One Step Closer To Manufacturing The News

Amid the major league baseball games yesterday was a matchup between the powerhouses that are the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and the Texas Rangers. The big story wasn't about what teams were playing, but rather where they were playing. As this contest took place at Disney's Wide World of Sports Complex in Kissimmee, FL.

At first, it seems like a great combination. Mickey Mouse and America's pasttime. Until you realize that Disney owns ESPN, and that ESPN aired highlights of the game on its SportsCenter segment. I also checked out the ESPN.com site to see if there was any type of commentary on the game, but as of right now they're just running the AP story. Though, I am interested to see if any ESPN contributors write or comment about it. Don't trust John Kruk's "comments"!

The other part of this story is that the attendance for the game was 8,443. It was roughly 1,000 below capacity of the Disney complex, but about 200 more than the Devil Rays averaged at home(Tropicana Field, capacity 38,437) for the six games against the Rangers last season. That's right, more people watched the Devil Rays play yesterday at a minor league park than they did at their home stadium last year against the same team. Though, the "rows and rows of empty green chairs for the first pitch" must have made them feel right at home.