NPR

What 1919 Teaches Us About Pent-Up Demand

A hundred years ago, a world war and a pandemic wreaked havoc on baseball and other industries. But pent-up demand helped them come roaring back.
Babe Ruth, a pitcher for the Boston Red Sox, in 1918. That year, World War I and the Spanish flu pandemic slashed MLB game attendance by over half from what it was in the previous season.

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1918 should have been a great year for baseball. A young left-handed pitcher named Babe Ruth began the year by pitching an opening-day victory for the Boston Red Sox. Shortly after, Ruth lobbied the team's manager to let him play other positions so he could spend more time at the plate. The strategy paid off, and Ruth began his run as a home-run-hitting superstar, helping lead the Red Sox to the

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