For one reason or another, there seems to be some social media perversion for pictures of empty seats in stadiums. The knee-jerk there leads to two really silly things: Narratives about how "baseball is dying" and shaming of the fan base of the home team in the picture. Beyond that, one might get into legitimate concerns about baseball having an attendance problem. 

And maybe it will be a problem at some point, but I can't believe there is one right now. 

Here are the reasons I'm not concerned about attendance at MLB parks just yet. 

The weather has been atrocious

I'm not gonna bother with stats. We've all seen it. We've seen the ridiculous conditions the Braves and Cubs played through on Saturday. We saw the snow during the early innings in Pittsburgh Tuesday night. We've seen the temperatures in the 30s through a decent number of games nearly across the country. 

A large number of people are not going to games even if they have tickets and it's not difficult to figure out why they'd eat that money. Even with tickets, you have to get to the game (either gas money/parking or public transportation) and it's easy to see spending a lot of money inside the ballpark, too. Factor in the opportunity cost of attending a weeknight game in this awful weather versus watching the game on TV or streaming, and one can see how the decision-making process would go. 

If you don't have a ticket, you really want to spend the money it takes to attend a game to sit in that? Some people do and more power to them. Many do not. It doesn't mean the sport is dying. It's a summer sport and many of these games are being played in winter conditions. 

The postponements

Many games aren't even being played at all. MLB is going to crush the record for April postponements. The Cardinals-Cubs game scheduled for Wednesday was postponed due to snow and frigid weather. It was the 25th weather-related postponement of the season so far. The record for April (which, yes, in baseball terms includes March) is 25, which was set in 2007. Even if we get through the rest of Wednesday without a postponement, anyone want to bet on there not being another one the next 12 days?

Further, there have been some time changes, such as the Rays at White Sox earlier in April. They moved it up from a night game to a day game because it was so cold. 

With so many games being moved, people with tickets might not be able to make the new date. Use the Cardinals-Cubs game example from Wednesday. It was moved to Thursday. People with tickets to the Wednesday game likely cleared their schedules for Wednesday but could have a conflict on Thursday. Aren't tons of empty seats in Wrigley Field for a Cardinals-Cubs rivalry game enough to make everyone realize this isn't a trend? 

Now do this exercise with the games that have already been moved this season. The result is empty seats. 

It's April 18 and baseball seasons are a grind

We often talk about not being ignorant enough to make broad-sweeping conclusions about the early part of the season in terms of team performance (did you know the Orioles started 22-10 last year, by the way?). 

Further, there are 81 home games in baseball. The other major pro sports don't have this many games, so why in the world would we try to compare the sports? 

Even setting aside the weather and how many games there are, why would we start digging into April attendance numbers as if they will continue throughout the whole season? Because ... 

School is still in session

Parents would much rather take their kids to games when they don't have to wake up for school the next day. They also have the ability to take vacations without pulling their kids out of school in the middle of the summer. Combine the weather with school being in session and it being April and I'm not even remotely worried about the empty seats. Especially since ... 

Baseball is still thriving financially

In 2017, Major League Baseball set another record -- the 15th straight season -- in revenue with over $10 billion, per Forbes' annual report. TV money remains a huge source of income for every team and the majority of the 30 teams are regional TV ratings monsters. Spring Training is a cottage industry. MLB Advanced Media is thriving. MLB just sold a majority stake in BAMTech this past offseason for $2.58 billion. 

Let the people mock the empty seats. Anyone watch the last few World Series? That's the lifeblood of the sport and it's as healthy as ever. MLB is alive and well and will continue to be for a while. We'll start seeing full stadiums soon enough. Until then, let's all summon Mother Nature and beg for some better playing conditions.