Opener gets good ratings

Was most-watched game in a season since 2011

The pandemic-delayed Major League Baseball opener was the sport’s mostwatched regular-season game on any network in nine years.

The New York Yankees’ rain-shortened 4-1 win against the Washington Nationals Thursday night in Washington averaged 4 million viewers on ESPN, according to Nielsen fast national ratings. The game peaked at 8:30 p.m. with 4.48 million viewers.

No regular-season game had been viewed by that many since 4.7 million watched Boston beat the Yankees, 3-2, in 10 innings Aug. 7, 2011, also on ESPN.

Nationals

On the morning after he launched a ceremonial first pitch that might charitably have been described as “just a bit outside,” Dr. Anthony Fauci got a baseball card of his own.

Washington invited Fauci, the nation’s leading specialist in infectious diseases, to throw out the first pitch Thursday night for the Nationals season opener, calling him “a true champion for our country during the COVID-19 pandemic and throughout his distinguished career.”

The pitch itself was not distinguished, except perhaps for the distance it landed from home plate.

“It went in the wrong direction,” Fauci told The Washington Post Friday. “I joked around after and said I used to be a shortstop when I played ball as a young boy and I thought I was supposed to throw to first base.”

Nonetheless, Topps honored Fauci with a baseball card Friday. The front features a picture of him letting the ball go without showing its trajectory.

Elsewhere

A record 110 players from the Dominican Republic were on opening-day major league rosters, boosted by an expanded pool after the layoff caused by the coronavirus pandemic. MLB said Friday that 291 of 1,026 players on opening-day rosters were born outside the 50 states, which comes to 28.4%. That is down from 28.5% a year ago, 29% in 2018 and a record 29.8% in 2017. Total players born outside the United States topped the previous high of 259 in 2017.