MLB games this season drew more than 75 million people for the first time.

“The interest is there, it’s just I think there’s so many other distractions and interests today for kids, for children,” Cardinals general manager Walt Jocketty. “Kids probably don’t have the same interest that we did when we were kids because there’s more alternatives.”

Many others found something else troubling — salaries. Major league players made an average of nearly $3 million this season.

Among all Americans, 28 percent said salaries were the top problem in baseball, 21 percent said it was the high cost of attending games and 19 percent said it was players using steroids and performance-enhancing drugs.

That’s a change from an AP-AOL Sports poll taken in April 2005, when 27 percent picked banned substances as baseball’s No. 1 problem.

Among fans, salaries, the cost of attending games and steroids were in close competition as the top problem.

Those over 35 years old and whites were more likely than younger adults and minorities to say players made too money.

The survey found 58 percent of fans said they cared “a lot” whether players were using steroids and performance-enhancing drugs — that’s slightly lower than in AP-AOL Sports polls taken in April 2005 and April 2006.

Fans who follow baseball closely were more likely to care a lot. And 51 percent of fans overall say MLB isn’t doing enough about banned drugs.

“I think that Major League Baseball should do more about steroid use, as far as making a statement,” said Cardinals fan Steve Subick of Mount Olive, Ill. “Baseball should make a stand on steroid use, so they’re making it look like they’re trying harder to make a difference.”

Inge, however, took issue with the fans’ concern.

“They’re misinformed because there is no steroid issue in baseball anymore,” the Tigers player said.

About two-thirds of fans felt tougher penalties for banned substances did not affect the quality of play this season.

Among other findings:

• The New York Yankees were the team that most fans rooted for, 14 percent, followed by the Atlanta Braves, 10 percent and Boston Red Sox, 9 percent. The Yankees also were the team fans most liked to root against, 40 percent, with Boston way back at 7 percent.
• 79 percent of fans felt the quality of umpiring was good or excellent. Only 19 percent rated it fair or poor.
• 75 percent of fans said postseason games start at the right time, 19 percent said they were on too late. And while most fans, 73 percent, said they would stay up late to watch the World Series, only 38 percent of those with school-aged children said they’d let their children stay awake past their bedtimes.

The AP-AOL Sports poll of 2,002 adults, including 774 baseball fans, was conducted by telephone Oct. 10-12 and Oct. 16-18 by Ipsos. The poll has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2 percentage points for all adults, 3.5 percentage points for baseball fans.

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