U.S. baseball attendance falls 6.6 pct this year

CHICAGO, Oct 7 (Reuters) - Major League Baseball saw regular-season attendance drop 6.6 percent this year as consumers dialed back spending amid the recession.

The number of people attending games, including Tuesday's one-game playoff between the Minnesota Twins and Detroit Tigers, totaled 73.4 million, the fifth-highest in league history.

The teams with the biggest declines were in markets that suffered from high unemployment rates, including Detroit, Cincinnati, San Diego, Oakland and the Florida Marlins in Miami.

Over the past year most sports have been hurt by the weak economy due to lower spending by consumers and corporate sponsors.

Excluding two new, smaller ballparks in New York, league attendance fell 5.2 percent. The total number of seats available in Citi Field, home of the Mets, and Yankee Stadium was about 1.5 million fewer than at the old ballparks.

The Los Angeles Dodgers led the National League in attendance with more than 3.76 million fans, or an average of 46,400 per game. The Yankees led the American League with attendance of more than 3.7 million. (Reporting by Ben Klayman; editing by John Wallace)