Ohio State - Penn State beat World Series Game 3 in the ratings

That's it in a nutshell, 2B. Maybe somebody's in your ear, telling you the game is becoming irrelevant. And I've heard this from some other people besides you.

You folks are wrong. When two major-league baseball teams can draw 35,000 on a Tuesday night in May, your claims of irrelevance fall on deaf ears. It's plenty relevant.

You think the game's become irrelevant? I challenge you to spend a day in South Williamsport, Pa., in mid-August.

 

http://www.sportingnews.com/yourturn/viewtopic.php?t=480392

Quoting the AP:

"The Philadelphia Phillies' five-game victory over the Tampa Bay Rays on Fox drew record-low ratings. The series averaged an 8.4 rating and 14 share, the network said Thursday. That's down 17 percent from the previous low, a 10.1 for the five-game Cardinals-Tigers series in 2006. "

What was that about facts?

 

So you don't make a fragmented viewing audience with more options than ever before indicative of a dying sport. It's too much of a stretch.

Ever think that a World Series game between the Phillies and the Rays isn't the can't-miss for baseball fans that you think it should be?

 

Shouldn't the World Series always be a can't-miss for baseball fans?

 

And yet in 2007 baseball set an attendance record.

Therefore low World Series ratings ≠ the withering of baseball. They have more to do with lengthy games and late starting times.

 

Can't you see?? Baseball is clearly on its deathbed.

After FOUR straight seasons of record attendance, MLB attendance in 2008 dropped by a whopping 1.1 percent. That's a clear indication that no one gives a rats ass about baseball anymore.

 

I think there is something valid in Twoback's argument that baseball has failed to consider the the interest of its fans properly. One of the ways that has happened is in the late starting times for games. Some fans outside the big markets have gotten fed up with the finances of the game as well.

But to say the game is becoming irrelevant outside of the big markets is overstating the case. The decline in the ratings for the World Series is a bad sign, but as TSP pointed out, there are positive signs, too. The sports isn't dying. It could be doing better, but it could also be a hell of a lot worse.

 

No.

I can understand the confusion, but that's a misconception.

Maybe "Two And A Half Men" did it for me more than Monday night's game. That doesn't mean that I wouldn't pour my money into a couple of trips to the ballpark during the season.

Better example, returning to what started it all: The TV in our office was sure as hell going to be turned on to PSU-OSU on Saturday night. We knew there was going to be more Phillies-Rays throughout the week. There wasn't going to be a Nittany Lions-Buckeyes Game 3 on Tuesday night.

The World Series is NOT necessarily the end-all for every baseball fan each season.

 

shotglass, I have to disagree with you on this one.

I can understand people not watching when the games run too late, or perhaps even getting frustrated with the way Game 5 was handled and not watching the end of it. But I do think it is a bad thing for the game if baseball fans simply aren't interested in watching the World Series.

 

If I can cut through the clutter:

I guess the point is that baseball appears to need one of a small group of teams (Yankees, Red Sox, Mets, Cubs, maybe the Dodgers) to be in the World Series, or people will not watch. Whereas the Super Bowl could (and has) featured two teams with low fan bases, and people will watch. And it's not just a matter of it being an event - regular people are interested in how the Indianapolis Colts, for instance, are doing. If the AFC championship is between Tennessee and Buffalo this year, it will still get decent ratings.

I also recognize baseball's attendance boom. Look, the two sports aren't in competition with each other. But it just seems obvious right now that baseball is becoming more of an entertainment, in-person vehicle, while football (both college and pro) is the national past-time, in person and on the air.

 

I would agree with that, but I think it's important to distinguish why that is. A big part of the reason is because MLB stupidly markets the game as if there's only a small group of teams worth watching. If you tell everybody that every Yankees-Red Sox game is life or death, don't be surprised when they don't feel that way about Phillies-Rays. (I mean, I'm a huge fan of the game and I didn't see the Rays play on TV until the mid-September series at Fenway. I'm sure they did before then, but I must have been busy and couldn't watch. ... But I know I saw the dog-ass Yankees a dozen times.) Can't market the game that way, and expect people to be interested in new teams. ... Case in point: In 1996, the most visible player in the game ... was a Mariner. In 1989, the best-known player in the game was ... a Royal (with the help of Nike.) Baseball doesn't do that anymore.

Anyway, it's NOT, as twoback said, because fans of every team 30 years ago felt they had a chance to win the World Series. Look, I think even BYH would say that baseball has always had inequities. No way that Padres fans in 1975 or A's fans in 1955 or Phillies fans in 1935 felt their team had a chance -- that's ludicrous. Those teams sucked for decades. I'm not sure how that meme got started, that all teams had a fightin' chance in the good ol' days. No, they never did. We just talk about it more now, and that's because Selig talks about it more now. (Of course, you don't hear him saying much now that the Brewers are playoff contenders, do you ...)

Comparing MLB to the NFL is a fool's game. You can't replicate the setup, you can't replicate the scheduling, you can't replicate the sense of the event, especially now that there's hundreds of entertainment options every day and baseball is an everyday event. The country effectively shuts down for Super Bowl Sunday -- even TV channels that don't care about sports have "SB widows" shows, etc. ... So it makes sense that you can't replicate the ratings, either.

Yes, football is doing much better on TV than baseball. You'll get no argument from me on that.

But it ain't because baseball is dying. Teams are making more money than ever, bringing in more people to the games than ever. Building new parks, exciting new players ... the game's doing just fine. There are things baseball could do to get better postseason ratings -- for one, start the games earlier (and if you have to lower the rights fees to get FOX to agree to that, fine.) For two, the marketing. Hire somebody from Obama's campaign, I don't know. Can't limit yourself to six teams and expect casual fans to tune in when somebody else wins ...

But this shit about ratings, man. It's dumb, dumb, dumb. And comparing it to football ... just stop already.

 

Buck, people still come to the games. However, the game lacks the excitement and constant action that football and basketball provides. People would rather spend three hours watching athletes bowling over other athletes than to see someone try to hit a baseball. I love baseball but I also accept the fact that people's attitude towards the game have changed.