All-Star Game Gets Lowest Rating Ever

If baseball is back, the All-Star game television rating doesn’t show it.

Tuesday night’s game got the lowest rating ever for a prime-time All-Star game and was the least-watched in 27 years.

NBC’s broadcast of the National League’s 6-0 victory got a 13.2 rating and 23 share, Nielsen Media Research said Wednesday. The rating was down 5% from the 13.9 rating for last year’s game, which had the previous low rating. It was down 16% from the ’94 game--the last before the strike--which had a 15.7 rating.

The game was seen in 12.7 million homes, the fewest to tune in to an All-Star game since 1969, when a postponement caused the game to be played in the afternoon and 8.6 million watched.

Nielsen said the rating and the share were the lowest since it began tracking baseball’s All-Star game in 1967. The All-Star rating peaked at 28.5 in 1970 but has not reached 20 since 1988.

This year’s game got a 14.6 rating in New York, a 14.5 in Chicago, a 14.2 in Los Angeles and a 20.2 in Philadelphia, where the game was played in Veterans Stadium.

Among the 33 major markets, Cleveland had the highest rating for the second straight year, a 28.7. The lows were a 7.8 in San Diego and an 8.9 in Phoenix.

Ratings represent the percentage of television households in the nation tuned to a program and each national point equals 959,000 homes. Shares represent the percentage watching a broadcast among those televisions on at the time.

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Wally Joyner, out since breaking his left thumb June 2, will rejoin the San Diego Padres’ starting lineup tonight at Colorado.

“I’m ready to go. Thumbs up,” Joyner said before a team workout Wednesday.

The smooth-fielding first baseman broke the thumb while sliding into second base at Philadelphia. He had the cast taken off a week earlier than expected and made three rehab appearances with Rancho Cucamonga.

Joyner had X-rays taken again Wednesday. “The doctor said my bone has healed to a point where it’s 80-85%,” Joyner said. “He said I’m good to go.”

The left-handed Joyner was hitting .321 with five homers and 33 runs batted in when he was hurt.

“It’s going to be nice seeing Wally back out there,” Manager Bruce Bochy said.

With Joyner out, the Padres went into a 4-19 skid that cost them their NL West lead. They’ve since won nine of 11, including two four-game sweeps of San Francisco.

Joyner was able to start taking ground balls just two days after having his thumb placed in a cast.

“I feel pretty good,” he said. “I worked out and I think what I did while on the DL with the cast on my arm and everything was what I needed to do.”

Bochy said Chris Gwynn and Archi Cianfrocco are candidates to go on the disabled list to make room for Joyner.

The Padres remain without batting star Tony Gwynn, who had his right foot placed in a cast July 2 after an MRI test showed fraying and a minor tear of his Achilles tendon.

At the time, the Padres said Gwynn would be out for at least four weeks. Gwynn later said he could be out longer--even the rest of the season--depending on the severity of the injury.

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Chicago White Sox slugger Frank Thomas says a sore left foot may put him on the disabled list for the first time in his career.

Thomas, who was scratched from Tuesday’s All-Star game in Philadelphia, went to a doctor for tests after returning to Chicago on Wednesday.

Results weren’t expected until today. But if they reveal a serious fracture, Thomas probably will be placed on the disabled list so the club can call someone up to replace him, team spokesman Brad Roder said.

“I’ve never been on the DL before, but something is really wrong,” Thomas said Tuesday. “What concerns me more than anything is why I can’t walk.”

Thomas injured the foot Thursday in Cleveland while rounding first base. X-rays showed no break, and the injury was listed as a sprain.

“It’s getting worse,” Thomas said. “The pain is worse and the swelling is out of hand. I can’t walk. I can’t even move. I don’t know how I played the last two games in Cleveland.”

White Sox manager Terry Bevington doesn’t expect Thomas to play any sooner than Saturday.

“At this point, I think he will definitely have a chance--I would say a 50-50 chance--to miss the Thursday game and possibly Friday,” Bevington said.

A stint on the disabled list would last a minimum of 15 days, and end Thomas’ consecutive games streak of 346, second in the majors behind Cal Ripken Jr.

Thomas leads the American League in RBIs with 85.

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Cleveland slugger Albert Belle claims a “smear campaign” is preventing him from changing his bad-boy image.

In an interview with USA Today, Belle also said he’s considering sitting out the 1997 season.

“My body is beat up,” said Belle, who becomes a free agent after this season. “It’s wear and tear from a long, grinding season. Maybe I’ll just sit out the year and relax.”

Before the season started, Belle was fined $50,000 for his outburst against NBC’s Hannah Storm at last year’s World Series. Belle has since been ordered by American League president Gene Budig to undergo counseling after hitting a photographer with a baseball, cursing a fan and serving a two-game suspension for decking Milwaukee’s Fernando Vina with a forearm while running to second.

“I feel more like a politician than a baseball player,” Belle said. “There are certain situations I’m not happy with. There’s been a smear campaign against a baseball player. Why? I don’t know. Maybe they want to get back.”

The newspaper said Belle did not clarify who he meant by “they.”

Belle has not negotiated with the Indians since turning down a five-year, $43-million offer before the season.

“This is probably the most leverage I’ll have in my career,” Belle said. “Once the season is over, I’ll think about whether I want to play baseball for 1997 or take the year off.”