Fox Expands Coverage Of Dodgers Game Due To Ramirez' Return

Manny's Return Prompts Fox To Increase Its Coverage Of Saturday's Dodgers-Padres Game

Fox increased its distribution of Saturday's Dodgers-Padres game to about 48% of the country, "up from an originally scheduled 12%," due to the return of Dodgers LF Manny Ramirez from a 50-game suspension for violating MLB's performance-enhancement drug policy, according to Michael Hiestand of USA TODAY. Saturday marked Ramirez' second game back from the ban. Fox "sent Ramirez's first at-bat, in which he homered, to 100% of the country" (USA TODAY, 7/6). Fox' MLB regional coverage on Saturday afternoon earned a 1.7 overnight Nielsen rating (THE DAILY). Fox Sports President Ed Goren said of showing Ramirez' at bats to the entire country, "We think many baseball fans will be interested to see how he's received by the fans in San Diego. It could forecast how fans will react in other National League parks the Dodgers visit the rest of this season" (L.A. TIMES, 7/3). But Fox analyst Tim McCarver, who was calling the Mets-Phillies game, said, "It's almost as though Manny Ramirez is being treated as if he'd been on the disabled list for 50 games. ... Why all the adulation for a guy who has served a 50-game suspension?" McCarver also noted that Dodgers-Padres "wasn't originally scheduled to be shown by Fox in the New England market, but the return of Ramirez changed that." McCarver: "We jumped right on the wagon, too" (Phil Mushnick, N.Y. POST, 7/6). In Philadelphia, Bob Ford writes he was "appalled" when Fox "kept cutting away or small-screening the Phils-Mets game to give extra-special coverage" to Ramirez' at-bats (PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, 7/6).