Barring a miracle, one of baseball's longest-running streaks is set to end on Wednesday night when the Baltimore Orioles take on the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park.
According to the Red Sox, the team is roughly 7,000 tickets short of a sellout for their game against the Orioles.
Boston fans have packed Fenway Park every game for the past 10 years, with the last non-sellout coming on May 14, 2003. But due to a variety of issues -- a lackluster roster, last year's collapse -- the team has had problems selling tickets this year. The organization even resorted to slashing food and beer prices in an attempt to draw fans.
While the streak might officially end on Wednesday, people questioned its legitimacy last year when hundreds of empty seats were visible at games. Red Sox officials said they count tickets distributed, not actual attendance, in sellout figures. And according to the Boston Globe, the Red Sox and other big league squads sometimes donate hundreds of tickets to charities and other groups.
If the streak does end on Wednesday, it will stand at 794 games (820 if you include playoff games). That's just shy of the Portland Trail Blazers' American professional record of 814 games, a run which stretched from 1977 to 1995.
According to the New York Times, the San Francisco Giants hold the longest current streak, having sold out their past 169 games.
