Video Killed the Radio Star and TV and Interleague Play Did in the All-Star Game

Everyone in the media continually tries to to figure out why the interest in Major League Baseball’s All-Star game has dwindled to the point that you wonder if it might not exist one day. The reasons why the ratings are at an all-time low are very apparent if you simply look at a few simple facts.

First though, let’s take a look at the ratings since 1967, as amassed by Baseball Almanac. From 1967-1980, the game averaged a 46.7 share of the television audience. The game averaged a 24.5 rating with the 1969 game the only time the share dipped below 20 during the period, and that occurred because the game was rained out the night before and was played the following afternoon.

Ratings began to decline over the next decade, though the share was still decent (36.8 avg) from 1981-1988. The ’81 All-Star game was the first game after a two month player’s strike interrupted the season. After the 1989 game, which had an 18.2 rating and 33 share, the game’s viewership steadily declined. The 2002 season saw the ratings drop below 10% for the first time. Last season saw an all-time lows of 6.8%, a 12 share, and 10.9 million viewers.

If you were a baseball fan in the 1960’s and 1970’s, the All-Star game and the post-season were the only times that you saw players like Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Roberto Clemente, and Jim Palmer unless they were on your team. Fans were also fans of the league their team was in-if you liked the Yankees or Mets, you rooted for the American or National League in the All-Star game and in the World Series.

The All-Star game was a happening that you looked forward to. When else could you see so many future Hall of Fame players, especially at one time. When I was growing up the NL dominated the game, so I was really into, hoping the AL would finally beat the hated NL. In 1971 it finally happened in Detroit when the AL's sluggers pounded the NL pitchers. The most memorable shot being Reggie Jackson's home run blast off the tower atop Tiger Stadium. The AL wouldn't win again until Fred Lynn's grand slam catupulted the junior circuit to a 13-3 win. 

The AL finally exacted vengance with 18 wins over the period from 1988-2009, but something had changed and the excitement was gone.

A Change in the Air

Perhaps the All-Star game television ratings might have leveled off had the player’s strike not occurred in August, 1994. The regular season was wiped out and the entire post-season was canceled in one fell swoop by MLB commissioner Bud Selig.  Baseball didn’t start up again until April 2, 1995. Some fans would never return to the ball park, others slowly made their way back. (The last game I attended before the strike was August 9, 1994 and I did not return to the ball park until July 30, 1998.) Either way the game was badly damaged.

From that moment on, viewership (slightly) increased  from one year to the next just four times to date. One rise (13%) occurred in 1998 when everyone was caught up in the Mark McGwire-Sammy Sosa steroid fueled chase of Roger Maris’ single season home run record.  The next increase came in 2001 (10%) when Barry Bonds was in a steroid fueled chase of McGwire’s 1998 home run record.

The third rise in the ratings was in the 2006 game in Pittsburgh (15%), presumably because of the ceremony that was held mid-game in memory of Roberto Clemente. The final increase in ratings came in 2008 when the Yankees held their final All-Star game in the old Yankee Stadium. Ratings (11%) had to be helped by Josh Hamilton’s monsterous home run derby performance the night before.

Television’s Role in Dimishing the All-Star Game's Draw

With no cable TV and teams not broadcasting all 162 regular season games, any time you could watch a game it felt like you won a prize. There was a weekly nationally televised game, but that was it.  Then cable television began to appear and the landscape of televised baseball changed forever.

More regular season out of market games started to be televised in the late 1970’s and then ESPN came into existence in 1979 with highlights and replays of baseball games like you had never seen before. The Connecticut based station started televising baseball games in 1990, so you no longer had to wait for the one national game of the week to be shown. 

Over the next two decades, the MLB Network would be launched, other cable outlets (e.g. TBS) began to broadcast games, you could add the MLB Extra Innings package to your cable or dish plan, and the official MLB site provided video and audio broadcasts.

Baseball games can be found all around the dial or the internet now, which means you can watch Miguel Cabrera or Mike Trout just about any time you want.

The Death Blow

One of the ideas Selig came up with to increase fan interest was the implementation of interleague play. While most fans seem to love it, or least like it, it was a tremendous blow to the All-Star game. What started out quietly in 1997 with opponents playing 15-18 games against the other league is now an every day occurrence in the Major Leagues. Why bother watching an All-Star game when you can see players from both leagues on any day or night on a number of different television stations.

Selig impacted the game again after the AL and NL played to a 7-7 tie in 2002.  To make the game more important, he decreed that home field advantage for the World Series would be determined by the league that won the All-Star game. Fans have laughed at the notion ever since. Selig basically kicked a man when he was already down.

Until someone figures out another way to bring excitement to the game, don't look for the ratings to be anything spectacular in the future. That is if the game still exists.

UPDATE - The 2013 game got an 8.1 national rating, which means there was increase from the prior year for just the fifth time since 1998. It was about a 20% boost from last year's game primarily due to Mariano Rivera and it being the first game at the Mets home field since 1964.

All-Star Game Television Ratings Television Analysis & Ratings Breakdown
Year	Network	Rating	Share	Households	Viewers
1967	NBC	25.6	50	14,050,000	Not Available
1968	NBC	25.8	49	14,450,000	Not Available
1969	NBC	15.1	42	8,610,000	Not Available
1970	NBC	28.5	54	16,670,000	Not Available
1971	NBC	27.0	50	16,230,000	Not Available
1972	NBC	22.9	43	14,220,000	26,300,000
1973	NBC	23.8	45	15,420,000	27,600,000
1974	NBC	23.4	44	15,490,000	Not Available
1975	NBC	21.5	41	14,730,000	28,170,000
1976	ABC	27.1	53	18,680,000	36,330,000
1977	NBC	24.5	45	17,440,000	31,000,000
1978	ABC	26.1	47	19,030,000	35,529,000
1979	NBC	24.4	45	18,180,000	31,980,000
1980	ABC	26.8	46	20,450,000	36,270,000
1981	NBC	20.1	36	15,640,000	Not Available
1982	ABC	25.0	44	20,380,000	34,120,000
1983	NBC	21.5	39	17,910,000	27,190,000
1984	ABC	20.1	35	16,840,000	28,500,000
1985	NBC	20.5	36	17,400,000	28,210,000
1986	ABC	20.3	35	17,440,000	28,375,000
1987	NBC	18.2	37	15,910,000	24,295,000
1988	ABC	20.4	33	18,070,000	29,526,000
1989	NBC	18.2	33	16,450,000	25,840,000
1990	CBS	16.2	33	14,940,000	24,365,000
1991	CBS	17.4	32	16,200,000	24,670,000
1992	CBS	14.9	27	13,720,000	21,981,000
1993	CBS	15.6	28	14,550,000	22,306,000
1994	NBC	15.7	28	14,790,000	22,015,000
1995	ABC	13.9	25	13,260,000	20,163,000
1996	NBC	13.2	23	12,690,000	18,479,000
1997	FOX	11.8	21	11,420,000	16,723,000
1998	NBC	13.3	25	13,026,000	18,970,000
1999	FOX	12.0	22	11,890,000	17,640,000
2000	NBC	10.1	18	10,167,000	14,714,000
2001	FOX	11.0	19	11,198,000	16,029,000
2002	FOX	9.5	17	10,046,000	14,653,000
2003	FOX	9.5	17	10,156,000	13,810,000
2004	FOX	8.8	15	9,573,000	13,995,000
2005	FOX	8.1	14	8,884,000	12,330,000
2006	FOX	9.3	16	10,301,000	14,424,000
2007	FOX	8.4	15	9,343,000	12,530,000
2008	FOX	9.3	16	10,441,000	14,540,000
2009	FOX	8.9	15	10,754,230	14,610,000
2010	FOX	7.5	13	8,692,500	12,100,000
2011	FOX	6.9	12	7,712,000	11,000,000
2012	FOX	6.8	12	6,743,724	10,900,000

Rocky Mountain High, Colorado: Yankees Series Preview

The New York Yankees and Colorado Rockies don't have much history between them. The deal that brought Chris Nelson to the Yankees last week was just the 7th trade between the two teams.  The first player move between the two franchises indirectly resulted in the Yankees future manager.

On November 20, 1995, the Yankees sent pitcher Mike DeJean to the Rockies for catcher Joe Girardi. It was a move that was extremely unpopular with Yankees fans since it meant the departure of fan favorite Mike Stanley. Girardi even got booed at the Yankees pre-season fan fest. The rest, as they say, is history.

The Yankees hold a 7-5 advantage in games played between the two franchises, but their last visit to the Mile High city resulted in a three game sweep by the Rockies. The Yankees came to Colorado in 2007 having won 12 of  their last 13 games, but couldn't hit in the hitter friendly ball park.

The Yankees lost the opener 3-1 when Josh Fogg outpitched Mike Mussina. Game 2 saw Andy Pettitte cruise into the 6th inning with a 1-0 lead, but got hammered for six runs over the next two frames. Jeff Francis limited the Yankees to that lone run over seven innings and struck out nine.

Roger Clemens couldn't make it out of the 5th inning in the finale and left with a 4-2 deficit. The Rockies hung on for a 4-3 win (Rodrigo Lopez earned the 'W') to complete the sweep.

Pitching didn't play much of a factor when the Yankees took two of three from the Rockies in a wild series in 2002. The Yankees scored 41 runs in the three games, including 20 in the middle game of the three game set.

Derek Jeter, Shane Spencer, and Robin Ventura each homered to back Mussina in a 10-5 win on June 18. Despite the fact that he allowed five runs in six innings, Mussina improved to 10-3 on the season. The next day the Yankees banged out 18 hits including another home run by Ventura, as well as home runs by Alfonso Soriano and Jason Giambi.

Ventura and John Vander Wal drove in four runs each and Ramiro Mendoza picked up the win after Pettitte allowed eight earned runs in three plus innings. (He'll be more than happy not to pitch in this week's series, especially after the outcome of his last two starts.) The Yankees actually trailed at one point 8-4. The Yankees bullpen did a horrid job in the finale as the Rockies rallied from an 8-2 deficit and won in 10 innings, 14-11.

The Yankees scored two in the 9th inning to tie the game at 11 apiece, but future Yankee Todd Zeile hit a walk-off 3-run home run off of Steve Karsay in the 10th inning. Clemens had to leave after four innings when he was struck by a line drive. It was Clemens' follow up start to the Yankees-Mets game in which Shawn Estes attempted to him, but threw behind him and missed. It was the first time Clemens got a chance to bat against the Mets since he had beaned Mike Piazza during the 2000 season and threw a shattered bat at him in that year's World Series.

Fast forward to today. A new three game series starts in Colorado this evening with Hiroki Kuroda facing Jorge De La Rosa. Kuroda faced the Rockies 10 times as a member of the LA Dodgers, but was just 1-5, 5.52.  As a hitter, the Japanese native has a career .105 average with 3 RBI in 245 plate appearances. He's hitless in two at-bats as a Yankee.

De La Rosa is 2-1, 1.46 in three appearances (two starts) against NY, but the last win came as a member of the KC Royals in 2007.

Game 2 matches David Phelps against Juan Nicasio in a contest that will also feature Phelps' first Major League at-bat (barring an early exit). The finale has CC Sabathia, who loves to swing the bat, against Jeff Francis. Sabathia carries a career .238 average with 3 HR and 14 RBI. He's just 2-17 (.118) as a member of the Yankees.

Francis was with Colorado from 2004-2010 (missed 2009 with injury), played with KC in 2011 and returned to Colorado last season.

A couple of final historical notes - the sixth other deals between NY and COL were pretty meaningless, except for the Yankees acquisition of Shawn Chacon in 2005. After he lost seven of eight with the Rockies, Chacon went 7-3, 2.85 to help the Yankees to the AL East division title.

In the 1992 expansion draft, the Rockies took Charlie Hayes from the Yankees with their third pick. They also selected Carl Everett and Brad Ausmus from the Bronx Bombers. The Yankees got Hayes back from the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1996 and the third baseman recorded the final putout in the Yankees World Series victory that year.

At the time, the Yankees were upset about losing Everett, but in retrospect the Rockies did them a tremendous favor. Everett had good numbers in a 14 year career, but it was filled with arguments, ejections, attitude, and complications. He played in the Major Leagues for eight different organizations in those 14 years.

Ausmus went on to have an 18 year career with the Padres, Tigers, Astros, and Dodgers. He was a three time Gold Glove winner and caught 1,938 games.

Girardi was also taken in the expansion draft from the Cubs with the Rockies' 19th pick.

Cano Needs No Reminders of 42

Robinson Cano doesn't need to be reminded of the importance of Jackie Robinson to the game of baseball and to the African-American community. The Yankees number 24 was named after the baseball great, whose career numbers don't reflect his stature or his courage.

Cano, who switched to 24 (42 in reverse) to honor the former Brooklyn Dodger, is the most important hitter on the Yankees right now. His bat was a big influence again in last night's 4-2 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Yankees sixth victory in their last seven games.

With the Yankees down 2-0 in their first interleague game of the season (I won't get into the ridiculous idea of playing an interleague game in the first month of the season), Cano stepped to the plate with two men aboard in the 4th inning against AZ starter Brandon McCarthy.

Moments later the Yankees had a 3-2 lead when Cano's fourth home run of the season sailed over the right-center field wall. It was all that Ivan Nova and the Yankees bullpen would need, though Eduardo Nunez added a sac fly RBI in the 7th inning for the 4-2 final.

Outside of an 0-3 performance in Sunday's series ending victory over Baltimore, Cano has been a house of fire. His 19 hits in 31 at-bats (.613) have included the aforementioned four home runs, four doubles, and 11 RBI. He also walked three times and scored seven runs. Cano's current OPS is an appropriate 1.042.

One of Cano's favorite days of the baseball season is when he gets to don the Yankees jersey with 42 on the back. In the last five games that Cano has worn the number he has gone 9-19 with four home runs and eight RBI.

“That guy opened the door for us,” Cano said of Robinson. “It’s amazing to get a chance to wear 42 that day. It’s one of those fun days in the big leagues.”  - NY Daily News

Cano's heroics helped out Ivan Nova, who struggled in his first start in 11 days. After he got away with some pitchers left up in the zone early in the game, the Dbacks scored a pair of runs in the 3rd inning when they loaded the bases. Things could have been worse, but Nova hung tough after he allowed a sac fly to Miguel Montero and an RBI single to Cody Ross.

Nova's 72 pitches through the 3rd inning continued a bad trend however,  and it will come as no surprise to anyone (except maybe Nova) if one day David Phelps supplants the former 16-game winner in the rotation. Phelps has become the Yankees newest version of Ramiro Mendoza- good enough to start, but so valuable out of the pen as evidenced by the four shutout innings he threw on Saturday to keep the Yankees in the ball game.

Speaking of the bullpen, Boone Logan, Joba Chamberlain, David Robertson, and Mariano Rivera combined for the last 12 outs of the game and allowed just one hit. Rivera picked up his third save of the season.

Notes

The Yankees honored the city of Boston in the third inning by playing Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline" over the Stadium loudspeakers. The song is a mainstay of Red Sox games and other Boston sporting events.

It's only April 17, but going into tonight's game with Arizona, newcomers Kevin Youkilis, Travis Hafner, and Vernon Wells are all hitting over .300. For a team that wasn't supposed to hit home runs, the Yankees have the fourth highest total in the Major Leagues with 19.

CC Climbs Over The Rockies For 10th

It's a joy. That's the simplest and easiest way to describe watching a game that CC Sabathia pitches. Saturday was another example of pure pitching ecstasy as Sabathia cruised through eight innings against the Colorado Rockies and the Yankees bats pounded out 15 hits in an 8-3 victory.

When Sabathia pitches, the Yankees score runs and they jump started things for the big guy in the 1st inning against Rockies starter Aaron Cook. Brett Gardner reached on a bunt single and promptly stole second base. Curtis Granderson drove in his 55th run with a single to right and advanced to second when outfielder Eric Young booted the baseball. One batter later Alex Rodriguez singled home Granderson for a 2-0 lead.

The Yankees broke the game open in the 3rd when Granderson, who always seems to be in the middle of things, started the inning off with a single. Mark Teixeira doubled to center and Rodriguez followed a double of his own for a 4-0 Yankees lead. It gave the Yankees third baseman 50 RBI on the season and five runs batted in in the last two games.

The Rockies didn't get a runner to second base until Ryan Spilborghs led off the 5th inning with a double. He moved to third on a ground out, but Sabathia retired Matt Pagnozzi on a shallow fly to center and got Carlos Gonzalez to hit a comebacker to strand the runner on third.

Teixeira added his 22nd home run of the season, a 2-run shot, off of Rafael Betancourt in the 8th inning to regain the team RBI lead with 57.

Sabathia's day was done after his 103rd pitch ended the 8th inning. He allowed one run, scattered seven hits, and struck out nine.

Notes

The Yankees captain, Derek Jeter, turns 37 today. Ironically it is also Old Timer's Day at Yankee Stadium.

Alex Rodriguez was unable to score from second on a two out single by Jorge Posada in the 7th inning. It was the second time in the past week that Rodriguez was unable to score on a two out hit. After the game he admitted that he had tweaked his right knee in the Cubs series.

Yankees Go Cold in Hot-lanta

Filed Under: Yankees

Tags: Alex Rodriguez • Atlanta Braves • brian mccann • chien-ming wang • chipper jones • Derek Jeter • Interleague Play • Phil Hughes • tommy hanson • Yankees 6/23 recap • Yankees vs. Braves

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
NY Yankees	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0		0	4	1
Atlanta	0	0	3	0	0	0	0	1	X		4	7	1

WP - Hanson (3-0) LP - Wang (0-6)

The Yankees hitting woes continued tonight, as the punch-less Bombers dropped the opener of their 3-game series with the Atlanta Braves, 4-0. New York had a number of opportunities in the early innings against Braves rookie starter Tommy Hanson, but couldn’t manage to come up with a clutch hit. Hanson and the Braves bullpen didn’t allow a hit over the final 3 2-3 innings.

Chien-Ming Wang continued his improvement, but was tagged for three runs in the 3rd inning and the loss. After a pair of strikeouts to start the frame, Wang gave up a single to Yuniel Escobar and walked Chipper Jones. Brian McCann followed with an RBI double and Garrett Anderson brought home two more runs...

Read the rest of my recap at Baseball Digest Online.

Mets Even Things Up

Omir, O my

June 13th, 2009 • Related • Filed Under

Filed Under: Yankees

Tags: Alex Rodriguez • andy pettitte • Derek Jeter • Fernando Nieve • Francisco Rodriguez • Gary Sheffield • omir santos • Subway Series • Yankees 6/13 recap • Yankees vs. Mets

After Friday’s night crushing loss, it would have been only natural for the Mets to come out flat for today’s game with the Yankees. But instead it was the home team that looked flat. Former Yankees’ farm hand Omir Santos and former Yankees’ major leaguer Gary Sheffield both played big roles in the Mets 6-2 win over the Yankees this afternoon.

Less than 24 hours after Mets second baseman Luis Castillo dropped the ball heard round the Bronx, the Mets got an unexpected starting performance from Fernando Nieve and jumped all over Yankees starter Andy Pettitte.

Nieve had made only 52 big league appearances since debuting with the Houston Astros back in 2006. But with John Maine on the DL, the Mets needed someone to step up and Nieve did just that.

The 26-yr old limited the Yankees to 4 hits over 6.2 innings for his 4th big league win. His battery mate, Santos, gave his teammate a quick lead to work with when he went deep with a man aboard in the 2nd.

The 28-yr old catcher had been a career minor leaguer (He appeared in 10 games for the Baltimore Orioles last season), before he took advantage of injuries to the Mets catching corp this spring. He nearly added a second home run, but settled for an RBI double that capped the Mets’ 3-run 5th inning.

Pettitte was done after five innings and continued his struggles of late. Though he’s 3-2 in his last six starts, Pettitte has allowed 20 earned runs in his last 34.2 innings (5.19 ERA), and hasn’t pitched past the 5th inning in three of them.

Sheffield, who many thought were done when he was released by the Detroit Tigers this spring, continued his recent resurgence. He homered off Brett Tomko Friday night and went yard on Al Aceves this afternoon. He also contributed an RBI single off of Pettitte, despite a balky knee that has him set for an MRI shortly.

The Yankees couldn’t muster much of anything against Nieve. Alex Rodriguez hit a solo shot to left that cut the Mets lead to 2-1 in the 2nd, but were held scoreless other than a Derek Jeter RBI single in the 7th.

Even though it was a non-save situation, Mets manager Jerry Manuel wasn’t taking any chances and sent for Francisco Rodriguez to pitch the 9th. He retired the side without incident and the Mets had themselves a split of the first two games of the Subway Series.

Game Notes

A-Rod’s home run was his 562nd, putting him one behind Reggie Jackson for 11th place on the all-time list. He was also hit again, this time on the left elbow by a Nieve pitch, and is clearly getting tired of it.

Nieve’s victory was his first since June 25, 2006 when the Astros beat the White Sox in interleague play.