Archiving the 2024 SoSG Attendance Record, For Posterity

It's that time again, to archive the prior season's attendance record: this time, the World Championship 2024 season. It was the first season ever that the Sons were below .500 for the regular season--and look how this turned out! (To be fair, we were .500 if you include the postseason games.)

SoSG 2024 record: 5-6; 2-1 postseason

4/3 vs. SF (W, 5-4): Sax
4/15 vs. WSH (L, 4-6): Dusty, Orel, Sax
5/6 vs. MIA (W, 6-3): AC, Sax
5/16 vs. CIN (L, 2-7): AC, Sax
6/12 vs. TEX (L, 2-3): Sax
7/5 vs. MIL (W, 8-5): Sax
7/21 vs. BOS (W, 9-6): Sax
7/24 vs. SF (L, 3-8): Sax
8/24 vs. TB (L, 8-9 (10)): Sax
8/29 vs. BAL (W, 6-3): Orel, Sax
9/9 vs. CHC (L, 4-10): Sax

10/5 NLDS G1 vs. SD (W, 7-5): Sax
10/6 NLDS G2 vs. SD (L, 2-10): Orel, Sax

10/25 WS G1 vs. NYY (W, 6-3 (10)): Sax

I still get chills thinking about that last attended game, World Series Game 1. Wow.

Prior SoSG attendance records: 2008 (18-15), 2009 (21-10), 2010 (9-8), 2011 (10-7), 2012 (24-18), 2013 (24-16), 2014 (22-12), 2015 (27-13), 2016 (10-5), 2017 (27-13) 2018 (12-9), 2019 (10-5), 2020 (0-0), 2021 (4-3), 2022 (4-4), 2023 (5-5).

Betts, Hernandez, Ohtani Voted 2024 NL Silver Sluggers; Dodgers Win Silver Slugger Team Award

The potent offensive trio of Mookie Betts, Teoscar Hernandez, and Shohei Ohtani all took 2024 Silver Slugger Awards, which also helped propel the Dodgers to the 2024 Silver Slugger Team Award:

This year marked the second time Silver Slugger Awards have been given to the best offensive team in each league. The winners -- the Yankees in the American League and the Dodgers in the National League -- were determined by a combination of team offensive statistics. The Yankees and Dodgers led their respective leagues in home runs, OPS and wRC+, among other stats. The Dodgers’ three Silver Slugger Award winners this year are the most in a season in franchise history.

Here's the copy on the three Dodgers Silver Sluggers:

NL winner: Mookie Betts, Dodgers (seventh win)
Along with Altuve, Betts has the most Silver Slugger Awards among active players after winning his seventh for another outstanding offensive campaign. He began the season at shortstop after having played right field for most of his big league career. On June 18, his left hand was fractured as a result of being hit by a pitch, causing him to miss about two months. When he returned to the lineup, he moved back to right field. Despite the injury, he finished with an .863 OPS (145 OPS+) with 19 homers in 116 games. Betts’ four Silver Slugger Awards with the Dodgers are the second-most in franchise history, behind only Mike Piazza’s five.

Teoscar Hernández, Dodgers (third win)
Hernández, after spending most of his career with the Blue Jays, signed a one-year deal with the Dodgers and was crucial to their championship run. The 32-year-old set a career high by slugging 33 home runs and posted an .840 OPS, earning his second All-Star selection in the process -- and even winning the Home Run Derby. Prior to this year, he also won a Silver Slugger Award in 2020 and ’21 with Toronto.

NL winner: Shohei Ohtani, Dodgers (third win)
While he couldn’t pitch in 2024 as he recovered from elbow surgery, all of Ohtani’s focus was at the plate, and it showed. He became the first player in MLB history to hit at least 50 home runs (54) and steal at least 50 bases (59) in the same season, putting him in position to win his third career MVP Award. He previously won the honor in 2021 and ’23 with the Angels.

Considering how the Dodgers didn't win any 2024 Gold Glove awards, it was nice to roll in this offensive category.

For the record, the Yankees didn't win any Gold Glove awards, either (as we saw, in World Series Game 5).

MLB Screws The Dodgers Out Of Weekend Game Revenue

SoSG reader karen has been complaining about this for weeks now, and I share her annoyance that the Dodgers don't have a game today (Sunday), a highly uncommon scheduling quirk.

What's worse, though, is that I realize now that the Dodgers may be the only MLB team cheated out of a Sunday home game. The Yankees play every Sunday in 2024. And the Giants. And the Braves.

I didn't research all the other teams, but what the hell, MLB? Why stick it to the Dodgers to have them idle on a Sunday?

Dodgers Need A New Font Guy

The Dodgers' 2024 website is sporting some seriously bad fonts. They've already introduced the washed-out colors and neo-gothic fonts in other announcements (which looked horrible, like this one).

But now they're sneaking in a new, all-lowercase rendition in the upper left of their website:

What's with the squished descenders on the lowercase g? And why are we tiptoeing around our team name with lowercase letters, just because it might be trendy? (Note that none of those examples have truncated or squished descenders, by the way.)

The Dodgers just spent a billion dollars on new hires. They can spend a little more to get a quality graphic designer.