ESPN earned a 5.0 overnight Nielsen rating for its coverage of the '13 Chevrolet Home Run Derby, which saw A's LF Yoenis Cespedes hold off Nationals CF Bryce Harper. That marks a 6% increase from a 4.7 overnight last year, when Tigers 1B Prince Fielder won. Detroit was the top local market last night, drawing a 9.8 rating as fans tuned in to see whether Fielder could repeat. Two other markets with participants -- Pittsburgh (Pedro Alvarez) and Baltimore (Chris Davis) -- followed Detroit with a 9.6 and 9.0 rating, respectively. N.Y., the host city for the Derby, ranked fourth with a 7.9 rating (THE DAILY). YAHOO SPORTS’ Mike Oz noted former MLBer Mike Piazza joined the ESPN broadcast crew at one point, but “apparently adding him to the mix was too much for the Citi Field inhabitants to take.” A couple fans “behind the ESPN set-up were caught in the middle of a fight,” and then a young fan “creepily video bombed the Piazza interview” (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 7/15).
FIRST TIME FOR EVERYTHING: MLBAM last night conducted another live video streaming experiment on Twitter, showing the Home Run Derby directly within the social media platform. MLBAM last year streamed the Futures Game directly through Twitter, marking what was believed to be the first major pro sports event distributed live on the platform and has since continued to take an active interest in further deployments (Eric Fisher, Staff Writer).
