GOTTA GET THOSE EYEBALLS!
Baseball pushes ahead during pandemic, confident ratings will be there
With the deadly coronavirus still showing how devastatingly shifty it is, the only thing “major” sports scheduled to return first — MLB and the NBA — can sell through the media is uncertainty and hope.
It makes us wonder if owners and commissioners will one day look back and regret not doing the right thing. And that would have been standing up and telling the Free World they were putting everything on hold until 2021 when they are able to guarantee the safety of their players and fans. If that meant waiting longer for a vaccine, so be it.
That’s what Broadway did when producers shut down their shows until next year. Professional sports went in the opposite direction.
Unlike Broadway, which totally depends on ticket sales, multibillion-dollar industries like MLB, the NBA, NHL and NFL, have billions in network TV rights fee payments waiting for them if they can keep the machine humming.
Management, as far as safety goes, has put the onus on the players to ultimately decide whether they want to play with the coronavirus raging and lurking. Other questions loom large and are debated. Will these sports be able to get started later this month? And if they do, will they be able to finish the regular season (in baseball’s case 60 games) and crown a champion at the end of the postseason?
Measured against these concerns, despite the hype over the pages of health protocols the leagues have put out, player safety is a footnote. There is more concern over a player testing positive for coronavirus, and what that outcome means for the team’s chances to win, than the player ending up hooked to a ventilator in the ICU.
Yet there is a common theory often heard inside the Valley of the Stupid, from ratings analysts, and in other media precincts. The contention is people are so starved for sports that the TV ratings on outlets airing NBA and baseball games will go through the roof. The league has the ultimate drug and the networks distribute it.
But by no means is ratings success a certainty. The casual fans, desperately needed to transform good ratings into great ratings, have already found other things to do. Are they really going to sit inside on a beautiful summer day or night to watch three-plus hours of baseball?
Some of the broadcast setups will make the telecast disjointed. For example, SNY’s Keith Hernandez recently said, for social distancing purposes, Gary Cohen will work alone in one booth, while he and Ron Darling, separated by plexiglass, will share another booth. More than likely, this will adversely impact the chemistry of the broadcast.
Or maybe MLB really does know its suckers, er, audience. Maybe it knows its hardcore fans are going to run back to baseball even after hearing Rob Manfred tell Dan Patrick: “The reality is we weren’t going to play more than 60 games no matter how the negotiations with the players went.”
What the commissioner is really saying is he views fans as sheep who will still be glued to the TV to watch MLB’s joke of a 60-game season.
Sadly, Manfred might have got this one right.
CARTON’S FUTURE
Depending on how long it takes to put his own house in order, Craig Carton could be back on the radio in October, according to industry sources.
There are priorities Carton, who last gigged on WFAN’s morning show with Norman Esiason, needs to carefully attend to — most notably his family — before he can return to the microphone with his life in order. Carton was released from prison early, after serving just over a year of a 3½ year sentence for his role in a ponzi scheme.
While there has been much speculation that Carton will return to FAN (he has a close relationship with Chris Olivero, senior-VP/market manager for FAN’s parent company Entercom) the sources said there will likely be other potential opportunities for the Gasbag who once walked across the Brooklyn Bridge wearing a Speedo.
“Someone else could make a serious run at him,” the source said.
“Someone on the digital side.” The source then mentioned Barstool, Amazon and Apple as possible interested parties. Carton already has a roundabout connection to AT&T, which owns HBO, the premium cable network that has a Carton documentary in the works.
If Carton does return to FAN he would likely move into afternoon-drive, the spot currently occupied by Joe Benigno and Evan Roberts. There would be high irony if Carton ends up in that spot.
For over three decades, Mike (Sports Pope) Francesa lorded over the afternoon-drive slot. The Pope had no use for Carton, who had a unique ability to get under the pontiff’s Charmin-soft skin. Even last week, when Francesa was recounting FAN history on the occasion of its 33rd anniversary, he couldn’t bring himself to even mention Carton and his role on a highly rated morning show.
BENIGNO WITH THE ASSIST
When a recluse’s mental health problems collide with fear of coronavirus, it’s a scary situation. Depression can set in.
FAN’s Joe Benigno recognized this two weeks ago when a caller told him and Evan Roberts he had not eaten or showered for two days and could not get up off the floor. The caller had lost his energy and will. And his meds were not working.
Joey B., sounding like a coach, told the man to get off the floor and get outside into the sunshine. He told the guy to “clean up” and do something. A week later, on Thursday, the same man called again to thank Benigno for pulling him out of the dumps.
Then he asked if he could “squeeze in” a few Yankees questions.
Sounded like a return to whatever normalcy is.
AROUND THE DIAL
Jay Horwitz has an unusual guest on the latest episode of his “Amazin’ Mets Alumni” podcast; the TV voice of the Knicks and ESPN/ABC’s No. 1 hoops yakker, Mike Breen . He is a lifelong Mets fan so Horwitz has blessed him with an unofficial “alumni” tag. … While Knicks-ing it, ESPN-98.7’s Peter Rosenberg claims James (Guitar Jimmy) Dolan “made himself into a villain.” No, he didn’t. It was his horrendous decision making that “made himself ” into a buffoon. … Chris Canty is a high percentage Gasbag. He always makes a lot of sense. While VOS pontificators were ripping Jamal Adams to shreds for congratulating Cameron Newton and Bill Belichick on the QB signing with New England, Canty poohpoohed the critics saying: “That [criticism] is a fan thing. The players like Cam and are happy for him.”