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High ratings give MLB a silver lining

© St. Petersburg Times,
published November 9, 2001

Contraction is imminent; a work stoppage might be around the corner. But the ratings news in baseball is better than in 10 years.

Fox estimates 71.9-million people watched the World Series' Game 7 on Sunday, in which the Diamondbacks came from behind to beat the Yankees. The final rating was 23.5 with a 34 share, meaning 23.5 percent of all U.S. households with televisions were watching at any given time. Share is the percentage of televisions turned on that were tuned in.

By those figures, it ranks as the network's highest-rated and most-watched non-NFL program ever, ranking fourth overall behind two Super Bowls and a Super Bowl postgame show. Game 7 also was the most-watched (in estimated viewership) baseball game since Game 7 of the 1991 Series between the Atlanta Braves and the seemingly soon-to-be-extinct Minnesota Twins.

Apparently the network is in no mood to complain about the effect of contraction on its six-year, $2.5-billion deal with Major League Baseball. Though commissioner Bud Selig said the owners have voted to reduce the number of teams from 30 to 28, cash-strapped Fox isn't banging on the door (yet) asking for some of its money back or for some sort of contraction-related renegotiation.

"We have had no conversations about anything related to contraction," spokesman Lou D'Ermilio said. "None are planned."

SCARY TRIP: A significant portion of NBC's Olympic team, including chairman Dick Ebersol and announcers Jim McKay, Hannah Storm and Dan Hicks, had just left Salt Lake City on Wednesday when their private plane lost radio contact with control towers. It had to be escorted to the Ogden, Utah, airport by F-16 fighter jets.

The plane was not forced down, said FAA air traffic manager Tom Brown: "The F-16s asked if they could provide any assistance because the private jet had some radio difficulty." The trip resumed after the radio was repaired.

BUCK'S BACK ... : After taking only a few days to regroup, Fox baseball announcer Joe Buck will join the network's NFL crew Sunday for the first time since 1997. He will call Carolina's game at St. Louis. "I'm just hoping I don't catch myself describing errant throws from Kurt Warner as "high and outside,' " Buck said.

. . . AND SO'S THE LINE: Fox, which has been cutting costs throughout the company, brought the yellow first-down line back to its NFL coverage last weekend after a five-week absence. The network found a sponsor to bankroll the technology, which costs more than $40,000 a week for two games.

The NFL doesn't allow advertisement in the game itself; Fox is getting around that by giving the sponsor a plug immediately before the kickoff and right after the final gun. Discussions are ongoing regarding the use of/payment for the first-down line during the playoffs and Super Bowl XXXVI.

FINE TUNING: ESPN's CollegeGameDay will visit the South Carolina campus for the Gamecocks' game against Florida on Saturday. ... Starting Thursday, Fox Sports Net Florida began showing selected "encore presentations" of Rays and Marlins baseball games. But after the way this season ended, even those teams' best victories don't seem that compelling. What's on: Eight games, one a week through December, including the Rays' 7-5 victory over the Mets on June 8 (airs at 2 p.m. Thursday). What we'd rather see: Games 1 through 7 of the World Series, even if it means putting up with those giant virtual promos for Ally McBeal.

-- Information from other news organizations was used in this report.

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