Ratings hold steady
Making the game count didn't deliver the 10 percent TV ratings bump that Fox Sports President Ed Goren predicted. In fact, it didn't generate any bump.
MLB's 9.5 fast national number was even with last year's number, which was the lowest rating ever for the event. The American League's late-inning comeback held viewers' interest far better than last year's tie, as the final half-hour of this year's broadcast drew a 9.1, which bettered last year's 8.1.
The 9.5 fast national was strong enough to beat the NBA Finals for the first time since 1994, as the NBA series earned an all-time Finals low of a 6.5.
Lighter crowds
While Major League Baseball officials expected 80,000 to 100,000 fans to pass through the gates over the five days of FanFest, early attendance was noticeably soft. Last year, the five-day event drew about 87,000 to downtown Milwaukee's Midwest Express Center. This year's site, the Chicago convention center McCormick Place, is situated on the south side of the city, making it a challenge to lure big numbers from downtown hotels.
The John Hancock-titled event featured more than 40 attractions, and sponsors stuck with the traditional sign-up forms to build databases. There was very little product sampling or experimental marketing going on, with the most interactive area being the CyberBallpark, where each of MLB's video game licensees exhibited its games.
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SHOE SHOW: Barry Bonds introduces Fila’s Bonds XT Tuesday at Footaction in Chicago. He’s flanked by Tom O’Riordan (left), Fila USA president, and Howe Burch, senior VP of marketing. |
Jackson, commish huddle
Rainbow/Push Coalition chairman Jesse Jackson was on the field before the All-Star Game, invited down by Commissioner Bud Selig. Jackson spoke briefly with Selig before huddling with two of the game's more prominent black stars, Barry Bonds and Gary Sheffield.
Jackson is among the minority leaders who have been critical of managerial and front-office hiring practices in baseball. Rainbow/Push is based in Chicago.
"The beautiful thing is that between the lines, out there, the playing field is level for all people," Jackson said. "When a person of color comes to the plate, the pitcher's mound is still 60 feet, 6 inches. They don't move it up. So the rules are the same. The opportunity to succeed is the same. It's when you move off the field and onto the sideline or into the dugout or up into the [executive] offices that we see that principle fall away. There is work to be done there."
No licensee decision yet
As of press time, Major League Baseball's top apparel licensees still were waiting to see who would be awarded the coveted rights to produce and sell on-field apparel, including the cash-cow player jerseys. Russell and Majestic now split those rights, and they are competing for the deal again, along with Reebok, which is trying to add MLB to a stable of authentic uniform rights that also includes the NBA and NFL.
MLB officials were mum on a timetable for a decision. Sources still expect the rights to go to one licensee. Meanwhile, New Era Cap should keep its on-field cap exclusivity, though that is something Reebok covets as well.
In other jersey news, a primary reason MLB All-Stars did not wear their Majestic AL and NL batting practice jerseys as game uniforms was objection from the players themselves, who wanted to play in their home-town duds. "For our membership, representing their home team is one of the most important things about being an All-Star," said a senior MLBPA executive. Still, couldn't an agreement have been reached on the jerseys instead of MLB shelving the plan just five weeks before the midsummer classic? "I don't know," the union executive said. "They didn't ask us about it."
From the owners
Astros owner Drayton McLane, whose team will host next season's All-Star Game in Houston, said that 16 Astros executives were in Chicago last week shadowing White Sox employees with similar job functions. He said Houston's strength next year will be fans' accessibility to all the events.
"In Houston, everything will be located within four to five blocks of each other, making it very easy for fans to get around."
Phillies Chairman Bill Giles said of the team's new ballpark, Citizens Bank Park, which opens next season: "I think we designed the best ballpark ever built. It will not quite have the setting, looking over the skyline, of Pac Bell Park or the view that Camden Yards has, but 50 percent of spectators at the new ballpark will get a great view of the skyline of Philadelphia."
New Anaheim Angels owner Arturo Moreno has opted against buying one of the traditional accouterments of world champion status. Moreno, who this year watched the All-Star festivities from a VIP box behind home plate for the first time, was not wearing a World Series ring.
"The Angels won the ring last year and I wasn't part of that," he said. "I'll wear a ring if I'm part of earning it. Otherwise, it wouldn't be right. When we win another one, I promise you, I'll wear a ring with pride."
Seen & heard
MLBAM had 15 writers in Chicago filing stories around the All-Star activities, including the lead writers from eight team Web sites as well as seven national and regional writers for mlb.com. ... Ed Doran, president of MLB licensee VF Activewear, was spotted in a hotel lobby sporting a brand-new Nautica T-shirt, less than a week after VF Corp. acquired the nuevo-prep apparel brand. "I threw all my Tommy Hilfiger and Ralph Lauren out the next day," he quipped. ... Before
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| AT&T took a dig at foe U.S. Cellular, handing out shirts with the ballpark’s old name. |
the All-Star Game, two of U.S. Cellular's competitors in the wireless category tried to piggyback off the game. Cingular Wireless employed a street team outside the facility offering free calls anywhere in the United States. AT&T handed out thousands of T-shirts outside the venue touting a poll suggesting that most Chicagoans still refer to the facility as Comiskey Park and not U.S. Cellular Field. The front of the shirt read, "I Still Call It Comiskey," with the back of the shirt reading, "What Do You Call It?" and a local number to vote.
The party circuit
Levy Restaurants held a small gathering July 14 at the company's newest downtown concept restaurant, Jake Melnick's Corner Tap. Company co-founder and CEO Larry Levy hosted the event, and among those attending were members of the Northern Virginia group bidding for the Expos, including Virginia Baseball Club CEO Bill Collins and Virginia Baseball Stadium Authority Executive Director Gabe Paul, as well as Dave Kahn, who is spearheading Portland's bid for the Expos.
Thousands attended the Field Museum off Lake Shore Drive after Monday night's Home Run Derby for the MLB All-Star Gala. New York Yankees center fielder Bernie Williams played songs from his new album, "The Journey Within," released last week. Guests leaving the Field Museum were given desk-display, old-school leather baseball gloves. ... The MLBPA's All-Star Party kicked off about an hour after the league's party did last Monday at Nine restaurant and its GhostBar lounge downtown. The event featured the music of the Robert Cornelius 7 R&B band. ... MLB hosted its pregame All-Star Party outside U.S. Cellular Field on Tuesday night, as thousands mingled and munched while listening to such acts as Vanessa Carlton and Third Eye Blind. The parting gift was a Rawlings souvenir game ball.
— Bill King, Terry Lefton and Abraham Madkour
