When Carlos Beltran did his best "Casey at the Bat" impression at Shea Stadium in New York Thursday night, probably the only people more disconsolate than Mets fans were network executives at Fox. With the Mets out of baseball's post-season, Fox, which airs MLB's playoffs, lost a whole lot of viewers for the World Series that starts this weekend. Even though the championship match-up between the St. Louis Cardinals, who beat the Mets for the National League title, and the Detroit Tigers is perhaps more intriguing than if the Mets had made the Series, all that matters to the head honchos is having teams from the biggest markets possible.
The best-case scenario for Fox when the playoffs began would surely have been the New York Yankees playing either the Mets or the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series. That would ensure Fox fans in the top two media markets in the country. Not only are there a lot of people in New York and LA, but they have a lot of money to spend. Instead, Fox is "stuck" with Detroit (market No. 11) and St. Louis (No. 21), two midwestern markets that don't exactly have the same appeal as New York and LA.
While I obviously understand the numbers game involved, I've never understood why a championship round without a NY or LA team isn't an appealing option. Let's face it: What teams are typically disliked in sports more than those from the big two towns, and especially New York? Personally, I'd rather watch the World Series without the Yankees or Mets, who prove money can't buy you love, happiness or a world championship every year. But I guess that's part of it, too. If a team like the Yankees makes the series, their fans will watch in hopes they'll win, while other people will watch in hopes they'll lose.
Whatever the logic and reasoning, the network execs are ruing having such small market teams playing in the World Series, because of what it will mean to ratings and, in turn, to how much they can charge for beer commercials. So the next time you wonder why so much attention is given to what happens to teams in New York and Los Angeles, you'll know it has absolutely nothing with how they're playing, and how much revenue they can generate for some fat cats.
