Despite Itself, Baseball Is Getting Big League Ratings

Knowing what we think we know about Major League Baseball circa 2004, a quick round of word association:

National pastime: past its time.

Home runs: steroids.

Barry Bonds: BALCO.

Roger Clemens: See, it’s a sport for old people.

Randy Johnson: See, it’s a sport for old people.

On base: Spider-Man.

Cracker Jack: Gone from Yankee Stadium.

Peanuts: Baseball TV ratings.

Not so fast on that last one.

In a country supposedly gone NASCAR-mad, in the heart of the NBA playoffs, baseball, despite several well-aimed attempts to shoot itself in both feet, heads into the last week in May without a limp, without crutches, but with a surprising hop in its step.

The Angels’ ratings on Fox Sports Net are up 78% over last year.

The Dodgers’ ratings on Fox Sports Net 2 are up 17%.

Across the Fox Sports Net regional map, statistics more startling than Derek Jeter’s .190 batting average can be found.

In Chicago, the Cubs’ regional television ratings are up 101%.

In Seattle, the Mariners’ TV numbers have jumped 97%.

Houston? Up 45%. Milwaukee? A 42% bump. Even in Detroit, where one of the worst teams to ever fumble with a uniform zipper lost 119 games last season, ratings have increased 59% over 2003.

Nationally, baseball ratings on Fox Sports Net have risen 20% from last season, from 3.2 in 2003 to 3.9 so far in 2004.

This from a sport supposedly in such bad shape, so desperate to broaden its audience, that it approved putting “Spider-Man 2” ads on its bases, at least for a couple of days, before the voice of angry fans began to drown out “Take Me Out to the Ball Game,” a song that recently required a rewrite for accuracy’s sake inside Yankee Stadium.

Buy me some peanuts and Crunch ‘n Munch

I wonder how many players had steroids for lunch

Last weekend, the national Fox network aired its first Saturday baseball telecast of the season, with four games filling the time block on a regional basis: Dodgers at Braves, Cardinals at Cubs, Diamondbacks at Marlins, Yankees at Rangers. Fox reported an average overnight rating of 3.5 for the four games, a 17% improvement over the network’s opening weekend from 2003.

Steve Simpson, Fox Sports Net West vice president and general manager, said he “can’t explain the resurgence of baseball, the way it’s coming across now, across the country, especially on the heels of all you’re hearing about steroid abuse and ‘baseball’s in turmoil.’ All of a sudden, across the country, attendance is up, ratings are up, and in Southern California, we’re enjoying that.

“I can’t explain it. But it’s a good thing.”

Simpson, however, ventured a few theories as to why the Angels’ Fox Sports Net ratings are up nearly 80%, from 1.3 in 2003 to 2.3 today, and why the Dodgers’ have climbed from 1.5 to 1.7.

First, he pointed to the standings. The Angels lead the American League West by three games and the Dodgers are in a virtual tie for first place in the National League West.

“Winning cures all,” he said.

A high-profile off-season, during which the Angels acquired big-name talent such as Vladimir Guerrero and the Dodgers changed ownership, also helped spark early-season interest in the local teams.

“The Angels made some great acquisitions,” Simpson said. “[Owner] Arte Moreno’s done some great things. And the Dodgers got a lot of publicity up front about new ownership, albeit not great. It kept them in the light, and it kept us and the media focused on them.”

Fox Sports Net President Bob Thompson believes the ratings are partly residue from a well-watched postseason in which the long-suffering Cubs and Boston Red Sox fell just short of the World Series in dramatic fashion.

“My belief is that the biggest reason for the increase is the result of the tremendous postseason that occurred,” he said. “I mean, the numbers were up across the board, not just in the divisional [playoffs] and the NLCS and ALCS, but even the World Series was good. It was an exciting World Series ....

“I think people really rediscovered the excitement that exists around baseball. Also, it didn’t hurt having so many major-market teams involved.”

Thompson said baseball ratings in April and May 2003 were affected by the public’s interest in the initial stages of the war in Iraq.

“That drew a lot of viewers’ attentions early on in the year,” he said. “So when you’re comparing at this point, from a year to date, you’re comparing apples to apples, same time period versus last year, you’re picking up a little bit of effect from that. The news channels aren’t getting quite the viewership they had been a year ago.”

And so far, Thompson said, “If there is fallout from the steroid thing, we’re not seeing it. Who knows what the future will bring? I don’t know that I can sit here and rightfully predict that, because my feeling is the steroid thing still has a way to go.

“But I also think there’s been some great stories in baseball, the Bonds home-run chase. All those type of things have really helped the ratings.”

On Fox Sports Net, baseball’s average rating of 3.9 this season is higher than the 2003-04 regular-season ratings for the NBA (2.5) and NHL (1.1) combined.

“Baseball, to me, is a great sport,” Thompson said. “It’s an American institution. I don’t know that it was ever ‘broke’ to the extent a lot of people said it was.”

And, worth mentioning to Commissioner Bud Selig, people are watching with Casey Kotchman at first base for the Angels and Alex Cora at second base for the Dodgers. Evidently, Spider-Man’s presence is not required.