Attendance at ballparks can be pretty spotty this time of year, when it’s often cold and rainy in many big-league towns. But the first week and a half of the 2014 major league season has produced some especially bleak scenes.

On Tuesday night, for instance, there weren’t many fans watching the Rays-Royals game in Kansas City or the Padres-Indians game in Cleveland or the Astros-Blue Jays game in Toronto, where the roof was closed. And there were some very small crowds last week, too, including the gatherings at a Nationals-Mets game in Queens and a Rockies-Marlins game in Miami, where cold weather is rarely an excuse.

Of course, it’s impossible to know for sure just how bad some of these turnouts have been. The only data baseball releases is tickets sold, which appears at the bottom of box scores. The real attendance — the number of people who actually passed through the turnstiles — is not disclosed. According to baseballreference.com, the total number of tickets sold this season is up by about 40,000 compared to this point a year ago and, for sure, there have been some big crowds in various places. Still, there are all these empty seats. Perhaps everyone is staying home and watching on TV.