Tonight, I was looking around my own site, and saw a few pages that needed updating now that the 2012 season has been completed. They are the “Broadcaster History” page, as well as the “Attendance History” page. Given the Rangers announced late last week what the broadcast teams will be for 2013, I figured this would be a good time to update these pages, as they’re pretty static. The attendance one gets updated just once a year, and the broadcaster one as well, unless there’s a midseason change (which has happened a few times recently). After updating the pages, I have a few notes and observations.
Broadcasters
The broadcast teams starting in 2013 will be the same ones we ended 2012 with. The TV team will be Steve Busby & Tom Grieve. The radio team will be Eric Nadel & Matt Hicks. I really liked Steve Busby. When Josh Lewin was let go, I wanted Busby to be put in there, but I heard a rumour that he didn’t want to do it full time. So they went with Rhadigan, and then you know where it went from there. I’m glad Busby is staying, I like his style. Shame I can’t see more of him without Cable TV, but oh well. This does mean that we will be starting the 2013 season with our fourth different lead play by play guy on TV in four seasons.
- 2010: Josh Lewin
- 2011: John Rhadigan
- 2012: Dave Barnett
- 2013: Steve Busby
I probably should say something about Dave Barnett. While those who have been reading my site for awhile know I never wanted him on television, I never cared for him, I will say that he, having done broadcasting for awhile, was instantly better than Rhadigan, who he replaced (I liked John, but he WAS a very green rookie). However, I still didn’t care for Barnett overall. Having said that, there’s no way I wanted him off the broadcasts in the way he did go. While it’s still never been OFFICIALLY announced what happened to him in that bizarre last broadcast of his, whatever it was, it wasn’t a good thing. So despite not being a fan of his, I’m sad that he’s gone for that reason. Feel bad about that.
The Spanish broadcasters I’m not so sure about. The official press release mentions Eleno Orlenas as the lead broadcaster, but doesn’t mention anyone else. The official Rangers site mentions Jerry Romo, Luis Perez, Victor Villalba, & Jose Guzman in addition to Orlenas. I believe it has something to do with home vs. away, but four of them to help Orlenas? I never listen to those, so I’m a little unclear as to how they all fall in place. If anyone reading this regularly listens to the Spanish broadcasts, please fill me in. Thanks.
Attendance
The Rangers had a killer year attendance wise. They drew 3,460,280 in 81 home games for an average of 42,719 per game. Both of those numbers are new franchise records. They had an interesting impact on the overall franchise numbers. Check this out:
- For just games at Rangers Ballpark, the average over the span of all the games played at the park was 31,884 in 2011. After the 2012 season, that jumped to 32,467
- If you include the games at Arlington Stadium into that, the average was 24,775 after 2011. After 2012, it was 25,230
- AND, if you include the games back in Washington DC, the nubmers were 21,132 after the 2011 season, and 21,560 after 2012.
I doubt attendance in 2013 will top 2012’s, but it’d be nice to nail 3 million again.
To read more details, check out my attendance history and broadcaster history pages here. Tkx for visiting.