I wrote last week, at the beginning of Stras-mania, that the real boon for the Nationals is not just the 14 major league strikeouts Stephen Strasburg  tallied in his major league debut, its the effect of the buzz over those 14 K’s.

Strasburg will help the Nationals sell out the games he starts- and perhaps there will be some spill over onto the games just before or just after he takes the mound as well.

But what is good for the Nationals, apparently is also good for baseball.  The Cleveland Indians benefited from Strasburg making a start at their ballpark.  This Dan Steinberg post shows a merchandise booth set up at the Indians ballpark with only Strasburg merchandise.  The team also benefited at the gate because the buzz around the Nationals phenom created enough walk-up ticket sales to give the team the second highest attendance of the season. Here is a photo of the booth from @cnichols14 used in Steinberg’s piece:

Photo from @cnichols14 on Twitter

One can only hope that nothing happens to the kid, as he continues his career because he might have a very hard time adjusting after all of this hype.  But until then, expect teams to sell a lot of Strasburg shirts.  And as @cnichols14 said- its finally cool to be a Nats fan.