ESPN2's First Televised MLB Draft Earns 0.3 Overnight

ESPN2 Earns 0.3 Overnight Nielsen For Inaugural Coverage Of MLB Draft

REVIEWING THE DAY: MLB.com’s Mike Bauman wrote ESPN2’s telecast was a “professional, thoughtful production.” ESPN’s “Baseball Tonight” crew “provided informed commentary on the picks and the process. There was a voluminous amount of homework to be done, and obviously this group had done it” (MLB.com, 6/7). But USA TODAY’s Hal Bodley writes the four-hour telecast “was like going to the movies and not knowing any of the actors.” Bodley wonders if a live telecast of the baseball draft can "sustain interest and keep viewers for the 30 picks of the first round? I don’t think so.” MLB Commissioner Bud Selig said, “MLB.com told us this was one of the busiest days of the year. Putting it on television is an enormous plus for us. It’s a critical event.” He added the MLB draft is different that those of the NFL and NBA "because their college players are better known. But when you think of all the great players in baseball over the years, it all starts here” (USA TODAY, 6/8). In Milwaukee, Tom Haudricourt writes “one area in which the baseball draft seemed improved over the other sports was the time between picks. Teams had 5 minutes to make their selections, compared with the 15-minute spacing in the NFL draft” (MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL, 6/8).

TAKING ATTENDANCE: USA TODAY’s Paul White notes the event, aired live from Disney’s Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando, “attracted several hundred fans, many of whom made the 60-mile trip from the Tampa Bay area to watch” the D’Rays make the No. 1 selection, Vanderbilt P David Price. Only three of the top picks -- No. 3 Josh Vitters, No. 6 Ross Detwiler and No. 11 Phillippe Aumont -- attended the draft. Detwiler: “I think next year there’s going to be a lot more now that guys see this.” Selig added, “I’d like to see more kids here. But you don’t want to have a Brady Quinn situation.” Quinn attended this year’s NFL Draft and fell from a projected top pick to No. 22 (USA TODAY, 6/8).

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