GOTTA BRING SIZZLE!
Yankees-Rays series can bring back Bomber buzz
The upcoming revenge matchup with Tampa Bay in the ALDS will give the Yankees a chance to recapture the kind of buzz that has escaped this storied franchise.
The Bombers are in need of a sizzle vaccine.
Going into the pandemic postseason, evidence of their Big Fizzle is provided by looking at the Yankees Entertainment & Sports Network’s final viewership numbers for the abbreviated regular season. Compared to the 2019 season, the average total viewership was down an unYankee-like 4%.
YES averaged 261,000 total viewers over 54 games this season compared to the 271,000 total viewers over 131 games during the 2019 season.
Now, MLB, and Turner, whose TBS outlet will air Yankees-Rays, are hoping the Bombers can revive Mystique & Aura and do what they normally do — attract loads of eyeballs, including the casual ones, to their telecasts. YES, which is airing pre and postgame shows, is looking for results that will spill over to 2021 and eventually help re-capture peepers lost this season.
Historically, the Bombers are a TV ratings machine, so how could their viewership drop when TV soothsayers were predicting a huge pent-up demand for baseball and all live sports programming?
Well, some fans are just normally blasé about the Yankees in the regular season. They don’t watch every game and don’t believe the season starts until October. That fact was magnified this season when MLB expanded the playoff field to 16 teams, making the Yankees basically a sure thing.
The Yankees prolonged losing streaks could have also alienated eyeballs. Yankee fans are notorious front runners and don’t like watching their team lose on a nightly basis. An argument could be made all the losing made for compelling telecasts. There was uncertainty where the Yankees would land in the playoff puzzle and who they would wind up playing.
The way YES’ schedule eventually broke could have negatively impacted the final viewership numbers. Of those 54 games airing on YES, 30 were afternoon games, which record lower ratings. The afternoon games included seven doubleheaders. YES was also limited when it came to primetime broadcasts. Twenty-four of YES’ 54 games started at or after 7 p.m.
Then there is the distinct possibility fans just found something else to do while they were in their homes sheltering from coronavirus. They found other means of entertainment, liked it, andstuckwithit.Whenitcomes to baseball, all the fighting over money turned people (many who lost loved ones, or their jobs, or their businesses, or were furloughed) off to the sport.
All these reasons combined to chip away at the TV numbers. Yet in that department, starting Monday night, the Yankees have a chance to redeem themselves.
JOE’S FREE PASS
When will the Valley of the Stupid, and other brilliant media football minds, break their seal (as in sealed lips) on Joe Douglas.
Only a few brave souls, who don’t subscribe to the pack mentality, have dared to end their honeymoon with the Jets GM (Mr. Six Year Contract), and place some of the blame for the alleged NFL franchise’s dysfunction on him.
Douglas’ time will come. With 12 games left, his Groupies will all need something to write or talk about. How many times can they all go to the Gase-mustgo well? Or constantly rap inanely about why they think the Jets are tanking? How many times can they take the Brothers Johnson to task?
If the football mouths are that in love with Douglas, explaining to the Free World why he is doing such a terrific job would be a fabulous exercise in communication.
Or maybe they can explain if it’s Douglas, or Joe Benigno, who actually stocked this Jets roster with assorted dreck.
MASK UP, OR NOT
With the multiple gigs, and his other business interests, it must be easy for Norman Julius Esiason, to get confused. Eitherthat,ortheWFANmorning Gasbag has a double standard when it comes to players and coaches.
Last week on FAN, Esiason took Raiders quarterback Derek Carr, and some of his Vegas teammates, to task for not wearing protective masks at a charity event. Esiason was irate over the players lack of concern for coronavirus protocols.
Yet, the week before, Esiason ripped the NFL for fining Jon Gruden and Sean Payton $100,000 each for not wearing their protective masks during the Saints-Raiders “Monday Night Football” matchup. Esiason characterized the NFL’s fine as a “politically correct” move.
So, was Norman being “politically correct” when he called out Carr and his ‘mates?
FRANCESA PLAYS THE HITS
Speaking of hypocrites, Mike (Sports Pope) Frances a blessed SXM with an appearance on Adam (Nabob) Schein’s extravaganza and turned it into of a smorgasbord of some of his classic takes. As expected, His Holiness sucked all the air out of the session, relegating His ScheinNess to peashooter status.
The highlight was Francesa shredding Giants GM David Gettleman. It was as down and disrespectful as any of the Pope’s Gettleman rants when the Pontiff worked afternoon drive on FAN. Just think, Mark Chernoff traded the Pope’s brand of high heat in exchange for Evan Roberts recounting the seventh inning of a Mets-Phillies game in 2003.
Anyway, with SXM’s Schein, who took a soft swipe at Gettleman, Francesa flat-out said: “The Giants will never win until Gettleman’s gone.” Francesa then portrayed the Giants GM as gutless for not sitting down with him for an interview. Francesa wasn’t finished.
He said: “The Giants have allowed Gettleman to treat the media like garbage.”
Outside of his sycophants, toadies and lackies who routinely genuflect to him, Francesa treats most of the media like garbage. If Gettleman does treat the media “like garbage” he’s only taking a page out of Francesa’s playbook.