Oh, the Suspense.

Remember in my last blog, when I said I'd fall asleep in the sixth inning? Turns out I wouldn't have missed anything. Last night's Game 5 in Philadelphia was suspended in the middle of the sixth due to inclement weather, and they're going to (try to) finish it up tonight with the game knotted at two runs apiece.

So, with not much to write about, I thought I'd comment a bit more on this year's World Series television ratings, since it seemed to be yesterday's hot topic, along with the declining aura surrounding the Fall Classic. 2008 has been, by pretty much every standard possible, the lowest-rated World Series ever. I understand that modern telecasts are handicapped by the fact that there are simply more viewing options. In 1985, there was basic, basic cable, and pretty much nothing else. Now, it's almost a given that each household will have some sort of special paid service, be it HBO, Showtime, Cinemax, etc. On top of that, ESPN *alone* has five channels (ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPNews, ESPN Classic...did I miss one?). Throw in all those random channels that start up in the 200's...Sundance, Oxygen, G4TV, GSN, all that stuff...the World Series doesn't garner nearly the attention it used to. However! With that said, this year's numbers are still pitiful. Let me elaborate. (Also, if you need to read more on what "ratings" and "share" numbers are, please visit Wikipedia's Neilsen Ratings page, located here: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nielsen_Ratings)

Onto the landmark lows: this year marks the first time EVER that Games 2 and 4 have dipped into single-digit ratings. (Games 1 and 3 traditionally garner the lowest numbers of a series. Why? No idea. Just a trend I've noticed.) Game 2 came in at a 8.1 (13 share) and Game 4 at a 9.3 (15 share). Those are each three whole points below the previous all-time lows. As I said, this can partially be attributed to increased viewing options, but the individual franchise markets have to take some of the blame. Last year's series featured a similar dichotomy of home team disparity. It featured a strong, dedicated fanbase in Boston that will always bring huge ratings regardless of the game's magnitude, pitted against the Denver market, which is new to baseball but brings at least some ratings to the table, since the area had never experienced October baseball before. (See the similarity with Philadelphia and Tampa Bay?) Games 1-4 of last year's series (which turned out to be the entirety of the series, as well) averaged a 10.675 rating with an 18 share. Not amazing, yet solid numbers. Games 1-4 of this year's series? An 8.175 average rating with a 14 share. That's the first time that a World Series has had an average rating of under 10.

The real losers in this whole debacle are not the two cities. The loser, despite the poor ratings, is not the FOX network. The people who suffer are those who comprise the broad fanbase of Major League Baseball. We wait all year for the drama and suspense of the Fall Classic, and we get the Phillies and the Rays? Please. Yes, they're deserving, and yes, this is how is needed to be. But don't sit there, as a baseball fan, and tell me that you didn't want to see a Game 7 between Manny's Dodgers and Papi's Red Sox. There's a reason why Game 7 in 2001 between the Yankees and Diamondbacks got huge viewership. It held the hearts of a beaten and battered New York fanbase against a young, up-and-coming Arizona crowd, and took the attention of the rest of the nation in the balance. The Rays and Phillies are a mockery of what the 2001 series was. They're a mockery of the 2003 series which featured the emergence of the Marlins' young guns (Josh Beckett, A.J. Burnett and Carl Pavano). 2008 can't hold a candle to the weight being lifted off of a city's shoulders in 2004. We miss the moments that evolve into memories. Beckett tagging out Posada, Foulke lobbing the ball to first, Gonzalez's bloop single over Jeter's head.

I miss the series that made me fall in love with baseball, and I haven't seen it in quite awhile. Ratings aside, baseball needs its majestic, historic stage back. We all do.

-- Dan Zappulla, Sadly Nostalgic.