As sportsbooks try to squeeze every last betting profit out of the baseball bettors in a World Series Blitz, commissioner Bud Selig has to be a little concerned at the popularity of the game’s biggest event.
With the Giants taking on the Rangers both cities were likely on fire, but that didn’t hold true for the rest of the viewers tuning in, or should I say, tuning out of the World Series. In Game 1 of the World Series ratings plummeted 25% from what they were a year ago when the Yankees took on the Phillies. In a game that featured two of the game’s best pitchers in Cliff Lee and Tim Lincecum, more people were were flipping the channel to watch Criminal Minds before the seventh inning stretch.
Baseball is supposed to be America’s national pastime, but it’s TV ratings suggest that perhaps its past its time. Perhaps the NBA is now America’s favorite pastime as news from the NBA dominated baseball headlines all summer long, leading to the debut of the Miami Heat vs the Boston Celtics trumping Game 1 of the World Series as over 5 million people tuned in to watch game 1 of the regular season of the NBA. Bud Selig has to be worried about his product because he’s not competing with NFL, and now he’s losing to NBA regular season, and don’t look now Bud, but here comes the MMA.
