I hate to quibble with you on this small point but...these two players were picked up when the Sox were under .500 and it was with their addition that the team accelerated a turnaround in the standings. It's also a point to mention that their salaries were primarily picked up by their previous teams and their acquisitions had very small effects on the actual payroll. Also, to that point in the year, the Sox were not drawing any better than they had drawn in the past. The short version? I contend that your theory about 30K+ fans resulting in better player pickups is simply not the case. The moves were made as a reaction to the shoddy play with which the '03 season had begun and not as some sort of "reward" for fans coming to the ballpark.
