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GREENSBORO -- A minor league baseball team, like television's "Law and Order," is made up of two separate yet equally important groups: the players, who are paid by the big-league franchises to do their work on the field; and the front office, which answers to local ownership and handles a club's business affairs.

Their stories are again disparate in Greensboro, where the Grasshoppers' playoff hopes evaporated early in the season's second half, but the franchise seeks another record in its realm. The Hoppers need to average 7,057 fans in the five-game homestand that begins tonight to continue an annual upward trend of considerable substance. (Their 2008 average for Thursdays through Mondays is 6,565.)

A year ago, the franchise became the first in minor league history to increase total attendance for three straight years in a new park while drawing more than 400,000 fans in each season. In 2008, the Hoppers' per-game average is down 3.7 percent, but last year's total of 441,106 fans can still be surpassed if the weather, which hasn't knocked out a home game since April 2007, cooperates.

As of Wednesday, that was the 441,107-fan question. The forecast called for a 60 percent chance of rain on Thirsty Thursday, the discounted-beverage fest that draws the college crowd. The holiday weekend looks good, however, and the chase for the new standard could come down to the final day.

Mondays generally are slow at every ballpark in the land, which is why the Hoppers are cutting prices on lawn tickets, soda, beer and hot dogs to $1 apiece for the 12:30 p.m. Labor Day game. There certainly are more radical things in the world of minor league promotions than reduced-price concessions, but at this point in the season, the goofy mascots have made their schedules.

As for the actual baseball, it's almost certainly the locals' final chance to see two high-end Florida Marlins prospects. Outfielder Mike Stanton, still 18, is the youngest major or minor league player to hit 35 home runs in a season in at least 46 years. Third baseman Matt Dominguez, who turns 19 today, missed the first several weeks of the season with mononucleosis, but has hit 12 long balls and driven in 51 runs in the 62 games since the All-Star break. If the Marlins' top draft pick of 2007 had been healthy the whole year, he'd be making a run at the century mark in RBIs.

Setting another attendance mark would be an impressive achievement in this downtrodden economy. Eleven of the South Atlantic League's 16 teams have seen declines at the gate this year compared with last, and the Grasshoppers are in a struggle with the Lakewood (N.J.) BlueClaws for the league lead in average attendance. The Claws clung to a six-fan advantage (6,249 to 6,243) entering Wednesday night's home game with the Delmarva Shorebirds. They're home today and Friday, but they finish the year on the road and are, therefore, vulnerable.

The players -- 47 of them so far in Hoppers garb in 2008 -- often pass through the low minors without being recognized. Stanton and Dominguez are the exceptions. So is Kris Harvey, who hit 15 homers here two years ago and has returned as a pitcher after maxing out with the bat at Double-A Carolina.

The transient nature of the game will never change, and one day the Hoppers' run of record-breaking attendance feats will end. They'd just like to put it off. Or, as the say in the courtroom, move for a continuance.

Contact Rob Daniels at 373-7028 or rob.daniels@news-record.com