World Series ratings on decline reminds us of Cubbie-blue ratings jolt of 2016

The World Series came to an end this week, and reportage repeatedly told of one fact – the Boston Red Sox/Los Angeles Dodgers matchup was a television ratings bust. Although most World Series of recent years have been disappointing – with one exception.

That was 2016, when on the night of two years ago Friday, the Chicago Cubs managed to prevail over the Cleveland Indians to win Chicago’s second baseball championship of this century – and their first in 108 seasons.

IN FACT, THE final game of that World Series had an average of 40 million viewers, with some 115 million people supposedly watching the series matchup at some point during the seven games.

Cubbie fans, of course, want to view this as some sort of sense of their superiority – as though the whole world was waiting for their victory. Which strikes me as being as ridiculous as that Super Bowl claim that people all over the world really care about the NFL championship game.

For the record, that 2016 World Series had an average of 12.9 percent of households watching the game, with 22 percent of television sets tuned in. By comparison, this year’s World Series had figures of 8.3 percent of households and 17 percent of households.

Of course, we could also compare it to 2005, when the White Sox managed to prevail in winning Chicago’s first World Series of the 21^st Century. The one that Cubbie fans always like to downgrade as insignificant, if not meaningless and irrelevant.

IT HAD SOME 11.1 percent of households, and 19 percent of televisions tuned in on average for its games. Not that much of a difference from the ’16 experience, which had its broadcast ratings boosted by being a seven-game series, compared to the ’05 four-game sweep for the Sox.

Not that any of these numbers really matter. Because to the fans of the teams, they’re watching regardless, and the memory of that final out made them forget suburban Northbrook native Jason Kipnis' big home run for the Indians that could have been the knockout punch. Fans could care less what the fair-weather types think.

Just as I’m sure Boston fans this week are thinking the rest of the nation doesn’t know what they missed by not tuning in -- although we know they're crazed for throwing beer cans at the World Series trophy.

The World Series is over. Meaning that baseball for 2018 is finished. We’ll have to wait ‘til springtime. Which is when we’ll see for ourselves if the Las Vegas oddsmakers have any clue what they’re talking about.

FOR THE CUBS, they’re being given 10/1 odds of winning the 2019 World Series, while the White Sox are at 65/1 odds. Which actually puts them ahead of all the other teams in their division except for Cleveland (12/1 odds).

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And one final thought. A comparison of statistics involving Chicago's two 21st Century World Series experiences. The Cubs' victory celebration of '16 supposedly attracted some 5 million fans, compared to 1.5 million for the White Sox' celebration of '05. None of whom felt compelled to throw anything at the World Series trophy, like they did in Boston.

Anybody who seriously believes either of those figures probably thinks the all-Chicago World Series will occur next season. A fantasy we in Chicago have waited more than a century to see for real.

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Chicagoans would rather watch playoff baseball than crummy football

I happened to eat dinner Thursday night at a Mexican restaurant that had two televisions set up at opposite ends of the dining hall.
 

Will these be legitimate next week, or just good for a laugh?

One tuned to the National League playoff game in which the Chicago Cubs ultimately beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, placing themselves one win away from their first league championship in 71 years.

THE OTHER SET was tuned to Thursday Night Football – whose broadcast this week was the usual Chicago sporting favorite, the Bears, takin on their arch-rivals, the Green Bay Packers.

Usually, that’s a game that gets sports-oriented people in Chicago to wet their drawers with glee and excitement. It stirs up a lot of rhetoric, regardless of how either team is playing.

Simply put, the fact that the Bears have won only one game this season shouldn’t have put a damper on the event. But it did.

The television ratings that came in for Thursday night showed the Cubs broadcast in Chicago getting a 24.1 share, which translates roughly to 1 million people in the metropolitan area actually watching the ballgame.

BY COMPARISON, THE Bears only got a 12.8 share, or just over half of what the Cubs managed to attract.

So much for the notion that Chicago is primarily a football town and that it is the Bears who are the team that manages to bring the city together as a whole in spirit.

'85 Bears still the big gun of Chicago sports memories?

Although I have always thought that Chicago is primarily a baseball town and that a local fan’s baseball preference is always stronger than what he feels for the Bears. Only with the baseball fandom split between two ball clubs, it means the Bears can claim a larger audience than either team. Which makes me wonder what things would be like if the Cardinals had never left town and remained a charter member of the NFL on the South Side?

Former Bears coach Mike Ditka, who has made his efforts to stay in the public eye by latching onto Cubs attention and publicly rooting for the team to make it to the World Series next week, has said he thinks a Cubs World Series title would be bigger than the ’85 Chicago Bears’ Super Bowl victory.

Did '05 Sox top Bears in some minds?

IT WOULD BE to that segment of Chicago sporting society that cares about the Cubs. Just keep in mind that to White Sox fans, their ’05 World Series win already has topped the Bears in importance, and there’s no way a stinkin’ Cubs pennant would ever top the memories of Paul Konerko, Mark Buehrle and manager Ozzie Guillen signaling for the big, tall and fat relief pitcher to come in to save the game.

Not that any of this detracts from what the Bears accomplished 31 years ago by becoming the first Chicago team in decades to win a thing.

If anything, what with the Bears, the Bulls, the Blackhawks and White Sox all having won championships within our lifetimes, it probably is about time that the Cubs get off their duffs and win something – just so we can quit thinking there’s anything particularly special about them.

It’s about time that the Cubs win something so we can put a rest to those out-of-town types who denigrate the Chicago sporting experience – largely by claiming there can’t be anything special about a city that takes a team with the Cubs’ losing ways at all seriously.

Still a 21st Century 1st for Chicago

ALTHOUGH ONE CAN argue that the new Cubs management has already succeeded in that they have put together a ball club that will likely be a legitimate contender for the rest of this decade. Even if the Dodgers manage to prevail this weekend, the Cubs probably will be in the running for a championship come 2017.

There’s also the fact that even if the Cubs were to win a thing (and I don’t doubt there are many Chicagoans who dread the very concept), all it would really mean is that the Cubs will finally have matched the White Sox in championships achieved during this century.

One!

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