Perhaps more than any national sports league in the US, Major League Baseball is still a regional game that happens to be played across the entire country. Outside of a few national franchises, fans are far more likely to get behind their local team, or at least one they had some regional historic tie to, either themselves or family. This isn’t the NFL, where New Yorkers can root for the Dallas Cowboys or the NBA where you can cheer for wherever LeBron plays.
Which also makes national broadcasts, and in particular the playoffs, much trickier for baseball than everyone else, assuming the goal is to get as big an audience as possible. Which is why when it comes to baseball and the playoffs and in particular the World Series, location matters. Because no matter how much fans in Milwaukee and Tampa may enjoy it, that collective fan base doesn’t do much for the ratings. And the rest of country would likely sit that one out.
That is why the Commissioner’s office must be thrilled with how the baseball gods seem to be smiling on sport right now as both leagues are two games into their championship series. In the American, the Yankees hold a 2-0 lead over Cleveland in their best of seven, while in the National, the Dodgers and Mets are tied at one game apiece. Which means that in all likelihood, we’ll have the sport’s most global franchise from the nation’s largest media market playing against either a historic rival from the second largest market or the other team from New York. It is, by all accounts, the exact spoil of richest the sport would hope for at a time when television contracts are more volatile than ever. And at least through the divisional round, the numbers bear that out, with a 14% bounce in viewership over last year. It’s not NFL numbers, but for baseball, it’s at least a triple.
Obviously, things still need to go the right way. Lots of teams have blown 2-0 leads before. But for the sake of argument, and for the tastes of this audience, I’d like to consider a Subway Series – Mets/Yankees, and what it means for people in and outside of the New York metropolitan area. First, it’s important to recognize the significance of crosstown rivalries like this one, which really have far more in common with high school sports, and perhaps some college sports, than their professional brethren. Part of the appeal of high school sports is that you’re often playing against people from across the street, or highway, or train tracks, or however your district cuts up real estate. That familiarity breeds a particularly brand of emotion. I wouldn’t even call it hate, because these are folks you’ll see in the grocery store on weeknights and church and temple on weekends. Maybe best put, it’s some co-dependency founded on deep aminos, where you truly need each other to be who you are. It’s Duke/UNC, Boston College/Boston University, Cincinnati/Xavier, and so on. It’s beating your brother in pickup basketball in the driveway, which is inevitably more satisfying than any other victory, even if, or perhaps because you care about each other. And I’m not suggesting that Mets and Yankees fans secretly adore one another. But I do assume they need each other. Which is why a subway series brings a particular perverse form of sporting joy.
Now, is it good for ratings, say compared to Yankees/Dodgers? Probably not. Because in the end, it’s better to have two huge media markets than one. And if you get down to brass tacks, the Dodgers likely bring a bigger national and international fan base than the Mets. As much as New Yorkers might prefer to keep it all in the five boroughs, the folks in the Manhattan based Commissioner’s office would probably prefer to spread it around. Of course, you must remember that the Dodgers were once the Yankees cross town rival before splitting town, which makes that series even more appealing.
So what’s the takeaway? I suppose that no matter what happens, assuming Cleveland cooperates and behaves the way Cleveland typically does, the World Series and baseball are in good shape, at least from a business perspective. And it’s entirely likely the country will be treated to the kind of familiar fight we usually only get at a high school rivalry game or after family members have a few too many cocktails at a wedding. And that even though baseball remains a regional, national game, this year, location really matters.
Keith Strudler is the Dean of the School of Communication and Media at Montclair State University. You can follow him at @KeithStrudler
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