Can We Please Stop Talking About Ratings?

How true. Has anyone else noticed that NFL Live is on year round, but Baseball Tonight is already off the air?

Last night's game, predictably, had the worst ratings ever for a World Series game. Can we please stop talking about ratings? They don't measure success. They still had a full house, I presume, for the game. It was still loud with fans up and yelling, right? I'm guessing it is still making a huge profit for Major League Baseball. So why are we worrying about ratings?

You want to know why the World Series doesn't get that big of ratings? First, it is no longer the favorite sport in America. Football has taken that spot. Second, the World Series is possibly seven games long. People think, "Well, if I miss this one, there could still be six more." They don't feel like they have to watch each one. The Super Bowl and NCAA Championships for football and basketball are one game long. That one really does matter. It's for the whole enchilada. The World Series isn't. Game 2 may have zero bearing on the entire series if the Phillies win it. Otherwise, Games 1 and 3 won't matter. If you make the World Series one game (maybe it should be -- another discussion), I bet lots of people will watch it. It would matter. Why do more people watch Games 6 and 7 of these series? Because they might matter. Because it could be the end of the series. Because it might actually tell you who won. If it's Game 4 or 5, no one cares even if it leads to the end of the series because if it is the end of the series, the end was pretty foregone by that point wasn't it? Third, I wonder if TiVo has anything to do with it. Instead of waiting until 2 o'clock in the morning to see the end of the game, I can just TiVo it and watch it in the morning without looking at the paper or internet. I doubt it makes much of a difference, but it might. Regardless, stop worrying about the ratings because it really doesn't matter. When no one shows up in the stands or the fans stop cheering, then I'll worry.