Ratings Dismal for CBS : TV: Losses keep mounting for network on its four-year contract with Major League Baseball.

If we’re talkin’ baseball and CBS, we’re also talking about the Bad News Bears of the broadcasting business. We’re talking about horrendous losses -- an estimated $275 million before taxes already in the first two years of a four-year contract that paid Major League Baseball $1.06 billion -- and dismal ratings for the regular season and now, the postseason too.

Tuesday night’s opening game between the Minnesota Twins and Toronto Blue Jays (two teams hardly high on charisma to begin with) in the American League Championship Series was the lowest rated prime-time playoff game in network history. That trend seems likely to continue as ABC and NBC throw counter-programming at their rival and the games remain devoid of drama.

There are other problems. The people who do such a splendid job on NCAA basketball and the NFL, for example, are struggling to get the right touch on baseball. They still seem uncertain about their audience -- is it made up of died-in-the-doubleknit purists or occasional fans who suddenly get interested just because it’s October? Or both?

And why so many numbing numbers? Just tell me a guy’s a dead-pull hitter, and I’ll believe you. I don’t need to be shown percentages of his hits to left, right and center, I don’t need pitch counts. What I’d like instead is coverage that approaches usual CBS standards. And a pregame show would help too.

The network’s decision to cancel the pregame in favor of drivel such as Rescue 911 and Top Cops may have brought in a few more dollars in prime-time ad revenues, but definitely hurt the baseball show. On Tuesday night, Minnesota’s domed stadium was as much a story as the participants, what with players on both sides having difficulty picking up pop flies lost in the ceiling and the noise an intimidating factor as well. Neither story line was ever properly developed. Cameras never panned the roof. Surely those subjects would have been covered in a pregame show. Call it Rescue MLB.

CBS also made a curious choice in announcers for its opening game, going with its back-up crew of laconic Dick Stockton and Mr. Nice Guy Jim Kaat instead of the far more animated Jack Buck and opinionated Tim McCarver. The B Team hardly distinguished itself, particularly during the game’s turning point -- the fourth inning, Blue Jays at bat, trailing 5-0, no outs and Toronto’s Roberto Alomar on first base. When Alomar tried to score from first on Joe Carter’s double, he was thrown out at the plate, taking his team out of a potentially big inning in a game it eventually lost, 5-4.

And yet, neither Kaat nor Stockton said one word about the wisdom of third-base coach Rich Hacker waving Alomar home. Even if he’d been safe, the strategy would have merited discussion. Kaat and Stockton did discuss the play at length early in Game 2. Definitely too little, too late.

Stockton is working with his wife, Leslie Visser, a roving reporter in the ALCS. Executive Producer Ted Shaker says he tried to avoid that pairing when Visser first joined the network three years ago “because I thought it might put too much pressure on both of them. But she’s become very comfortable. They’ve worked together before; it’s not a even a consideration.” I have no problem with it, though at some point the audience probably should be told.

I do have some reservations about CBS’ use of the DW -- that’s Designated Woman -- in the baseball coverage. Shaker says it’s merely coincidence that two women happen to be manning this position. Neither Visser nor her NLCS counterpart, Andrea Joyce, has added a whole lot, though they try mightily, as Shaker says “to take the viewer into different places you won’t normally see.” I don’t blame the reporters, I just dislike the job description. The boys (and-or girls) in the booth, with some legwork from off-air reporters, would do just fine. I also suspect that Tony Kubek or any other Designated Man who’s ever done it doesn’t much like it either.

In Game 1 of the NLCS, when Pirate pitcher Doug Drabek was hurt sliding into third base and had to leave the game, Joyce was properly positioned outside the locker room for news on the injury. But she didn’t get the story.

Seconds after she said he’d hurt his knee, Buck, up in the booth listening to a report on the press box PA system, reported it was a “jammed hamstring,” whatever that is. To her credit, Joyce stayed with it and finally got a trainer to tell her Drabek had pulled his hamstring. Score one for the DW, but this is a position the bean-counters in network TV would be wise to eliminate.

Now back to you Tim.

McCarver has generally enjoyed rave reviews for his work on network baseball and as a voice of the Mets. Wednesday, he had his moments. He told viewers Pirate lefthanded hitter Andy Van Slyke was batting against a lefthanded pitcher because he did especially well against Atlanta lefties moments before Van Slyke hit a solo homerun. He also criticized some foolish baserunning by Mark Lemke to take the Braves out of a big inning (pay attention, Kaat).