What is the lowest attendance for a major league baseball game?

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23 people

On September 8, 1916, the New York Yankees came to Philadelphia to play the hapless Athletics. The fans sitting in Shibe Park for the rain-delayed game were outnumbered by the men in uniform. In fact, when the Yankees were at bat, they had more players on the bench than fans in the seats. After an 8-2 win over the Yankees, for the only time in major league history, a team was two games back for every fan in attendance. 46 games back of the first place Red Sox and an announced attendance of 23.

Post Script: The 23 brave fans saw another record that day. Philadelphia outfielder Wally Schang, a switch-hitter was the first major leaguer to hit home runs in consecutive at bats from different sides of the plate.

The modern record unofficially was set on August 24, 2011. The head count, done by a tweeter, was 347 at a Reds-Marlins game at Sun Life Stadium. Hurricane Irene caused a large evacuation of the already-miniscule Marlins fanbase. The official attendance is far higher, as it is based on tickets sold, which are much more than 347. http://espn1420.com/record-low-attendance-at-marlins-game/

Officially, the "modern" record also involves the Athletics. On April 17, 1979 only 653 people watched the hapless A's (they would lose 108 games in 1979) play the Seattle Mariners (who would lose 95 games that year). The A's won that game, too: 6-5.


Just for the record, the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum (where the A's play, and one of the last multipurpose stadiums in MLB) has the lowest capacity at 35,000 because most of the seats were tarped off. The A's also have some of the cheapest tickets, and Cisco Field (the long-awaited replacement) will only house 34,000. Considering the A's have won 10 World Series, it seems to be that they just have a hard time selling tickets. The crosstown Giants have much greater fanfare, especially with their recent World Series win.

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First answer by ID1166954271. Last edit by Jonny Watts. Contributor trust: 6 [recommend contributorrecommended]. Question popularity: 16 [recommend question].