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Baseball LCS ratings down! The world is coming to an end!

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by printdust, Oct 17, 2011.

  1. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    To replicate the Colts, baseball would have to replicate Peyton Manning's Q rating, right? That's tough to do, I think. In basketball and football, the best players perform play after play, game after game. In baseball, the best players bat four times a game, or pitch once or twice a week. And they stand a very good chance of going 0-for-4 that night. LeBron James, on the other hand, isn't going to score single digits when you watch. Um, wait a minute, bad example ...
     
  2. doctorquant

    doctorquant Well-Known Member

    I'll quibble with you a bit, but only a bit. My quibble is that even if those football teams get the lion's share of national television appearances, those appearances tend to be shared with lots of other teams. So a good bit of the NFL appears in national broadcasts over the course of a season, it's just that that good bit tends to be playing against those marquee/big-following teams (can't really call my Cowboys a marquee team these days/years). There are a lot more opportunities for FOX/ESPN to pair up marquee/big-following teams over the course of a season, and they certainly take advantage of it. When it comes back to bite 'em in the butt, I don't feel the least bit sorry for them.
     
  3. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    I used to think that baseball cards and video games were both enormously important for establishing baseball players' popularity with young fans. I don't think kids really collect baseball cards any more. At least it's a niche hobby at best. And the problem with the video games is that they're so good now that they'd rather play the video games than follow the actual sport. Kind of like how rock 'n' roll is a dying art despite "Guitar Hero's" massive success.
     
  4. LongTimeListener

    LongTimeListener Well-Known Member

    There also isn't a regular-season baseball game that's worth a hill of beans compared with the stakes attached to a regular-season NFL game, so there aren't many opportunities to build a team's rep anyway, even if baseball were inclined to do that.
     
  5. doctorquant

    doctorquant Well-Known Member

    A very good point ...
     
  6. Gehrig

    Gehrig Active Member

    It's like clockwork. As soon as the big-ticket teams get eliminated from the playoffs someone will invariably chime in with complaints about the World Series' TV ratings. As if they prove anything. As if baseball's very survival depended on the annual presence of a select few franchises in its marquee event.

    You say you're upset because the "best" teams aren't in it, but then you start mentioning how small the remaining teams' fanbases are. If your real complaint is that less-talented teams are playing, the size of their fanbases and the potential viewership they'd bring to the World Series should be irrelevant. As it stands, it sounds more like you're just bitter because you don't get to watch the "big dogs" play. I would hope that if, hypothetically, the AL East were a weak division and the Yankees just barely squeaked into the playoffs, you'd be giving the other teams their due credit instead of bringing up their smaller fanbases.

    The nay-sayers had the same gripes when the Phillies eliminated the Dodgers (and their 84-78 record) in the 2008 NLCS. "The Dodgers? That would've been ratings gold there, baby! Who cares about the Phillies? This is going to be a disaster!" Suddenly...look what happened! The Phillies proved themselves to be an elite team and now they're considered the "ratings gold!" If they hadn't gotten the chance to prove themselves though, they'd still be just another team that "no one cares about." How are these smaller-market teams supposed to develop into ratings-grabbers if they're not given a chance to raise their national profile?

    Seriously, folks, what is this? The NBA? Why can't people accept the fact that the most-hyped teams aren't the only ones that matter? The Texas Rangers, for example, are solid from top to bottom. While there's probably a bit more talent on the Yankees, I don't think the gap between them is as large as many people assume. Now that the Rangers won their second straight AL pennant, will there not be an increased national interest in them? Is it inconceivable that they could become "ratings gold"?

    Sigh...one of these days, hopefully, we won't have to hear complaints about the TV ratings, but until then, it seems to be a cross we must bear.
     
  7. Mystery Meat II

    Mystery Meat II Well-Known Member

    Fixed. And they didn't get treated like a top team until they were consistently successful with Manning, Faulk/James and Harrison/Wayne. This year they have no Manning, and consequently they have no TV presence.

    They're just following business sense. If the Yankees and Red Sox are two of your most-watched teams year after year, and they're playing each other, why *wouldn't* you show them? Maybe it would be a strike for some sense of valor for them to pass up NYY-BOS or CHC-STL to highlight the Nats and Pirates or A's and Blue Jays, but it's going to affect your bottom line in the form of viewers wondering why you're force-feeding them teams you don't want to see (an accousation with more merit in this case, since at least you can justify showing popular teams the most based on interest).

    This is almost -- not quite, but almost -- tantamount to wondering why the smallest high school in your coverage area doesn't get as many stories as Center City High.
     
  8. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    Gehrig, let me be clear that I personally don't give a damn whether it's the Yankees or the Rangers. I'd follow a Marlins-Royals World Series religiously.

    I'm strictly talking about how the general public reacts, and the ratings bear this out, as does the level of chatter on noise radio.
     
  9. outofplace

    outofplace Well-Known Member

    Except that it isn't. Because all of the schools in the coverage area aren't all part of one big business which is trying to sell its games as a product nationwide.

    Why wouldn't they show just the big boys? Maybe to help avoid the ratings dip when those teams are eliminated, to help build the national audience for those other teams rather than putting so much on a few franchises.

    Yes, football is better positioned to have a national audience while baseball works better regionally, but at least part of that is because the NFL has been smarter about building its audience than baseball has.

    Do more to level the playing field and give the fans of every franchise at least the illusion that their team can win every year and see the change for the better. Or just keep going like this and watch ratings dip once the Yankees go home.
     
  10. steveu

    steveu Well-Known Member

    Dick, you raise a lot of valid points, and being a huge baseball fan I'll chime in with a few of my own thoughts (just my opinion, but everyone take it for what you want...)

    *This is why I vehemently argue against any form of salary control in baseball or anything to level a playing field. If the economic system is gerry-rigged to guarantee smaller-market teams reach the World Series, okay. But you better be prepared for what follows. Guess what will happen if the World Series consists of teams like Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Milwaukee, Kansas City, Oakland and Tampa Bay for four or five years straight. At the end of that period, the TV ratings will be so low that the future money for the next contract will be jeopardized. I myself would love to see series involving these teams, but I also know that in order to get bigger ratings you need teams like the Yankees, Dodgers, Phillies and Cubs to be in the postseason.

    *If this were 30 years ago I'd worry. Back then you had a three-channel universe and far fewer programming choices. Declining ratings for baseball in 1981 would have been the apocalypse.

    *I myself LOVE this postseason. Every postseason is special in its own way because I'm a big fan (having St. Louis in the World Series makes it better, yes, but Detroit getting to the ALCS was also a big plus).

    *Some people try to use these ratings to play the "baseball's dying" card. On that I call bullshit. The sport's had strong attendance numbers. Yes, there have been declines in the last couple years, but a little thing called the economy got in the way. I find it very interesting that not many people have pointed out in a labor landscape where football and basketball went through/are going through labor woes, baseball's going to negotiate a new contract without any holdups or problems.
     
  11. Mystery Meat II

    Mystery Meat II Well-Known Member

    Has attempting to manipulate interest in a team or sport that wasn't there before ever worked? If so, you'd think the WNBA would be a far bigger deal than it is, given NBA's marketing machine fueling it.

    Interest drives editorial decisions. If the Yankees and Red Sox, both .500 and well out of the playoff race, were getting the primo weekend TV spots while the division-leading Astros and Brewers' three-game September series was relegated to the hinterlands, then I'd see the point. I don't think that's ever been the case though. By the end, they're making their programming choices based on importance to the playoffs. With Tampa Bay and St. Louis making their desperate push at the end, I don't seem to recall them getting ignored by TV.
     
  12. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    I wonder why baseball is such a regional sport compared to others. That is, why baseball fans are passionate about the home team but not the rest of the league, whereas NFL fans watch the playoffs even when their team is out. Wonder what it is about the nature of the respective sports that makes it so.
     
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