On the first full day of replacement exhibition baseball, fan reaction varied from confused to amused with plenty of stops in between.
Small crowds showed up at most of the games with most curious at what teams manned with anonymous players could do. Some were pleased. Some were not.At Clearwater, Fla., Darlene Plummer demanded a refund from the Philadelphia Phillies for six tickets to Saturday's game and missed a 6-2 victory over Cincinnati.
"Who wants to see these yahoos play?" Plummer complained.
Some people do, apparently. Some people even got a little excited over them. When Toronto's replacements rallied for a 7-5 victory over Pittsburgh, one fan yelled, "We're World Series bound!"
If they are, they had come to the right place since the replacement Blue Jays, barred from playing replacement games in SkyDome, might spend the season in their spring training stadium at Dunedin, Fla.
At Lakeland, Fla., about 1,500 fans watched Cleveland defeat Detroit 8-5. The game programs had profiles of the regular Tigers, not the replacements.
"We've got a lot of work to do," Tigers interim manager Tom Runnells said. "You know, today we talked for an hour about baserunning, and only got to first base."
Chicago pitchers gave up nine walks but the White Sox still defeated Minnesota 8-5. "The walks happen early in the spring quite often," Sox manager Gene Lamont explained. "That can happen with regular players and when you bring in young guys. Guys can get wild early in the spring."
At the Boston-Texas game in Fort Myers, Fla., 22 fans rattled around in a section of 150 seats. At one point, an elderly program seller turned to them and joked, "I hope you have enough room for everybody here."
The sedate crowd, charmed by his nickname, responded when Boston replacement Nehames "Pookie" Bernstine, brother of NFL running back Rod Bernstine, did something positive. Bernstine went 2-for-4 six years after his last professional at-bat. It didn't help. Texas won 8-1.
With owner George Steinbrenner complaining over the quality of his replacements after two straight losses, the New York Yankees responded to their first crisis with a 2-1 victory over the New York Mets.
Unimpressed by replacement baseball, both teams' local radio outlets refused to broadcast the contest.
At Kissimmee, Fla., where Houston defeated Florida 5-3, reduced crowds had an impact on pretzel sales. "It's very slow," vendor John Sulter said, making a rare sale. "I hope they realize soon that this strike needs to get over with very soon now. The company isn't making any money."
One patron turned down the pretzel purchase, saying: "That's major league prices. How about a replacement deal?"
About 900 fans showed up at West Palm Beach, where Montreal defeated Atlanta 8-0. There were 12 walks and four hit batsmen in the game.
Back home in Atlanta, Braves fans seemed more enthusiastic, purchasing 15,000 single game, regular-season tickets. "Actually, I was pleasantly surprised," said Paul Adams, the club's director of ticket sales. "I didn't expect that many."
During the same period a year ago, the Braves sold 10,000 tickets.
"We usually bring friends or customers, but we didn't even bother inviting anybody," said Craig Welborn, who filled two of his seats for the game at Scottsdale, Ariz. with cardboard cutouts.