UNDERDOGS HAVE TV'S TAIL WAGGING.Byline: TOM HOFFARTH Media So what media conglomeration con·glom·er·a·tion n. 1. a. The act or process of conglomerating. b. The state of being conglomerated. 2. An accumulation of miscellaneous things. doesn't have a stake in a potential Chicago Cubs-Boston Red Sox matchup in the World Series? The Tribune Co., which runs the Chicago Tribune Chicago Tribune Daily newspaper published in Chicago. The Tribune is one of the leading U.S. newspapers and long has been the dominant voice of the Midwest. Founded in 1847, it was bought in 1855 by six partners, including Joseph Medill (1823–99), who made the paper and has the Los Angeles Times Los Angeles Times Morning daily newspaper. Established in 1881, it was purchased and incorporated in 1884 by Harrison Gray Otis (1837–1917) under The Times-Mirror Co. (the hyphen was later dropped from the name). in its stable, owns the Cubs. The New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of Times Co., which owns the newspaper by the same name as well as the Boston Globe, has a share of the Red Sox. And Fox, which televises the World Series as well as the divisional series leading up to it, owns a huge smile right about now. After a 2000 World Series that featured two New York teams, followed two years later with two West Coast teams, critics interpreted baseball's slumping postseason ratings as an indication the game was in decline. Fast forward to this past Tuesday, when Game 1 of the American League Championship Series
In Chicago, it was a 38.9 rating and 50 share; in Boston, it was a 40.9/59. And that doesn't even count people watching People watching or crowd watching is a hobby of some people to watch those around them and their interactions. This differs from voyeurism in that it does not relate to sex or sexual gratification. at bars. The national average rating for both league championship series are up 41 percent over 2002, and it's the best two-night LCS LCS - Language for Communicating Systems average since ABC ABC in full American Broadcasting Co. Major U.S. television network. It began when the expanding national radio network NBC split into the separate Red and Blue networks in 1928. and its ``Baseball Network'' did games in 1995. Oh, and the first round of the playoffs was the highest rated on network television in eight years. Plus, ESPN ESPN Entertainment and Sports Programming Network experienced record numbers for its first-round coverage. Credit the adrenaline rush for the Cubs, for sure, but also Fox for being keen enough to ride them out of the gate in the postseason instead of the Yankees. Fox even made sure the Cubs were on more over-the-air channels Tuesday (almost 60 percent of the country) rather than put them on the hard-to-find cable channel, where it sent the Yankees-Red Sox Game 1 in most parts (except New York and Boston). The deeper the Cubs and Red Sox go and the greater their potential for ending decades of frustration, the better it gets for all media embracing the best story. ``Right now, it's as good as it gets,'' said Fox executive producer Ed Goren, living large in Miami on Thursday afternoon as he awaited tonight's NLCS NLCS National League Championship Series (baseball) NLCS North Lawrence Community Schools (various locations, USA) NLCS National Landscape Conservation System Game 3 between the Cubs and Florida Marlins The Florida Marlins are a professional baseball team based in Miami Gardens, Florida. The Marlins are a member of the Eastern Division of Major League Baseball's National League. From to the present, the Marlins have played in Dolphin Stadium. . ``Funny how I don't hear anyone talking about how the games are too long or start too late or are too boring.'' Although Goren didn't want to pin the ratings spike to the Cubs or Red Sox factor, he admitted that any time a perennial underdog starts to succeed, it'll usually capture the country's eye and begin to generate a nonsports following. The Red Sox knew in spring training they'd have a chance. The Cubs weren't so clear-cut. ``The Green Bay Packers had a stretch maybe 10 years ago when they couldn't win, but when they started to be successful again, the people came out of the woodwork to support them again,'' Goren said. ``The Cubs fans don't expect to win, and you don't have to be a sports fan to buy into that. That's a big difference right now. ``They've suffered a long time, and their success this year wasn't necessarily expected, and now they're a story. And it's translated into ratings.'' --Symmetry vs. synergy: This from an editorial in the Oct. 8 issue of The New York Times: ``With all due respect to our New York readership - Yankee fans among them ... we find it hard to resist the emotional tugs and symmetrical possibilities of a series between teams that seem to have been put on earth to tantalize and then crush their zealous fans.'' Obviously, the thought is that a Cubs-Red Sox World Series is so delicious that even a Yankees fan reading all the news that fit that day in his morning paper had to agree, even if it meant the home team didn't make it back to the Fall Classic. Nowhere in the editorial or on the editorial page did The New York Times run a disclaimer about its ownership stake in the Red Sox. The reaction the next day from the Times readers included: ``Heresy! You are our paper, this is our city and this is our team. Now wake up and root!'' Seems they are rooting for their home team. --Cut to Mrs. Wood: A Fox spokesman insists the network will be more judicious about pointing its cameras at Kerry Wood's wife, Sarah, when she's in the stands during tonight's NLCS Game 3 in Florida. Sarah Wood reaction shots almost took away from Fox's coverage of Kerry Wood's pitching performances in the NLDS NLDS National League Division Series NLDS Network Layer Data Striping against Atlanta to the point where America almost could grow a resentment toward her. ``Good,'' Kerry Wood Kerry Lee Wood (born June 16, 1977 in Irving, Texas) is an American baseball player. A right-handed pitcher, he plays professional baseball for the Chicago Cubs. Wood became a high school phenom while attending Irving Mac Arthur High School in Irving, Texas, for his first told Chicago Sun-Times columnist Ron Rapoport when informed of Fox's statement. ``She didn't like it, and I wasn't particularly crazy about it, either. It was the split-screen shots that got to her. It seemed like everybody she knows called her and told her they saw it.'' CAPTION(S): box Photo: no caption (Book cover -- Sports Illustrated - Fifty Years of Great Writing: 1954-2004) Box: SOUND BYTES By Tom Hoffarth |
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