Are baseball fans the new silent majority?

Regular season baseball games outdrew Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final in fifteen television markets Wednesday night, including NHL strongholds Pittsburgh and Detroit.

The Giants/Pirates game on Root Sports earned an 8.95 rating in Pittsburgh, beating Bruins/Blackhawks Game 1 (5.99) by 49% head-to-head. In Detroit, the Tigers/Royals day game earned a 7.46 on Fox Sports Detroit — beating Game 1 (5.75) by 30%.

Baseball won the battle in seven other ...

Turns out you can watch video with the radio announcer overlaid. I just tried it. Seems to work.

As players, managers and front office executives embrace the esoteric statistics, teams increasingly want their radio announcers just as fluent in the language of WAR, VORP and B.A.B.I.P. (Those stand for wins above replacement, value over replacement player and batting average on balls in play, for those of you dusting off your radios as the season begins.)

“They wanted a broadcaster who is at least comfortable with exploring the idea of discussing advanced statistics and what they mean,” ...

Leave the memories alone…

Maury Brown
@BizballMaury

“I’ve informed FOX Sports that I will not seek to extend my contract to broadcast baseball past the 2013 season,” said McCarver.

Just when you thought ESPN was the only network out there trotting out an endless array of debate shows, this trailer for a new MLB Network show popped up during the World Baseball Classic… and I’ve lost all faith in humanity.

Head to head, it’s “MLB Now” starring Brian Kenny vs. Honking Harold Reynolds. [trying the embed]

“Felons and Melons” was better.

it looks like TLC will not be airing a second season of Pete Rose’s reality show, “Pete Rose: Hits & Mrs.”

John Kiesewetter, who writes about television for the Cincinnati Enquirer, notes that TLC aired the final two episodes of the first season on a Sunday morning and shifted it to a channel called Destination America… a representative for TLC told Kiesewetter that there are no plans to air repeats of the first season.

MLB Network is debuting a new series next week called “The Next Knuckler.” The concept: several former college (and pro) quarterbacks are going to learn to throw a knuckleball under the instruction of Tim Wakefield. The best knuckleballer at the end of the series will get an invite to Arizona Diamondbacks’ spring training. The quarterbacks: John David Booty, Josh Booty, Doug Flutie, David Greene and Ryan Perrilloux…

The show debuts on Wednewday, February 13th at 9PM.

(But may be delayed ...

As if Mets games weren’t shambolic enough, Ben Lindbergh inspects a baseball scene in CBS’ “Elementary” with a few cheapshots at Dusty Baker.

The story of how the Reds recorded those final three outs on Elementary is a mystery that requires an investigator of Holmes’ skill to solve. But since I’m the only investigator available, I’m going to give it a shot. Let’s break this crazy baseball down.

The game is afoot.

Can we have him go through their financial records?

The CBS procedural Elementary, now approaching the end of its first season, reimagines [Sherlock] Holmes as a tattooed modern-day detective, freshly released from rehab and relocated from London, who offers his consulting services to the NYPD. And it takes Elementary all of one episode to bring up baseball, as if to remind the viewer that this is Sherlock Holmes in New York, like you’ve never seen him before. The scene, ...

Hello, caller, you’re on Candid Slam-era.

But he’s not returning to ESPN.  Instead, Bobby V will take on a much lower profile role as a contributor to the NBC Sports Radio network.  Via NBC release:

“Dial Global and the NBC Sports Group announced today that Bobby Valentine will join the NBC Sports Radio lineup as a Major League Baseball contributor, starting this month.

“Valentine, a former Major League Baseball player and manager, most recently of the Boston Red Sox, as well as former ...

Bill James on the Hall of Fame candidates.

Summary Bonds: “you have to honor him, but I’d make him wait”; Clemens: “an obvious Hall of Famer”; Piazza: “sure”; Sosa: “I probably wouldn’t”; Biggio: “sure”; Schilling: “probably above the line”; Lofton: “probably”

Later in the show: Raines: “absolutely”; Walker: “not high on my list”; Trammell: “a Hall of Famer”; B. Williams: “probably not”; E. Martinez: “I think so”; Morris: “I wouldn’t vote for him”; D. Murphy: “I wouldn’t vote for him”; ...

Adds Maury…“Pass the popcorn. The static’s on (again)”

File this one in the “broken record” department: prepare for yet another season of MLB’s blackout policy remaining in place.

The reason for the broken record? This story has been written repeatedly for years. A source at MLB said that for all practical purposes, the matter will likely not be addressed for the upcoming season.

For the uninitiated, the question is, “Why should I be concerned?” That depends on whether you are, or ...

On Thursday, the Federal Communications Commission took a step that may lead to the elimination of all sports blackouts, of which the N.F.L.’s are the most notable. The commission said it was seeking public comment on eliminating its own rules that have effectively backstopped league policies by prohibiting cable and satellite operators from carrying a game already blacked out by local broadcast stations.

“We’re asking the government to get out of the business of propping up sports ...

One old sparky chair comes to mind! Picks up torch and pitchfork (sees Bon Iver won year-ender…throws away in disgust)...

But what if we discover that one of the players in the actual Hall of Fame did something far more abhorrent than using steroids or testosterone? Say, murder. Would the Hall of Fame seriously consider removing that player? I honestly don’t know.

Of course, time plays a role here. Conlin just won the Spink Award. In the display in the Museum, he’s featured. If Conlin were ...

Krajewski’s Pig Farm goes high tech!

Even though it’s the off-season for the MLB, the MLB Network is hard at work leveraging social media by curating off-season chatter through their programming — and now they’ve rolled out a brand new social media area inside of their state-of-the-art Studio 3 in New Jersey.

The social area of the studio serves up 108-inch touchscreens for MLB Network talent to interact with fans through Facebook polls, Twitter and email. MLB Network has over 98,000 ...

Tip: Buy a comb.

Lou Piniella, a fan favorite as both player and manager, is deep in negotiations and close to signing a deal to return to the Bombers as an analyst for the Yankees Entertainment & Sports Network. He also will likely serve as a spring training instructor.

According to industry sources, Piniella will do a limited number of appearances for YES in the broadcast booth and studio.

Piniella would join YES’ cast of analysts that includes Ken Singleton, John Flaherty, Paul ...

Lifting from Mountaintop Motel Massacre’s sweet Evelyn here…“Please do not piss off Cardinal fans. They already are.”

Tim McCarver, that biased broadcaster, has been elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

From here on out, he’ll be referred to as a Hall of Famer.

But I’ll just call him Tim McCarver.

Because in my eyes, he is NOT a Hall of Famer. He is a dumbfounded broadcaster who, for whatever reason, has been on the air way too long.

...He is constantly negative toward the ...

I haven’t been this riveted to a TV show since Roy Thinnes got a severe pinky cramp and had to hide it during a whole The Invaders episode!

The resistance from—I guess you could call it the long-established media, since mainstream applies to the internet these days—seems to be fading. Writers such as Keith Law or Dave Cameron at Fangraphs have BBWAA membership, which is a wonderful, progressive development. But there’s still that challenge of making sabermetrics accessible to the those who are ...

According to Spencer Fordin of MLB.com, Legendary Pictures announced yesterday that Harrison Ford will play Hall of Fame Dodgers’ executive Branch Rickey in a biopic about Jackie Robinson.

Many prominent actors have been mentioned for the role of Rickey over the years, including Robert Redford this past April, but Ford was apparently their top choice. His work in “Cowboys and Aliens” probably put him over the top.

As for Robinson, he’ll be played by the relatively unknown Chadwick ...

The Angels have agreed to a new deal with Fox Sports worth at least $3 billion and expected to cover 20 years, two parties familiar with the deal said Thursday. The parties declined to be identified because the deal has yet to be officially announced.

Spokesmen for Fox and the Angels declined to comment.

Moreno last year opted out of a 10-year, $500-million contract with Fox, according to sports media consultant and former NBA TV President Ed Desser.

Desser, testifying Thursday in the ...

What are you wearing, Tom from MLB Network?

uhh…khakis.

Winners

Regional sports networks. Twelve months ago Moreno was complaining about Carl Crawford money (seven years, $142 million.) What changed? He lined up a new local TV deal that could pay him almost twice the current annual rate of $50 million—even with the second-worst ratings in baseball. Sports programming is hot. It provides loads of content and, most importantly, content that is DVR-proof. Most sports programming is consumed ...

Tim McCarver, who has served as a national analyst on networks for three decades and simultaneously shined as part of broadcast teams with four big league clubs, has been selected as the 2012 recipient of the Ford C. Frick Award, presented annually for excellence in baseball broadcasting by the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.

McCarver becomes the second primary television analyst to win the Frick Award, joining Tony Kubek, who received the honor in 2009. McCarver will be honored as ...

As the lone comment sez…“Baseball Wives isn’t embarrassing enough?

Major League Baseball announced today that the MLB Fan Cave in 2012 will start the season with a group of fan contestants, some of whom will be eliminated throughout the season until one winner is crowned before the end of the World Series. Multiple contestants will begin the season in the MLB Fan Cave and watch every single MLB game each day while chronicling their experiences online through videos, blogs and social media. ...

Well…at least they don’t have to worry about banning flannel. Huh, ohh.

Muscle shirts, ripped jeans and flip-flops—fine for the beach, not so fine for big league press boxes starting next season.

Baseball has become the first major pro league in North America to issue dress guidelines for media members, putting them in writing at the winter meetings.

The no-wear list also includes visible undergarments, excessively short skirts or anything with a team logo.

“This is not in response to any ...

They found the ball Pujols hit off Lidge.