The 2008 Major League Baseball World Series achieved the event's lowest television ratings in history, and the league is off to a similarly lousy start to the 2009 season.
Ratings for Fox Saturday Baseball have slipped 9% since last season and 23% since 2000. The Wall Street Journal reports (subscription required) that Fox executives will be meeting with MLB Commissioner Bud Selig next week to try to come up with ways to boost ratings.
Executives are not panicking yet -- the real test will be the All-Star Game and the Playoffs, which account for 90% of the revenue under licensing deals.
What's going on with baseball? It could be a combination of mundane factors -- increased interest in NHL/NBA playoffs and small-market teams in the 2008 World Series -- but I think there's something more sinister at work here: The steroid era is over and so is the era of freakish home runs, and there simply aren't enough compelling story lines to pick up the slack from an era of record-breaking feats.
Suspected cheaters like Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens have been run out of town, and Alex Rodriguez, the man who was to save baseball, has been exposed as a fraud and a hypocrite. The Red Sox have gone from lovable losers to dynastic superpower, and Josh Hamilton is entering his third season as the comeback kid. So what compelling story line is there to focus on? Who cares about Mark Teixeira and C.C. Sabathia? They're studs, but they're just not that interesting. Zack Greinke's turnaround is remarkable but since he's playing in Kansas City, who cares?
MLB can have all the meetings it wants to try to drum up marketing campaigns to draw people back to the game but the real problem is that the most recent golden age has been exposed as a fraud and now we're stuck in no man's land, waiting for something to pop up and make things exciting again.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-26-2009 @ 4:12PM
JCH said...
Why? Because for most fans the purists have driven out every spec of possible joy. To me the most exciting baseball game imaginable would end with one team getting one hit and the other no hits. Lots of wood on balls, but all of them nullified by fantastic fielding. Final score - 1 to 0.
I would be in heaven. But most fans would be in hades. I watched the age of 'roids. The average fan was ecstatic. They may have hated Barry Bonds, but he had them on the edge of their seats (one caveat - it has not been proven that Bonds knowingly used steroids). All of the 'roid hitters did: crazy Conseco, barrel-chested Mac, Sammy Sosa, etc. For the average fan, those guys were exciting.
So the asterisk nitwits who were so greatly offended by all the good clean fun ruined it. Good job guys. You restored boredom to a game that really doesn't need much help to achieve boredom. I'm happy as a clam. My game boring again, and dying again.
5-27-2009 @ 9:38AM
matt said...
I agree with JCH for the most part. Being a Mets fan, and a fan of National League baseball (read: No DH) I've always enjoyed as a pitching and skill game and never really followed the 'storyline' of drug addict sluggers. I suppose it is what ultimately drums up big business, casual fans who care less about the game but like seeing titanic men crush things. Sometimes, things are what they are and nothing more. It's a wonderful thing.
5-28-2009 @ 4:44AM
KCCardFan said...
Give it a rest JCH --
The "purists" had nothing to do with MLB's declining viewership. You "X Game" fans got your inter-league (and unbalanced) schedule, the "Wild Card" and an All-Star game that determines home field advantage in the World Series (WTF!).
Throw in the perpetual stupidity of the "DH," the beer-league softball uniforms, and way too many teams (TWO teams in Florida, for gawd's sake?!) and all the 'roid boys for good measure.
Way to go, "dude!"