The Red Sox's Fake Sellout Streak Is Now Officially Over
However, as we showed you last season, the streak itself deserves an asterisk. Per baseball rules, the Red Sox were allowed to claim sellouts for games in which they did not actually sell all the tickets as long as the remaining tickets were distributed in some manner or another (i.e given away for free).
In fact, the Red Sox had 41 games in 2012, exactly half their home schedule, in which the reported attendance was below Fenway Park's capacity of 37,495. But as the Red Sox discovered in just their second home game of the season, it is easier to distribute a few hundred tickets than 7,000. So the streak is now over.
Of course, the Red Sox knew the end was near. Prior to the start of the season, they introduces promotions such as reduced beer prices and free food for children.
In the end though, the streak, which began in 2003, was impressive, even if it was flawed.