July 11, 2007
All-Star Ratings
There's a free preview going on at Baseball Prospectus this week. My latest article on All-Star game ratings is up, plus you can enjoy all the fine writers and research featured on the site.
I'll be interested to see how this year's game turned out. It was a competitive contest which tend to rate higher. Bonds playing in the game generated some controversy, which can bring in viewers. Part of the rating is bringing in viewers, but a big part is holding viewers, and a good game helps the latter.
Update: All-Star ratings fell this year, although more people watched. I would have thought a well played, tight game would have attracted more viewers.
I thought the game was relatively fast-moving and fairly entertaining. I especially liked the tense ending, but I can't understand why anyone would bat Hudson and Rowand instead of Pujols with the game on the line. Ichiro sure mad the most of the game: http://thenewsroom.com/details/485382?c_id=wom-bc-bh - Brad from The Sports Desk at TheNewsRoom.com
TV ratings for sporting events are meaningless. What about all the people going to bars to watch the games? It is impossible to measure how many people are actually watching. And anyway, who the hell cares? You love baseball, you love watching the game, isn't that enough?
All the pomp and circumstance (which pushed the first pitch back to somewhere around just before 9PM on the East Coast) probably had something to do with it.
When Martinez hit that HR in the 8th, TV's up and down the Atlantic time zone clicked off the ASG.
I had to go to bed in the 4th. Too darn tired from a good workout.
NBC counter-programmed cleverly with its karoake contest. There was some buzz about NBC getting their show on the road just ahead of Fox's similar effort. That took a few viewers off the game.
Also, the ceremonies before the game are getting out of hand. This isn't a coronation, it's a ball game. Cut all the pre-game blather back to fifteen minutes, tops, and get the game going. Introduce the players, introduce the celebrity of the day, and play ball.
I'm a huge baseball fan, but I had to turn off the tv for the all-star game. It's ridiculous that FOX, Joe Buck, McCarver, and a supporting cast of 27 other folks making the all-star game into a "show" rather than a game. In addition to their usual ridiculous tactics -- the tired close ups of the pitcher and then the batter to make the moment more "tense," Buck talking about how much the game matters now (I think this must have been a directive from the networks or MLB), McCarver being stupid -- did anyone watch that 4th inning? If you were just listening to the announcers you might not have noticed there was an actual game going on while they blathered on about steroids. They didn't talk about the actual game at all, and it was a ridiculous discussion at that - "We'll never know, so yeah, we'll never know how much steroid use has affected baseball." Nice insight, guys. Next time call the damn game.
I can't stand the way the Fox announcers will just pretend they're on a baseball talk show while I have to rewind the DVR and look at the number on the guy's back just to figure out who was at bat.