Newsday, Melville, N.Y., Neil Best column: Can World Series games start earlier in future

Oct 31, 2008 (Newsday - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- DIS | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- We begin today with a sentence I never have been able to write before, and thus can't help but share: I watched the end of the World Series with my daughter.

It felt good, didn't it, East Coast America?

For the first time since the Tigers ousted the Padres in 1984 after a 4 o'clock start in Game 5, a baseball champion was crowned before 10.

That invited countless young people to the party -- not just in Philly, where they would have let 7-year-olds stay up until dawn if that's what it took.

And the ratings were pretty good for the unprecedented three-inning sprint Wednesday: An estimated 11.9 percent of households watched, including 14.3 percent in the New York market, 10 times the figure for the Knicks' opener.

That did not prevent the Series overall from setting a new ratings low of 8.4, easily worse than the 10.1 of two years ago for Tigers-Cardinals.

Blame the fifth consecutive year without a Game 6 or 7 or the late, late show for Game 3 or a less-than-marquee matchup or declining TV ratings in general. (But give Fox's public relations staff an Emmy for its series of artful news releases attempting to put a positive spin on it all.)

Still, what about that respectable 11.9 Wednesday, and those sleepy Eastern kids?

Might it, could it possibly be time for Fox and MLB to consider starting games earlier in the evening or (gasp) in the afternoon on weekends?

This issue has been smoldering for decades, at least since the last Series day game in '87, and it affects every major sports final other than the Super Bowl.

But Fox Sports president Ed Goren threw gasoline on it Wednesday by telling Sirius XM's Chris Russo he would be open to talking to MLB about earlier games in exchange for reduced rights fees.

"We would certainly have that discussion," he said, "and if it was laid out properly, that would certainly be a possibility."

So how about it, MLB? Just last week, commissioner Bud Selig said this to Russo: "I won't be happy until we get a World Series game that starts late in the afternoon."

Sounds like a match!

Alas, it is not that simple.

Selig also noted ratings for day games tend to be awful, and correctly added that ratings tend to grow as the hour drags toward midnight in the East -- a truism for all major sports events.

Turns out many people live west of the Mississippi. Who knew?

"Major League Baseball wants the largest number of people to watch the World Series," a spokesman said, "and we use research and experience to schedule start times to meet that goal."

Sunday afternoon, perhaps? Forget it. Football crushes all comers. Giants-Steelers was the most-viewed TV show of last week, sports or not.

Finally, there is that not-so-small matter of money. Would baseball be willing to accept less?

In a perfect world, Selig might, but don't hold your breath when it comes to owners and players.

Here's a hint of how that might go, courtesy of a hockey player, of all things:

On Wednesday, the Rangers' Scott Gomez was discussing Game 5 with Michael Kay on 1050 ESPN and said, "Maybe the World Series, it's time to go back during the day where actually kids can watch it. My neighbor was bringing that up."

Kay: "Tell your neighbor, 'Does he want the players to make half the money they make now?"'

Gomez laughed nervously, then said, "I'm not going to mention that to him."

Strange but true:

Darling goes to the changeup

When Mike Fuchs was born in Bayside on Aug. 2, 1982, his grandfather, Leo, bought him a Newsday as a keepsake. Last week, Fuchs' father, Danny, was cleaning out Mike's grandmother's garage when he uncovered the saved newspaper, undisturbed for a quarter-century.

Mike quickly found an article by Pat Calabria in which he interviewed three Mets prospects at Triple-A Tidewater.

One was Ron Darling, then 22, who already had dabbled in radio analysis for the Tides and seemed as if he might have a future in that line of work.

Too bad he had no interest in it, even after his far-off retirement from playing.

"Maybe when I'm 70," he told Calabria. "I like to think I'll have more useful things to do from the time I'm 40 until I'm 70."

Just wondering: Brett & the Jets are big TV hit

Brett Favre's performance on the field has been uneven.

Off it he has been a hit, from jersey sales to the always important TV ratings.

How has No. 4 gone over on the tube? Spectacularly. The Jets' ratings in the New York market through Week 8 are up an NFL high of more than 39 percent, from 8.9 percent of households to 12.4.

That is nearly as high as the Super Bowl champion Giants, who are averaging a 13.1 in New York. Big Blue's figure itself is a healthy 10-percent rise over this time last year -- tied for third-best improvement in the league.

The Falcons' 24-percent increase is a distant second to the Jets'.

The Giants' 2008 figure was boosted by last weekend's clash with the Steelers -- a healthy 18.1 rating in New York, an absurd 44.2 in Pittsburgh -- and will get another lift from Sunday's Cowboys game.

Fox's late afternoon window last week, featuring Giants-Steelers, averaged 22.3 million viewers, best of any TV show on any network in any time slot from Oct. 20-26. "CSI" was second at 19.5 million.

Best's bets: 'Boys are back in book

The Cowboys arrive at Giants Stadium on Sunday closing in on the 12th anniversary of their last playoff victory, the end of an era of spectacular success on the field and spectacular excess off it.

Much of both is revealed in Jeff Pearlman's book, "Boys Will Be Boys," a bestseller that mines the sex, drugs and Super Bowls of the 1990s.

Pearlman, a former Newsday feature writer, said his best material came not from stars -- Emmitt Smith and Troy Aikman did not participate -- but from lesser lights who have moved on to quiet lives.

"The guys who were there who never told their stories," as he described them.

The book begins with Michael Irvin slashing Everett McIver in the neck with scissors, but much of its 360 pages -- just right for Cowboys die-hards, perhaps a tad too many for the rest of us -- is more insightful than salacious.

"I consider myself a sportswriter," Pearlman said. "I don't consider myself like Kitty Kelley."

Pearlman's previous book, "Love Me, Hate Me," about Barry Bonds, was a critical success but a sales flop, largely because it was out at the same time as "Game of Shadows."

Before that, he wrote "The Bad Guys Won" about the 1986 Mets. Does he see similarities between that team and the Cowboys?

"Certainly in the way they lived off the field," he said. "The biggest dissimilarity is I feel like the Mets were more embraceable by the public. They kind of viewed themselves as a frat where you could join in if you were a New Yorker. The Cowboys were more us against the world."

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