The Boston Red Sox and their fans are usually quite proud of their ballpark, Fenway Park, and of the strong national following they have, helping the team achieve a sellout streak of 820 games. But after three consecutive seasons of not making the playoffs and despite the promising start to 2013, the streak is over.
The Red Sox were a combined 248-238 in 2010-2012, including a terrible, historically bad 69-93 season in 2012. After a 5-2 start, you’d expect to see a full-house even when it isn’t opening night, after playing the first six games of the season, including winning the opening series against the New York Yankees, on the road.
And so, after a season home opener that ended with a win against the Baltimore Orioles, one of the easiest ballparks to fill in the MLB (37,499 for night games, 37,071 for days), is no longer part of the longest streak ever in Major League baseball, as only 30,862 showed up to see them lose to the Baltimore Orioles 8-5.
The streak, composed of 794 regular season games and 26 in the postseason, was the longest in major professional sports. It began in 2003, when Fenway’s capacity was just 34,807. The club averaged 36,605 tickets sold per gave during the streak, although it was quite often ridiculed, especially last season when the stadium was clearly less than full, but the club maintained it has sold enough tickets to qualify for the sellout streak to carry on.