Analysts dissect low ratings as Marlins celebrate

Posted: Tue October 28, 1997 at 12:01 PM ET

MIAMI (CNN/SI) -- After a week of complaints about the participants, sloppy play, bad weather, and the length of the games, The Florida Marlins celebrated winning the 1997 World Series.

The Marlins secured their place in history by becoming the expansion team to win a title quickest. But the 1997 World Series may well be overshadowed by the week-long bickering that embroiled almost every faction of the Fall Classic.

The first shot was fired by an NBC television executive, commenting on the Indians' and Marlins' lack of ratings appeal.

Once the Series did start, the games were dreadfully long. An overabundance of walks made several of the contests last past most people's bedtime in the East, prompting the highest-ranking executive in Major League Baseball to voice his displeasure.

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"We need to quicken the pace of the game," said Acting Commissioner Bud Selig. "And I've already said that, and we will do that by just enforcing the rules that are on the books."

Bad weather in Cleveland increased the sloppy play, and the media feeding frenzy was on.

Writers tried to outdo themselves trashing the World Series.

"The quality of play has been dreadful," observed Boston Globe Columnist Dan Shaugnessey, who was covering his 20th World Series. "The games have been too long. There are too many walks. It's just bad baseball -- a lot of errors, a lot of 9th-inning errors, sloppy play, and there hasn't been a lot of drama to it."

Jon Heyman of Newsday, covering his 10th world Series, had similar observations: "The problem is it's too cold, the season lasts too long and the games are too late. People will stay up past midnight to see a Carlton Fisk home run off the foul pole or a Bill Buckner error or some classic game. But to stay up till 12 to see that mess that we saw the other night; it's not worth it."

By Game 5, the World Series managers had heard enough.

Said Marlins manager Jim Leyland: "I'm sick of hearing the weak comments about the pitchers and everybody crying because Atlanta, Baltimore and New York aren't here. We beat them and the Indians beat everybody they had to beat and to be honest with you, the subject is over and it's making me puke."

Mike Hargrove of the Indians also had heard enough: "I don't think there's any reason for either organization or either team to apologize to anybody."

Meanwhile, television viewers were voting with their remote controls.

Game 1 received the lowest prime-time rating of any World Series game ever. And as the Series wore on, the ratings stayed flat. Games 5 and 6 received the lowest ratings of any prime-time Game 5 or 6 in history.

The 1997 World Series TV ratings represent a downward trend that has been apparent since 1993.

Dick Ebersol of NBC Sports points out that television programming has expanded drastically in the past decade.

"We live in an era that doesn't have the patience of 50 years ago," said Ebersol. "And we live in an era that, more importantly, has that many more alternatives. The average kid coming home from school today does not look at a television set that only has three channels. He is looking at a television set that has 40 choices, at least 10 of them aimed directly at him or her."

Selig maintained that marketing of the game is not the problem.

"We have a lot of ideas on what we're going to do," said Selig. "The game has been marketed well, and it will continue to be, but there's much to be done."

Despite all the negativity surrounding the series, the Marlins and Indians did have the final say. The ratings peaked for the finale, as the overnight ratings revealed four out of every 10 televisions in the United States were tuned in to Game 7.

"We've had a terrific year and I certainly wish that we didn't have this stuff right now, " said Selig. "But on balance, this has been a great year for baseball, and it will give us great momentum moving ahead to '98."