Series Not a Hit in the Ratings

Through the first four games of the World Series, the overall rating was an 18.9, which is a 12% drop from the 21.5 for the first four games of last year’s Series.

Even though Game 4 Wednesday night was a one-run victory for Toronto, the rating was, coincidentally, also an 18.9, which is a drop from the 20.8 for Game 3.

This Series is on its way to being the second-lowest rated ever. The earthquake-interrupted Series of 1989 averaged a 16.4.

Although the television climate has changed greatly, baseball still has experienced a huge decline from the days of ratings in the high 30s. Game 6 of the 1977 World Series between the Dodgers and New York Yankees got a 39.6.

Even if CBS could count the 10 million or so people watching this Series in Canada, it still would be a bleak picture.

Not so much for CBS, which probably will be finished with baseball after the 1993 Series. It is baseball that is left reeling.

The low ratings will further hurt the sport’s chances of getting a decent network contract the next go-round.

CBS came up with a way to recoup some of its financial losses.

The network, which was having trouble selling ads for Saturday’s World Series pregame show, has scrapped it and instead will run a paid-for Ross Perot special in the 5-to-5:30 time slot.

Maybe Perot will give the ratings a boost.

The most poignant moment of this World Series occurred during the pregame ceremonies for Tuesday night’s Game 3, when a U.S. Marine Corps color guard, at its request, carried the Canadian flag--right-side up--and a Royal Canadian Mounted Police color guard carried the American flag.

“It was the most inspirational pregame ceremony I have ever seen,” CBS’ Tim McCarver said.

Problem was, he said it Wednesday night, during Game 4. Must have taken awhile to sink in.

CBS, on the pregame show Tuesday, didn’t help international relations when it ran a piece by some goofball named Bill Geist, an Andy Rooney clone, in which he poked fun at Canada.

“Baseball knows no boundaries, but on the other hand they just don’t get it,” Geist said after showing two youngsters playing catch with a hockey puck and baseball gloves.

The next night, O’Brien offered an apology. “The people of Canada have shown a great love for baseball and have been outstanding hosts to all of us,” he said. “We hope the essay by satirist Bill Geist was taken in the good-natured spirit in which it was intended. That is our hope at CBS.”

McCarver came up with an interesting tidbit during Game 3 when he said that Juan Guzman’s number, 66, was not the highest worn by a pitcher in a World Series.

He pointed out that Bill Voiselle, who was from Ninety-Six, S.C., wore No. 96.

McCarver, however, might have mentioned that Voiselle pitched for the Boston Braves in the 1948 World Series, and lost the last game to the Cleveland Indians.

Sean McDonough came back with one of his better lines of the Series: “Guzman is not about to start a controversy and turn his number 66 upside down just to have the highest number of any World Series player.”

Who says McDonough doesn’t have a sense of humor?

McDonough is smooth and unoffensive, but if perfection in an announcer is what you seek, you should have been listening to Vin Scully’s radio call of the near-triple play in the fourth inning of Game 3.

Scully didn’t miss a beat.

Scully calls his mentor, Red Barber, who died Thursday, “the finest baseball announcer who ever lived.”

That may the the case, but Scully is a close second.

Pat O’Brien got a little tongue-tied after Game 3.

“Welcome back to the SkyDome, where the celebration continues and, I gather, throughout the streets of Toronto will continue throughout the evening as Toronto wins its first World Series,” he said.

Sort of jumped the gun on that one.

But that faux pas wasn’t as bad as one a few minutes later by Channel 2 news anchor Michael Tuck, who began introducing the station’s postgame show before he was supposed to. As Tuck’s voice drowned out a commercial, viewers could hear a producer, or someone, yelling, “Stop!”

Then on the postgame show, a graphic identified Jim Hill, who was reporting from the Forum, as Jill Hill.

TV-Radio Notes

ABC’s Keith Jackson has an attractive assignment Saturday--Washington State at USC. For one thing, the Coliseum is an easy trip from his home in Sherman Oaks. For another, he’s a 1954 graduate of Washington State, and the Cougars are 6-0. And, for balance, two of his children, Melanie and Lindsey, are USC graduates. . . . Where did ABC come up with commentator John Spagnola, who worked last Saturday’s Washington State-UCLA telecast? It was one cliche after another. Talking about who would start at quarterback for the Bruins, Spagnola said, “It’s the best-kept secret since the invasion of Normandy.” After a pass completion, he said, “That one was down the chimney, as coaches like to say.” They do?

Recommended viewing: ESPN examines the connection between sports and the White House next Tuesday night at 7:30 with “Outside the Lines: All the President’s Games.” Said executive editor John Walsh, “The show will cover everything from George Washington’s fox hunts to Ike’s golf to President Bush’s sports activities.” A highlight figures to be Chris Berman’s presidential nicknames.

Channel 2 is producing its own coverage of the Ralphs Senior Classic at Rancho Park this weekend. The announcing team includes Jay Randolph, Bob Murphy and Gary Koch, with Jim Hill--or is it Jill Hill?--doing on-sight interviews plus a half-hour post-tournament show both days. . . . Bound to happen: High school football on pay-per-view. It’s coming next Friday when Fontana Comcast will charge $4 for the Rialto Eisenhower-Fontana game.

Oops: John Madden, for the most part, has been at the top of his game this season, but what was he thinking last Sunday when he criticized Washington Coach Joe Gibbs for taking a safety to cut the Redskins’ lead over Philadelphia to 16-5? Madden said that the safety meant that two touchdowns could beat the Redskins. Problem was, even when it was 16-3, two touchdowns would have beaten the Redskins. The safety didn’t change anything.

As XTRA’s Chet Forte said the other day, NBC has to drop its AFC affiliation or the ratings disparity between NBC’s pro football and CBS’ will get even worse. With games like last Monday’s between AFC teams Pittsburgh and Cincinnati, which ABC had the misfortune of televising, it’s easy to see NBC’s predicament. That game averaged a respectable 15.2 rating, but it was down to an 11.8 by the end of the game. Where would NBC be without the Miami Dolphins? . . . The NBC game in Los Angeles Sunday is Indianapolis-Miami at 1 p.m. But the game of the day, Washington at Minnesota at 10 a.m., belongs to CBS.

Nice guy Gary Owens will do his last “Sportsnuts” show for KLAC tonight. “My arrangement with (General Manager) Norm Epstein was that I would do the show up until the Laker season,” Owens said. In the last rating book, he beat KMPC in his 6-to-7 p.m. time slot in the men, 18-to-49 category. . . . KIEV is now carrying “Understanding Football” with John Rosenberg on Monday nights from 9 to 10. Rosenberg, a Harvard graduate, was the coach at Brown University for three seasons. . . . Dexter Manley, who has a new book, “Educating Dexter,” was a studio guest of KMPC’s Joe McDonnell this week and will also be featured on the Black Entertainment Network’s “Sports Report” the next two Saturdays at 5:30 p.m.