MLB All Star Game gets record 82.4 million viewers...wait...no...that's 8.24 million [TJM]

Well, that's pathetic.

I guess putting non-political things in the middle of political fights is a bad idea all around. Perhaps making a giant show of fighting voting integrity measures in a state that has a large series of issues about its voting integrity still standing was a bad idea.

Seriously, shut up and play ball. That's all we wanted from you. We wanted to watch overpaid millionaires play a pastoral game for 3 hours (not 2, unless it's a perfect game which means calling more strikes not expanding the strike zone) and lose ourselves in escapism, away from the grinding reality of our lives, our jobs, and our politics.

Well, maybe they'll be getting rid of the seven inning games next year, at least. So...I guess that's a step in the right direction?

A little more from The Hill (ace): This should have been a big game, because, for the first time in All-Star history, a pitcher was also the lead-off hitter.

Major League Baseball's All-Star Game was once "appointment viewing" in this country. In 1980, more than 36 million people tuned in. In 2015, in the age of interleague play, a still-respectable 11 million watched the American and National Leagues battle it out.

But for Tuesday night's game, the Nielsen numbers were profoundly horrible: 8.24 million people tuned in, making it the second-least-watched All-Star Game in history. This number is stunning when considering what was billed as one of the most compelling lineups in years, one that included Los Angeles Angels' Japanese sensation Shohei Ohtani, who was the first player in All-Star Game history to be a starting pitcher and bat lead-off, and the game's first two-way starter dating back to 1933.

In other words, for the Ohtani factor alone, the numbers should have landed at least above the 10 million-viewer threshold, but didn't. And if you're looking for a big reason outside of cord-cutting, look no further than the backlash baseball is receiving for moving the All-Star Game out of Georgia to Colorado due to the former's new voting laws.

posted by Open Blogger at 05:34 PM

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