Game 1 of the ALCS had Zack Greinke and Masahiro Tanaka. It was a tight game for five innings with Aaron Judge‘s homer looking like it was going to be the only run. Even with Gleyber Torres and Giancarlo Stanton homering in the sixth, this was a still a game within reach.
Things unraveled from there, but that didn’t seem to matter. Overall, the ALCS was the top rated sporting event on Fox Saturday with it eclipsing the college football slate.
This is exactly the type of exposure MLB wants for the sport. That’s especially important at a time when baseball is supposedly concerned with ratings and attendance. Getting two great high profile teams draws attention, and you get to showcase your starts. One of those stars is Justin Verlander, who is one of baseball’s few known stars outside the baseball world due to his marriage to Kate Upton.
In addition to this being a great match-up, it proved to be a great game. The two teams battled in a tight and thrilling game which went 11 innings. While he has been known from year’s past, Carlos Correa reintroduced himself after a tough season by throwing out DJ LeMahieu at the plate and then hitting a walk-off homer against J.A. Happ.
People were obviously interested as the game drew more viewers than last year’s ALCS between the Boston Red Sox and these same Houston Astros.
What is interesting the Game 1 ratings would prove to be higher than Fox’s Sunday Night cartoon slate. However, they would prove to be lower than the Sunday Night Football rankings. You do hesitate to wonder if the NFL/Fox relationship does influence the move of the rest of the ALCS to cable. Then again, that doesn’t explain why the midweek game are on cable.
Whatever the case, baseball has a marquis match-up in the ALCS, and it is happening on cable. You’d think in 2019 that cable against a major network would matter, and yet, somehow it does. MLB knows this, and yet, it is taking its best product, and they are putting it on cable instead of network television.
Just remember that the next time they talk about the problem with attendance, ratings, and their wanting to grow the game.