Baseball king of October feast
It is one of the busiest times of the year for sports fans.
Locally, Toronto FC’s playoff run is an important moment for that team. The Leafs’ and Raptors’ seasons are underway. And then there is the little matter of a World Series featuring teams that hadn’t won it in generations.
The matchup between the Chicago Cubs and Cleveland Indians was a home run for Fox heading into Sunday night’s Game 5, with the highest ratings since 2009 — averaging 18.2 million in the U.S.
Blue Jays ratings were incredible this year, too, but it’s very clear that Canadians are more fans of the team than the sport. It is interesting to note, though, that there does seem to have been a Cubs bump north of the border.
According to Sportsnet, last Tuesday’s Game 1 had an average audience of 977,000, followed by 912,000 for Game 2 on Wednesday. That is a 26-per-cent increase over the first two games of the 2015 World Series, which averaged 746,000.
Wednesday night also featured the Raptors’ home opener and Toronto FC’s first home playoff game. While I reached out to TSN for those numbers, they did not come through by press time — but both will likely have been dwarfed by baseball. The Raptors are notoriously slow starters when it comes to TV ratings, with early-season games usually around 200,000. And despite TFC’s success this season — including winning in the knockout round — the MLS team’s numbers are minuscule, often about 60,000.
CURIOUS A-ROD: While he got good reviews in spot duty last year, Alex Rodriguez has been a revelation on Fox’s World Series coverage. Unlike most superstar players, he hasn’t seemed to want to lord over with his knowledge, but rather seems actually curious and listens to other panelists. Sports Illustrated media writer Richard Deitsch wrote about how over-prepared he is, often emailing producers in the middle of the night with suggestions.
He has been the story with U.S. sports media writers and the panel, with Frank Thomas and Pete Rose, is a great mix of personalities. That is best evidenced by the video where the three start chatting about hitting and Fox producers smartly kept the cameras rolling while the three legendary batters trade tips. That has gone viral and shows how genuinely curious A-Rod is, picking his co-workers’ brains about their approaches.
The thing about television is that those who are good at it make it look incredibly easy, and it’s not. It’s the same with a panel of analysts. When it works, it’s evident. One only needs to look at Rogers’ retooling of its NHL panels from last year, which somehow suffered from both too many voices and not enough variety. ESPN’s NFL Countdown has changed completely in an attempt at going younger, but other than Randy Moss, another superstar athlete who has become an aboveaverage commentator, it still feels like it needs some tweaking.
TNT’s Inside the NBA panel is considered the best in sports, and just this past week added Kevin Garnett as a guest analyst, which adds to the antics and helps it get a bit younger.
With Rose and A-Rod, baseball might have its top tier of commentators. At this point Rodriguez is noncommittal about his broadcasting future, although, just like at the game, he seems like a natural.
COLLECTIVE AMNESIA: There is no doubt that the Cubs have been a great story, but a bunch of outlets have tried to make it sound even better by omitting facts. In order to magnify the collective suffering of the team’s fans, ESPN, CBS and the Washington Post — in graphics, online and on air — conveniently left out the fact that the Chicago White Sox won the World Series in 2005. Chicago has had more than its fair share of championships. With all the stories about curses — from the Billy Goat to Steve Bartman — the Cubs’ tale really doesn’t need embellishment.