By Tom Jones, Times Staff Writer
Thursday, April 21, 2011
St. Petersburg Times staff writer Tom Jones offers up his Two Cents on the world of sports.
Ratings of the day
The Lightning played its first two home playoff games in four years this week. The Rays played a run-of-the-mill home series against a White Sox team that really can't be considered one of the marquee teams in the majors.
So you might think the Tampa Bay area was more interested in watching the Lightning on television. You would be wrong.
Ratings show the Rays trounced the Lightning on Monday and Wednesday nights, the nights the Lightning hosted the Penguins while the Rays hosted the White Sox.
Monday, the Lightning averaged a 2.0 rating, meaning 2 percent of all Tampa Bay area households with televisions were tuned in. (One rating point equals about 17,950 households). The Rays that night drew an average rating of 3.2.
The Rays' broadcast on FSN started at 6:30 p.m.; the Lightning game on Sun Sports started at 7:30. While the games were on simultaneously (meaning from 7:30 until a little after 9), the Rays drew a 3.9, the Lightning a 1.7.
Wednesday produced similar numbers. The Rays averaged a 3.7 for the night, the Lightning a 2.3. While the games were on at the same time, the Rays held a substantial advantage over the Lightning: 4.06 to 1.45.
After the Rays game ended, the Lightning numbers spiked at 4.0 and stayed in the 3.5 range during the one-plus overtimes.
This also should be noted: The Lightning sold out both games, drawing 20,545 on Monday and 20,326 on Wednesday.
The Rays drew weak crowds of 12,016 on Monday and 13,214 on Wednesday. In the end, the Rays drew nearly twice as many television viewers, but the Lightning drew nearly twice as much of a crowd in its arena.
What does it all mean?
For starters, the numbers say the Rays continue to be a draw on television. Fans still aren't showing up for games, but they do appear to be interested in and involved with the team.
That supports last year's numbers: The Rays were among the major leagues' top five in local television ratings but ninth from the bottom in attendance.
It could be suggested that most Rays fans prefer to watch the games on television as opposed to going to Tropicana Field.
Why? Maybe it's the stadium location, maybe it's the economy, maybe it's Tropicana Field, maybe it's simply easier to stay home and watch on a nice HD television while sitting in a recliner. Maybe it's all the above.
Meantime, the numbers from this week also suggest that the majority of Lightning fans go to the games.
Finally, the numbers indicate that the Rays have a bigger local following than the Lightning.
Deal of the week
Though critics of the NHL have harped about the league not working out a television deal with ESPN, it's hard to criticize the league for signing a new deal with NBC and Versus, now part of the same company under Comcast's merger with NBC Universal. The deal is a whopper, at least for the sport in the United States: 10 years, $1.9 billion. The old deal paid about $70 million a year from Versus and no rights fee from NBC.
ESPN, Turner Sports and Fox put in bids for the contract, but Comcast wasn't going to be outbid. It sees the NHL as the main programming for its new sports channel, which is what Versus will be turned into. NBC likely will try to build up Versus more to try to give ESPN a little competition.
Name change of the day
Speaking of Versus ...
Nearly five years ago, the cable channel known as the Outdoor Life Network changed its name to Versus. Look for that name to change again in the next three months. Versus became part of the NBC Sports Group when Comcast's acquisition of a majority stake in NBC Universal was approved by the government this year. NBC Sports Group chairman Dick Ebersol said on a conference call this week that Versus' name will be changed to incorporate the NBC brand.
Versus is a pretty cool name, so it will be a little sad to see it go.
Quarterback of the day
Where will Florida State quarterback Christian Ponder go in the NFL draft? The first round seems unlikely, and the second round might be a stretch. He seems like a third-rounder, mostly because he has had trouble staying healthy. He does, however, have a fan in former Bucs coach Jon Gruden, left.
"There are a lot of guys I know that like this guy because he's got the aptitude to learn,'' Gruden said. "He's got the leadership traits that you want, and he's got a lot of playing experience. … I think he's an accurate, intermediate passer. People want to see him push the ball maybe a little more down the field, like to see a little more arm strength. But I think those things will develop and come to Ponder when he gets healthy and continues to physically get stronger. He's a very good collegian. He's got good-enough size, good-enough mobility, and he's won a lot of games and shown tremendous toughness for the Seminoles."
Meantime, in case you missed it, former Bucs QB Shaun King, left, criticized Gruden, who hosts a show on ESPN on developing young quarterbacks. King, who co-hosts an afternoon radio show on 1010-AM, said he wasn't going to watch Gruden's show because he didn't believe his former coach was good at developing young quarterbacks.
Gruden responded: "I agree with Shaun. I wasn't totally successful in developing all the young quarterbacks (he coached). Although Bobby Hoying and Ty Detmer did okay (when he was with the Eagles), and Chris Simms helped (the Bucs) win a division title. But I did fail miserably in developing Shaun King, and I'm sorry he'll miss our show.'' Whether you agree with King or not, you have to admit that was a pretty good zinger of a comeback by Gruden.
Three things that popped into my head
1. The real shame of the Lightning possibly getting knocked out in the first round of the playoffs is the Eastern Conference doesn't have a dominant team and a trip to the final is ripe for the taking.
2. At what point would it be okay to suggest that the Lightning's Marty St. Louis, right, just might be the best pro athlete in the history of Tampa Bay?
3. Maybe Tampa Police should just set up a permanent DUI checkpoint outside of One Buc Place.
Check it out
The MLB Network continues to count down the 20 greatest games of the past 50 years, and at 7 p.m. Sunday it airs game No. 4 on the list. Former Braves Mark Lemke and Sid Bream and former Pirate Andy Van Slyke will be in studio to talk about Game 7 of the 1992 National League Championship Series, or, as it's known in Pittsburgh, The Worst Baseball Game of All Time! On the show, Van Slyke recalls telling leftfielder Barry Bonds to move in a few steps just before Francisco Cabrera delivered a single to left, a hit that allowed the slow-footed Bream to score from second base just ahead of Bonds' throw. Van Slyke said he motioned Bonds to move in, and Bonds responded by giving Van Slyke the finger.