The Nightmare Series for FOX

A big loss for FOX this weekend, which was desperately hoping for another Yankees-Phillies World Series to juice its ratings. With both teams now gone, expect those high television ratings to go with them. In today's media market, you need one of three things to get people to watch the World Series:

1) big market and/or popular teams (the Yankees are both)
2) star power
3) interesting story lines

Unfortunately, the Rangers-Giants series which starts Wednesday has none of those things going for it. The closest thing to star power is Giants' starter Tim Lincecum, and he would make at most three appearances if the Series goes seven games. Interestingly, this would have been a great TV matchup 10 years ago when the Rangers had Alex Rodriguez and the Giants had Barry Bonds. A dispute with Cablevision may keep the Series out of the New York market, which is yet another major headache for FOX.
-----------------------
On an unrelated note, I was surprised this weekend by the reaction of my 15-year old son to the Texas-Iowa State game. He is a huge Longhorns fans and I figured he would really be down after Texas' inexplicable loss, the team's third of the year. However, it barely registered with him, in part because he spent much of the day playing his EA Sports College Football '11 video game. He brags that he has won six national championships and four Heisman Trophies in the game, and I could hear him cheering and yelling at the screen while he was playing.

It's fascinating to me that today's generation gets as much, if not more, enjoyment from the simulated sports experience than the real thing. I also understand that Texas quarterback Garrett Gilbert had a much better Saturday in my son's game than he did in real life.