For baseball,
a postseason to die for
TBS and Fox should see huge ratings following Wednesday's historic games
By Bill Cromwell
Sep 30, 2011
If the end of the season was any indication, this should be a wild baseball postseason.
The regular season wrapped up Wednesday night with four thrilling games that determined which squads would earn the American League and National League wild cards, leading virtually every sports announcer in the country to wonder on the air if it was the most exciting night of regular-season baseball ever.
Obviously that's not something that can be proved, but it certainly seemed like it in the moment.
And all that excitement should help boost what looks like a promising baseball postseason, which begins today on TBS, to strong ratings.
TBS will carry the first round of the playoffs as well as the National League Championship series, with the American League Championship and World Series airing on Fox.
Hopes were already high for the World Series, which is just about sold out on Fox at a reported price of $500,000 per 30-second spot, up from $450,000 last year.
Baseball was a hot buy this summer as advertisers worried the NFL lockout would drift into the fall. Without NFL games, those advertisers needed to ensure that they would still be reaching young male sports fans, and so they bought up baseball and college football commercials.
There are other factors that could lift postseason numbers as well. The New York Yankees are playing, always a good thing for ratings, and they could be headed for a rematch with the Philadelphia Phillies in the World Series.
That matchup produced strong numbers two years ago, averaging 19.4 million total viewers per game.
Baseball also ended the regular season with a huge amount of attention, which should push interest in the playoffs, as the Boston Red Sox and Atlanta Braves suffered two of the most improbable collapses in MLB history.
Both had better than an eight-game lead in their respective AL and NL wild card races entering September, but both fell apart during the final month and lost must-win games Wednesday night, surrendering their playoff spots to the Tampa Bay Rays and St. Louis Cardinals, respectively.
In fact, the Rays came back from a 7-0 deficit in the eighth inning to beat the Yankees, just moments after the Red Sox ended their season with a loss, guaranteeing Tampa Bay a playoff spot with a win.
Finally, a number of the game's biggest stars made the playoffs, which is always a good thing for ratings. The Phillies have the best pitching staff in baseball, the Milwaukee Brewers and St. Louis Cardinals have MVP candidates (Ryan Braun and Albert Pujols, respectively), and just about anyone in a Yankees uniform is a perennial all-star.
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