Home on the Road

The Yankees and Red Sox have grown used to having a lot of their fans show up at road games, but trips to Baltimore are particularly homey:

Roughly a third of last season’s 2,164,822 fans came to the 18 games when the opponent was the Yankees or the Red Sox.

One of those customers was the Rev. John Scotland of Brigantine, N.J., who brought a group of eight to Wednesday’s game against Chicago. Scotland wore a Red Sox jacket and a Red Sox cap. He said he planned to return when the Red Sox visit in May. Scotland said Oriole Park was the best among the dozen ballparks he has visited. But as he walked around the park Wednesday, he saw few fans in line ahead of him or in the seats around him.

“This is dismal, I’ve never seen it like this,” Scotland, a Presbyterian minister, said in reference to Wednesday’s crowd of 12,080. “This is really sad.”

The Orioles are currently last in the AL in attendance and 28th out of 30 in all of baseball.