Sox vs Yanks Boring? Maybe, But Ratings Huge

[UNHWildCats]

The Sox/Yanks and Phils/Giants games were the highest rated for FOX in three years and the Sunday night ESPN game between Boston and New York was the highest rating game on ESPN in three years. That game three years ago was also Boston vs New York, that rating was beat earlier this season again by the storied rivalry and was surpassed by a Boston/Cubs game in May.

While fans outside of the two markets may say they are bored with the rivalry and sports writers are tired of the very late nights the two teams almost always deliver, one thing is for sure.. the fans within the two markets are very much into the series, so we can expect to see much more of the nationally televised games in the rivalry.

[AshevilleApp]

Oh joy.

[andy7171]

Bored? More like sick of.

[GannonFan]

Uh, the ratings were big because the game went on so long that they picked up the audience following the nightly news on the East Coast (once the news was over at 11:30 - sports that run past that time always post big numbers) and they picked up the West Coast audience. But as Verducci said in his article today, you get get ratings but your sport is associated with tedium. Heck, I love baseball and I turn the Sox/Yanks off unless they are in the 8th inning. When the Phils/Giants game ended on Saturday they went over to the Sox/Yanks and they were just starting the top of the 6th. I turned the TV off and went out for a walk.

Oh, here's a good quote from the article

Baseball does have rules about pace of game. A pitcher must deliver a pitch within 12 seconds with no one on or else a ball is added to the count. But what good are the rules when they never are enforced? No umpire has enforced the rule in two years -- since Boston closer Jonathan Papelbon was targeted in 2009.

With the help of MLB Network last night, I broke down some of the sequences of Red Sox righthander Josh Beckett. In selected innings, he averaged 23 seconds between pitches with nobody on and 43 seconds with runners. He once took 59 seconds between pitches to Eric Chavez!

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/w ... t=hp_wr_a1

[dbackjon]

If ESPN promote the Astros-Dbacks like they did Sox-yankees, it'd draw big ratings too

[DJH]

If ESPN promote the Astros-Dbacks like they did Sox-yankees, it'd draw big ratings too

no...

[dbackjon]

If ESPN promote the Astros-Dbacks like they did Sox-yankees, it'd draw big ratings too

no...

yes...maybe not as huge, but give 20 years of ESPN telling everyone how special the rivalry is, then people start to beleive it.

[bluehenbillk]

I'll agree with GF. As good as the rivalry is between the BoSox & Yanks and as good as both teams are, there needs to be a speed-up rule when they play each other. Once you get beyond 3 hours is it really necessary?? And, since we're talking about ratings here, I'd imagine even more people would watch.

[clenz]

They picked up my viewership rating because I tuned into SportsCenter for background noise, and the game went on for another hour but I was too lazy to change it...I'm sure that happened at more places than my house.

New York and Boston are two of the biggest markets in the nation....the stadium only holds something like 39k. Take 39K away from that population base and you still have a shit ton of fans to watch it. Now do the same in the areas like Cleveland and Detriot or Houston and Pheonix, or Seattle and Oakland.


Like Jon said...give any of those games ESPN talking about it for an hour a day, even if the two teams aren't playing (and 4 hours the days they are playing) for 30 years and those games will blow up as well.


Outside of Boston and New York America is fucking sick of it.