The week in baseball: The Yankees effect on TV ratings

What is the baseball without the Yankees? What would our national pastime be like without the pinstripes? The Bronx Bombers are notoriously hated, but they’re loved worldwide and as they push on in the second round of the playoffs, one thing has become clear- loved or hated, the team is good for baseball.

The magnitude of their star power, the drama of their wins, and the dominance so far in the playoffs has made this postseason worth the watch. It looks to continue to be so as Joe Girardi’s Yankees make a bid for their first World Series appearance in five years, and their first championship in eight. And this is good news for baseball.

It’s difficult to say whether this postseason was given more credence and attention by baseball fans thanks to the Yankees, or due to the other big market teams that joined them in the playoffs, but TBS is thanking its lucky stars this season. According to Anthony Crupi of mediaweek.com the Yankees return to the postseason after taking last year off has increased ad revenue noticeably.

It helps that the Yankees have been joined in the post season by other large market teams like the Los Angeles Angels and Dodgers, the Boston Red Sox, and the Philadelphia Phillies. TBS recorded its best ratings in the postseason since 2005 and these were up 14 percent from last year. Though the first round of the series was filled with uneven match-ups and sweeps, the Yankees sparked some fireworks that must have been the most rating-worthy baseball of the season.

The Yankees have made the Minnesota Twins look like a postseason fluke and Los Angeles Angels look lost on the field. The Twins gave up the first and third game of the three game series sweep at the hands of the Yankees, but put up a fight in one of the best games of playoffs in game two. The Yanks were down late in the game, 3-1 in the eighth, and Twins reliever Matt Guerrier shut the top of the order down into the ninth. Closer Joe Nathan had to square off against the MVP of the Yankees this season, Mark Teixeira, and the traditionally cold postseason bat of Alex Rodriguez. Teixeira led the ninth off with a single, and Rodriguez tied the game with a homer into the Yankees bullpen. The Twins looked as though they had the game in the bag, but the Yankees have been able to show the world that they’re capable of winning any game in any situation. Teixeira earned the title of player of the game in this one with an eleventh inning homerun to end it all and dash the hopes to a Twins team that could have tied the series only two innings prior. The Yankees won the first walk-off victory of the postseason against the Twins, and their second in the second round against the Angels.

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Nster.com