There was a time in Alex Rodriguez’s career when some of his major league contemporaries reportedly called him “The Cooler.” The moniker was slapped on Rodriguez’s back because no matter how much personal glory he found, he had a tendency to be on teams that underperformed.
ESPN is smitten with its new face of “Sunday Night Baseball,” but, in a bottom-line business, the scoreboard is ratings. “Sunday Night Baseball’s” A-Rod-led reboot is down 18 percent from year to year at a little past the quarter mark of its 25-game schedule.
While ESPN executives remain confident they will rebound and offered reasonable explanations as to why, the early returns on whether there would be more interest in watching “SNB” because of A-Rod are in, and the answer so far is clearly no.
While broadcasters can enhance the viewers’ experience, it is clear they don’t bring people to their TVs for games. A-Rod has been solid, but not spectacular, on “SNB.”
ESPN’s Sunday game is very produced, so much of what Rodriguez says sounds planned, allowing him to speak less off the cuff. He makes some good points, but he needs to trust himself a little more and try to be more natural.
“SNB” wants to stand out, but of all ESPN’s major properties, it probably has the most difficult task because in the preceding days, the exact same games are offered in local markets — and many times on Fox nationally on Saturday — making it next to impossible.
Still, the numbers are the numbers. Through seven games, “Sunday Night Baseball” is down from averaging 1.91 million viewers at this time last year to 1.56M this season. ESPN has had some bad luck since A-Rod joined, as a Cubs-Cardinals game’s ratings were smothered by a rain delay, while games in Washington and Houston happened to go up against NBA playoff games in those markets.