Friday saw the beginning of interleague play across Major League Baseball for the 2011 season, and for the most part, the league should be happy with the results.

Ballparks were filled to 72 percent of capacity with six ballparks filled to 80 percent or better. Ballparks were actually filled to 3 percent less than last Friday when it was 75 percent, a sign that interleague may not be as popular as many have been lead to believe.

But, there’s a catch.

As we’ve reported prior, paid attendance does not reflect the total number of actual people that went through turnstiles. For example, while Fenway (99% of capacity) and AT&T Park (97% of capacity) appear to be below sellout, with comps, the club announced them as sellouts. This works as an advantage in terms of painting a robust attendance picture, but often times, paid attendance far exceeds actual attendance.

(See Inside the Numbers: MLB 2010 First Interleague Attendance)

As mentioned, Friday was the first day of interleague play in MLB. In looking at last year’s figures for the same day, attendance was down from an average of 31,718 to 31,007, or 2 percent.

But, as anyone looking at baseball’s schedule will tell you, it’s not balanced – the same teams do not match-up year after year.

However, the “natural rivalries” that MLB touts, do occur each season. For the Indians, winning is beginning to take hold in Cleveland. With both the 2010 and 2011 “Battle of Ohio” games on the first day of interleague being played in Cleveland between the Indians and Reds, attendance this year was up 37 percent from 23,028 in 2010 to 31,622. On the downside, the “Battle of the Beltway” series between the Orioles and Nationals failed to resonate as a true “rivalry” last night. While the 2010 game was played in Nationals Park, this year’s game at Camden Yards drew just 24,442 compared to 27,378 last season. Here’s how they broke out, showing the increase or decrease in attendance from 2010

And while the first Friday of interleague often finds differing matchups, some clubs do host games in consecutive seasons. Below are the clubs that hosted last year and this on the first Friday of interleague, along with the team they played in 2010.

Below is a complete breakdown of Friday’s attendance, along with promotions and other notes of interest:

Sell-Thru = Percentage of capacity

SPECIAL BUSINESS OF SPORTS NETWORK REPORTS:
The Labor Battle in the NFL. See BizOfFootball.com for details

Welcome to the 2011 Business of Sports Network Autism Challenge

David Simmons is a graduate of the University of Central Florida who worked in the front office of the Los Angeles Dodgers over 4 seasons and has a decade of ticketing experience.. He serves as CFO for Players For The Planet and currently resides in Baltimore. You can follow David on Twitter @davidesimmons

Maury Brown is the Founder and President of the Business of Sports Network, which includes The Biz of Baseball, The Biz of Football, The Biz of Basketball and The Biz of Hockey, as well as a contributor to FanGraphs and Forbes SportsMoney. He is available for hire or freelance. Brown's full bio is here. He looks forward to your comments via email and can be contacted through the Business of Sports Network.

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Could MLB be pulling out of the attendance malaise? Maybe.

While not earth-shattering, ballparks across MLB were filled to nearly 60 percent of capacity on Thurs. (57%), a decent showing considering there were 3 day games, and interleague starts today. Especially impressive was Astros-Cardinals game from Busch Stadium which had a 1:45pm game start and drew 36,409, or 83 percent of capacity.

Still, there were some serious laggards.

Topping the list of poorly attended games was Tampa Bay at Toronto. Pulling in 12,590, or just 25 percent of Roger Centre’s capacity, it was the worst by capacity game of the day.

The worst attended game goes to the Rangers at the Royals, or 12,137 paid attendance.

Below are the numbers and notes from Thursday’s games:

Sell-Thru = Percentage of capacity

SPECIAL BUSINESS OF SPORTS NETWORK REPORTS:
The Labor Battle in the NFL. See BizOfFootball.com for details

Welcome to the 2011 Business of Sports Network Autism Challenge

David Simmons is a graduate of the University of Central Florida who worked in the front office of the Los Angeles Dodgers over 4 seasons and has a decade of ticketing experience.. He serves as CFO for Players For The Planet and currently resides in Baltimore. You can follow David on Twitter @davidesimmons

Maury Brown is the Founder and President of the Business of Sports Network, which includes The Biz of Baseball, The Biz of Football, The Biz of Basketball and The Biz of Hockey, as well as a contributor to FanGraphs and Forbes SportsMoney. He is available for hire or freelance. Brown's full bio is here. He looks forward to your comments via email and can be contacted through the Business of Sports Network.

Follow Maury Brown on Twitter

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The 15th season of Interleague Play between the American League and the National League begins today. Major League Baseball’s 2011 schedule features 252 Interleague games to be played in two segments: the first this weekend (May 20th-22nd) and the second from June 17th-July 3rd.

In the first weekend of interleague play across Major League Baseball last season, ballparks had an average attendance of 33,172 compared to an average of 29,404 for weekend games for the same hosting teams over the course of the 2010 season leading up to that point, an increase of 13 percent. When looking at more recent periods, when weather is improving, interleague attendance sees a mixed bag.

(See Inside the Numbers: MLB 2010 First Interleague Attendance)

In looking at the last weekend of play before interleague began in 2010, average attendance was 33,371 compared to interleague’s average of 33,172, a decline of less than 1 percent (-0.63%).

The biggest match-up to watch will be the Cubs visiting the Red Sox. The series which begins on Friday will mark 93 years since the clubs’ last matchup at Fenway Park.

The Red Sox and Cubs last played at Fenway Park on September 11, 1918, in the sixth and final game of that year’s World Series. Concluding a season that was abbreviated because of the ongoing World War I conflict, the Red Sox won two of the series’ first three games in Chicago. Boston returned home to take Game Four, before the Cubs staved off elimination in Game Five. The Red Sox then closed out the series in Game Six with a 2-1 victory, clinching their fourth title of the decade and their third championship in the preceding four years.

In terms of win-loss records, the American League posted a 134-118 record in Interleague Play in 2010. The 2010 season marked the seventh consecutive year in which the A.L. earned the edge in the season series, extending its all-time advantage to 1,808-1,652 (.523). The A.L. went 127-125 in 2004, 136-116 in 2005, 154-98 in 2006, 137-115 in 2007, 149-103 in 2008 and 138-114 in 2009 before the 134-118 mark last year.

In 2010, A.L. Clubs compiled a .269 batting average with 233 home runs, 1,168 runs scored and a 4.16 ERA. N.L. Clubs batted .251 with 242 home runs, 1,098 runs scored and a 4.37 ERA. The Chicago White Sox posted the best record in Interleague play in 2010 at 15-3 (.833), followed by the Texas Rangers at 14-4 (.778) and the Boston Red Sox and New York Mets, each at 13-5 (.722). The New York Yankees hold MLB’s best all-time Interleague record at 144-102 (.585), followed by the White Sox at 143-104 (.579).

The Florida Marlins own the N.L.’s best all-time Interleague mark at 127-107 (.543).

SELECT READ MORE TO SEE PLAYER STATS ALL-TIME FOR INTERLEAGUE

If there’s an aspect of attendance watching that is vexing for media (and fans, alike), it’s how announced attendance is calculated. Most know that when the number is announced at the ballpark, your eyeballs often counter, “That’s not what I see. It’s far less.”

Such is landscape in professional sports where paid attendance – the number of tickets sold – is the new number announced, not the number of turnstile clicks.

But, there’s more.

An example is last night’s Tigers-Red Sox game at Fenway Park. Announced attendance was 37,311, and yet the postgame notes read this: 653rd consecutive sellout since May 15, 2003

When we looked at our numbers, it didn’t jibe.

Night attendance at Fenway is 37,495. How is that a sellout? According to the Red Sox, announced attendance for the boxscore does not include comps. By those standards, the Red Sox deemed the game a sellout.

That got us wondering (and we can’t answer it now): Just how often is this the case? Whether the info will be made available, we plan on setting out contacting each of the 30 clubs to see if this policy holds true throughout the league.

Back to Weds’ attendance...

The Red Sox didn’t get a rainout, but it was close. Chalk up another rain delay, this one 26 minutes (The delay began at 9:31 in the top of the 8th inning and the game resumed at 9:57).

It’s a good thing that Red Sox and Phillies posted numbers at 100% (or for the Phillies, 102%) of capacity. Ballparks were just 52% full by average. The Blue Jays certainly didn’t help that number drawing just 14,415 with the visiting Rays, or 29 percent of Rogers Centre’s 49,539 capacity.

Here’s the rest of Weds’ attendance figures:

Sell-Thru = Percentage of capacity

SPECIAL BUSINESS OF SPORTS NETWORK REPORTS:
The Labor Battle in the NFL. See BizOfFootball.com for details

Welcome to the 2011 Business of Sports Network Autism Challenge

David Simmons is a graduate of the University of Central Florida who worked in the front office of the Los Angeles Dodgers over 4 seasons and has a decade of ticketing experience.. He serves as CFO for Players For The Planet and currently resides in Baltimore. You can follow David on Twitter @davidesimmons

Maury Brown is the Founder and President of the Business of Sports Network, which includes The Biz of Baseball, The Biz of Football, The Biz of Basketball and The Biz of Hockey, as well as a contributor to FanGraphs and Forbes SportsMoney. He is available for hire or freelance. Brown's full bio is here. He looks forward to your comments via email and can be contacted through the Business of Sports Network.

Follow Maury Brown on Twitter

Follow The Biz of Baseball on Twitter

Follow the Business of Sports Network on Facebook