Sports-starved fans flock to televisions on opening night
With no other major American sports going, Major League Baseball found a massive audience Thursday night in its return to play.
The Giants’ 8-1 loss to the Dodgers in the 7 p.m. nightcap drew a massive 6.9 rating in San Francisco, the best seen for a regular season MLB game since 2013, according to ESPN. It was also the network’s most watched late-night regular season game ever, with an average audience of 2,764,000. In Los Angeles, it drew a 6.8 rating, the network’s highest-rated regular season game in that market aside from the Dodgers’ 2018 Game 163 vs. the Rockies for the NL West crown.
The astronomical ratings may have been buoyed by a holdover East Coast audience interested in ESPN’s Opening Night matinee game between the Yankees and Nationals, which went into a rain delay in the sixth inning and was later called final at that juncture. ESPN filled about an hour of air time with rain delay coverage before the GiantsDodgers game began.
That game drew the largest average audience of any Opening Night MLB game ever (4,000,000), and was the most watched regular season game since 2011. ESPN says it was a 232 percent viewership increase over last year’s Red Sox-Mariners opener.
The Yankees won Thursday night’s shortened opener 4-1.
BLUE JAYS TO PLAY iOtE GAtES IN BUFFALO >> The displaced Toronto Blue Jays will play in a minor league ballpark in Buffalo, New York, this year after being turned down by the Canadian government and blocked from playing in Pittsburgh by the state of Pennsylvania.
The Blue Jays’ home for the season will be Sahlen Field, where the Triple-A affiliate Buffalo Bisons usually play.
The team had been looking for a major league ballpark for its home games after the Canadian government wouldn’t allow it to play in Toronto but the search was unsuccessful. Pennsylvania health officials rejected a deal to play in Pittsburgh because of rising COVID-19 cases there.
The team also held talks with the Baltimore Orioles about Camden Yards, but the Blue Jays didn’t want to wait on Maryland officials with their season starting Friday. INDIANS WEAR ROAD JERSEYS TO iONOR tINORITIES >> For their delayed home opener, the Indians elected to wear their blue road jerseys with “Cleveland” on the front as a unified statement of solidarity for minorities as the team contemplates a name change.
Owner Paul Dolan recently announced the franchise is considering changing its name from Indians, which has been the club’s moniker since 1915. Typically, the team wears white jerseys with “Indians” across the chest at home.