Matt Harvey Draws Huge Attendance Numbers for New York Mets

The last time Matt Harvey threw a pitch at Citi Field was Saturday, Aug. 24, 2013. It wasn't a good outing. The powerhouse Detroit Tigers laid a beatdown on him. Up until that point, Harvey was great and it turned out the shelling was due to a partially torn ulnar collateral ligament in his pitching elbow. Now that Harvey has returned, though, the New York Mets are hoping for him to bounce back in a big way. As a matter of fact, they expect him to be the second coming of Dwight "Doc" Gooden by being a top ace in the league and having the ability to draw fans to the ballpark. He's beginning to draw Gooden-level attendance numbers. Knowing Harvey is taking his cannonball right arm to the mound for the second game at Citi Field, ticket sales soared. The "Harvey Effect," much like the "Gooden Effect," helped draw more than 40,000 people to the seats for the Tuesday game. That's only a few thousand off from the 2013 All-Star Game's number of 43,947 fans. Gooden's attendance numbers were eerily similar. In the 18 games he started at Shea Stadium, he drew an average of 40,072 fans. For every other game, the average attendance was 34,005. Read More »