JOHN W. ADKISSON l The Roanoke Times

Salem Red Sox fan Don Fink of Roanoke claps while watching a game against the Myrtle Beach Pelicans on June 12 at Salem Memorial Ballpark. Officials say the crowds at the stadium have increased over last year's.

STEPHANIE KLEIN-DAVIS The Roanoke Times

Bill Munzing, a season ticket holder, and his guest Larry Bright, both of Floyd County, watch Monday night's Salem Red Sox baseball game. The stadium held more than 5,000 people on Monday night, a sellout given the reduced seating.

From her perch in the top row of seats high above third base at Salem Memorial Ballpark, Jenny Givens had a perfect view -- of where she really wanted to be.

"Right over there," Givens said as she pointed across the stadium to the tarps covering the seats in the upper deck on the first-base side of the stadium. "Right where those red socks are. We've been coming here for 12 years and that's where we've always sat almost every night on the very top row until this year."

On Monday night, though, Givens could only gaze wistfully at her old seat, recalling the view of the Mill Mountain Star and the shade on that side of the ballpark on hot summer days. As the ballpark filled to over capacity, fans stood along the stadium walls behind Givens and even sat in the stairwells between the tarped sections of seats.

Monday's crowd of 5,109 was the third sellout of the season for the Salem Red Sox baseball team. It was also dollar-admission coupon night with the added bonus of dollar hot dog, drinks and chip specials. And the weather was beautiful.

Monday was a success story by many measures, highlighting impressive sales growth despite a tight economy and a spring wet enough to consider ordering ark-building plans online.

Paid attendance to date is up five percent over the first 38 home games last season, up to 121,929 from 115,901, according to Salem general manager John Katz. The best, history predicts, is yet to come.

Traditionally, minor-league baseball attendance jumps in the second half of the season after school is out and the weather dries out. Katz estimated that about 60 percent of Salem's attendance comes in the second half of the season.

Salem has 14 more of what Katz calls "prime dates" -- Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays -- left on the schedule, two more than at this point last season.

"I'd say growth of about 10 percent by the end of the year is not too ambitious," Katz said.

That would boost Salem's paid attendance for the year from 235,823 to 259,405. This is Salem's first season as an affiliate of the Red Sox.

"I can't say enough about what the Red Sox brand has done for us," Katz said.

Katz adds to that the "affordability factor" of minor league baseball.

"I would never, ever wish to be in an economic situation like we're in now," Katz said. "But people are looking for affordable family entertainment."

Salem changed some of its advertising strategy. Instead of having just three nights a week sponsored by radio stations, now all seven nights have radio sponsors.

Katz said he scrapped network TV advertising in favor of online, direct marketing, digital billboards and a little print and cable TV. The result is not just more fans, but diverse fans, he said.

The Red Sox made a huge offseason push to increase season-ticket sales, and Katz said those are up 17 percent.

"So we've got that base, and then the key to that base is getting them to show up more," Katz said. "When people are planning to come to the game, hoping we play, not thinking, 'eh, they're not gonna play' and doing something else."

And Katz wants them to show up. Season-ticket holders count on the attendance rolls whether they come to the ballpark or not, but empty seats don't buy food or drinks and, worse, to hear Katz and the his bosses tell it, they don't cheer.

"The whole goal is to make this a more appealing atmosphere, getting more enthusiastic people into the ballpark," Katz said.

More people, louder and closer together, makes for more fun -- at least that's the theory behind having Salem buy $29,930 in tarps to cover 1,000 general admission seats and reduce seating capacity to 4,968.

Givens, 66, of New Castle, and her husband, Bill, 68, introduced his cousin Ellen Hannah and her husband, Steve, 62, of Craig County, to Salem baseball about three years ago. They sit together high in the stands because, "Senior citizens don't need to be close to the action," Givens said. "We don't want to be hit by a ball."

They also prefer, Givens said, to sit away from "all the alcohol," or at least fans who've had a little too much of it.

Givens laughed when she recalled reading about former Fenway Sports Group CEO Mike Dee's argument that the tarps would make the ballpark more "intimate."

"After opening night, it was so packed, we'd had all the intimacy we wanted," Givens said.

"This is just a time to get away from it all, get away from the crowd," Ellen Hannah chimed in.

As if to prove their point, the two had made some extra room in the sold out park. They are friends and family members, but they'd piled their bags on an empty seat between them to create an extra bit of personal space.

Roanokers Cason Cox, 22, and Lauren Curtis, 19, are not as devoted to the Salem Red Sox as the Givenses and Hannahs, but Curtis said she is a "big Red Sox fan" because she has family in the Boston area.

Curtis, who works for EuroSpecialty, said the two had been to three or four games this season. He said the stadium looks "a lot nicer" with the paint job provided by the city, and he has been impressed with the marketing the team has done.

Still, he and Curtis, a student at James Madison University, preferred sitting on the concrete steps between the two tarped sections of seats on the third-base side Monday rather than struggling to find a seat in the middle of a crowded row.

"Then if I want to go get something to eat I'd have to get up and walk by 15 people, then I gotta be that guy, so --" Cox said with a shrug.

"They need to open these things," said Cox, nodding toward the tarp. "Everybody is scrunched up."

But there is no chance that the Red Sox will open up the tarped seats, according to Katz, who doesn't even use the word "tarp" when talking about them.

"I think the seat covers did exactly what they were supposed to do, enhance that [fan] experience," Katz said.

Givens, for one, would respectfully disagree. But she isn't about to give up on baseball.

"I've loved baseball since I was a kid," she said.