The St. Louis Cardinals have welcomed news anchor Rafer Weigel to the Gateway City with open arms. If you consider Missouri a southern state, as many do, then you can call this “Southern Hospitality.” Weigel started his new job as KTVI News Anchor and reporter on October 7th. On his first day at the Fox affiliate, the Cards won the National League Division Series and advanced to the National League Championship Series.

On Weigel’s second day of work, this happened:

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As you obviously know, Tony Gwynn, who accumulated 3,141 hits during his MLBaseball career passed away yesterday at the age of 54 due to oral cancer. Gwynn was “Mr. Padre”, as he spent his entire entire career there. Here are photos of the San Diego Padres community paying their respects yesterday. He’s the greatest of all San Diego Padres players, as he batted .300 in each of his last 19 seasons, an MLB streak second only to Ty Cobb’s.

Cobb is the only player in MLB history to have more batting titles. His No. 19 was retired by the Padres in 2004, and a statue was erected in his honor at Petco Park. The west side of which is bordered by Tony Gwynn Drive. Coincidentally, I’m vacationing today in San Diego, and I made my way down the ballpark when I heard the news.

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Since Fox Sports and MLB didn’t honor Tony Gwynn tonight during the All-Star Game, here’s my tribute. It’s my photo collection from being in the city of San Diego on the day he died.

Tony Gwynn, who accumulated 3,141 hits during his Major League Baseball career passed away today at the age of 54. Gwynn was “Mr. Padre”, as he spent his entire entire career there. He was drafted by both the San Diego Padres and the San Diego Clippers out of San Diego State in the same week. So he’s Mr. San Diego in edition to being Mr. Padre. He tops the top ten list of all time Padres.

Tony Gwynn batted .300 in each of his last 19 seasons, an MLB streak second only to Ty Cobb’s. Cobb is the only player in MLB history to have more batting titles. His No. 19 was retired by the Padres in 2004, and a statue was erected in his honor at Petco Park. The west side of which is bordered by Tony Gwynn Drive.

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Whether you love or hate (or find apathy for) the All-Star Game, you have to realize it’s in serious long-term peril. While you’re entitled to your own opinion, you’re not entitled to your own facts. And here are some critical numbers and interpretation of those All-Star game numbers from Richard Deitsch of Sports Illustrated:

Viewership for the All-Star Game is hemorrhaging and in more unpleasant news for Fox Sports, the All-Star Game viewers are also getting older. A brief snapshot of the downward trend: The game drew 28.2 million viewers in 1985. Twelve years later, the first time Fox aired the game, viewership dropped to 16.7 million viewers. The audience fell to 12.3 million in 2005 and last year the game drew 11.0 million viewers, up slightly (10.9 million) from 2012. Last year’s viewership increase stopped a three-year decline in viewership but the game concluded as the third-least watched MLB All-Star Game in history.

Perhaps most disturbing: Sports Business Daily reported the average age for last year’s All-Star telecast was 53, the highest mark yet for the game. Given the 18-to-49 adult demo is the money demo for sports broadcasting, this is not a good trend.

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Jose Abreu gives you a reason to watch Chicago baseball this year. And from the looks of the near empty stadiums and the numbers showing the televisions turned off/on to something else other than Chicago Cubs and Chicago White Sox games, it’s obvious that very few of you are indeed watching Chicago baseball. Can’t say I blame you as 2013 was the worst combined season for the Cubs and Sox — ever.

Well, some of you watched the Sox on one particular night, inadvertently dressed as Ku Klux Klansmen, but I’m sure the Sox marketing person who green lighted that has been fired, so let’s move on.

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