Oakland A's...That's the Ticket: With a crowd of 31,073 Thursday, the Oakland A's attendance has zoomed 56 percent over last season, and walkup ticket sales have been especially healthy, with more than 22,000 fans buying same-day tickets the past two games to see the division series rematch between Oakland and the Yankees according to a report in the San Francisco Chronicle.

"That was tremendous," A's vice president of sales and marketing David Alioto said in the San Francisco Chronicle report. "It was hard to deal with such a big walkup, but we'll take it. We got everyone in, and there was so much energy."

"I honestly expected more Yankees fans, but these crowds were real good," said third baseman Eric Chavez, who has been critical of sparse attendance in the past. "They were real vocal, yelling at the other team -- it was great."

The A's have drawn 427,209, which is 154,196 more than the team attracted through the first 18 games of the 2000 season. It also puts them on pace to draw 1.92 million. That would be the A's highest total since 1993, when they drew 2.04 million.

The only club that has increased its attendance more than the A's is Minnesota, the surprise Central Division leader. The Twins have drawn 449,397, 195,602 more than they had at the same point last year.

Oakland is expecting 90,000 for the three-game series against the White Sox that opens tonight.

---

Fixed special characters in title. --Admin.

[This message was edited by Dodger Matt on MAY-21-01 at 10:20 AM.]