More Bonds, no waiting
As somewhat expected, ESPN2 has added tonight's San Francisco-San Diego game, as well as Saturday night's (both at 7 p.m.) to its schedule, hoping Barry Bonds finally hits and breaks Hank Aaron's record so Bud Selig can finally go home after his Herculean effort to follow his quest so far.
Why not just add ESPNBONDS channel at this point?
Dusty Baker and Orel Hershiser join Dave O'Brien on the call, with Erin Andrews trolling through the crowd trying not to get pinched by some salty sailors.
These will be the seventh and eighth games either ESPN or ESPN2 has added during Bonds Watch 2007. ESPN says it has received a 0.9 cable rating (866,000 homes) for its previous two games, and the four games on ESPN2 have averaged a 0.7 cable rating (689,000 homes).
Meanwhile FSN Prime Ticket research revealed that its Thursday and Tuesday telecast of the Dodgers-Giants from Dodger Stadium did a 4.92 and 4.59 rating, which now rank No. 1 and No. 3 on the Top 10 rated Dodger games on FSN. An Oct. 1, 2004 Dodgers-Giants game from Dodger Stadium now ranks No. 2 at 4.66. Back-to-back games on Sept. 29-30, 2004, when the Dodgers hosted Colorado, now rank Nos. 5 and 4 on the list.
A 1.0 rating in the L.A. market these days equals 56,111 households.
And that lady sitting behind the Dodgers' dugout for Thursday's game against the Giants ranks very low on the hair meter.
Also, Fox announced it has switched the start of the Giants' Aug. 11 game against Pittsburgh from 6:05 p.m. to 12:55 p.m. so it can include it in its regional coverage next Saturday.