Major League Baseball

Chuck Barney: TV viewers prefer football to playoff baseball

Published Oct. 19, 2010 10:16 a.m. ET

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By the eighth or ninth time Fox broadcaster Joe Buck mentioned the Philadelphia Eagles during Sunday night's NLCS clash between the Giants and Phillies, I was ready to heave a shoe at the TV set. After all, this was time to focus on baseball, not the NFL.

But perhaps Buck just couldn't help himself. Even as all the electrifying drama of baseball's postseason plays out, America remains obsessed with football.

Nothing hammers that point home more than the national TV ratings. On Sunday, NBC's regular-season NFL game between the Colts and Redskins went head-to-head with Fox's playoff game between the Giants and Phillies, and it was no contest. The NFL clobbered baseball once again.

The football game's preliminary overnight rating of 13.2 (with a 20 audience share) essentially doubled the 6.5/10 posted by the NLCS contest. According to early Nielsen estimates, about 15.7 million people watched football, compared to 8.8 million for baseball. It was the biggest ratings disparity between an NFL game and a league championship series game in 13 years.

Maybe the Phillies should recruit Michael Vick to play center field.

MORE NUMBERS: Even in the pennant-hungry Bay Area, the NFL maintains a strong foothold. According to CBS 5, Sunday's game between the woeful 49ers and Raiders posted a 21.4 rating and drew approximately 801,000 Bay Area viewers. The game had a 49 audience share, meaning that nearly half of the market's TV sets in use at the time were tuned to the matchup.

Meanwhile, Game 2 of the NLCS drew a slightly higher rating (22.2) in the Bay Area, but a lower share (40). Of course, the comparison is somewhat flawed because the games did not go head-to-head and the NLCS aired at night, when the competition for viewers is much stiffer. Still, it's testimony to the power of football.

FOX ON TRACK: So many of the fancy gimmicks on display during a baseball telecast do little to really enhance the viewing experience. But give Fox credit for making good use of its "Fox Trax," the graphic that pinpoints pitch location.

Over the weekend, Buck and Tim McCarver were able to use the technology to paint a vivid picture of how Giants outfielder Cody Ross smacked all three of his home runs on virtually the same types of pitches -- low, inside fastballs.

It provided fans some insight into the pitching strategy Philly deployed against Ross -- and how the strategy was failing. It also gave us something to keep an eye on as the series resumes today.

CHEERS AND JEERS: There has been much to like and dislike about the NLCS coverage so far. Just a small sampling: Cheers to Buck and McCarver for endorsing Giants catcher Buster Posey for Rookie of the Year Honors. "I can't think of a more impactful rookie to come along in a while," Buck said. But jeers to producers for using boxing announcer Michael Buffer to introduce the lineups for Game 1. Buffer has become a worn-out gimmick. "...

Cheers to McCarver for breaking down the Tim Lincecum delivery for neophytes and comparing it to another undersized great in Sandy Koufax. But jeers to McCarver for declaring Aubrey Huff's cutoff play in Game 2 to be the proper strategy. Huff himself said afterward that he should have allowed the throw from the outfield to go through as Roy Oswalt dashed home with an insurance run. "...

Cheers to Fox for some gorgeous camera work and super-slow motion isolation shots. But jeers to Fox for being ridiculously slow to cut away from a taped interview to Ross' third homer of the weekend. We didn't catch up with live narrative until Ross was approaching third base.

Torture, indeed.

Contact Chuck Barney at cbarney@bayareanewsgroup.com . Read his TV blog at http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/category/tv and follow him at http://twitter.com/chuckbarney .

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