not a serious possibility. The article included a good photo of Monterrey stadium, which has three decks, with a total capacity of 27,000. It hosted the Padres in their opening games of the 1996 and 1999 seasons -- against the Mets and the Rockies, respectively. In any event, there seems little chance that Bud Selig's crew will give serious thought to relocating the Expos to Washington or Northern Virginia, as things now stand.

Fewer than 4,000 empty seats remained as 58,554 fans attended the final ballgame ever played at Veterans' Stadium, where the Phillies won the World Series in 1980. Next year they will begin playing at Citizens Bank Park, located next door.

NOTE: Corrections made above.