With MLB and ESPN’s eight-year, multi platform rights extension taking place this season, additional baseball coverage will be brought to the World Wide Leader. This includes a wild-card playoff game and ten more regular season games.
MLB Commissioner Bud Selig says teams in smaller markets will get to show their product to the country, and the world, more often this season.
“Baltimore, who I think has an extraordinarily competitive team this year and will be — I think ESPN just fits into the local group, the rest of our national, and I think it helps clubs,” Bud Selig said.
The Baltimore Orioles, as well as the Pittsburgh Pirates have started to win again. Not only does this bring more fans out to the ballpark, but also it gives the casual Orioles fans, for example, a chance to see their team play in the national spotlight.
As much as Chicago baseball fans want to hear the voices of Ken “The Hawk” Harrelson and Len Kasper, they hope their teams can compete and become exposed to the national audience as well. The Cubs will have just two games aired on ESPN’s national broadcast this season. The White Sox are completely shutout.
However, this isn’t all ESPN’s fault. If you’re deciding what games to put on television for a wide variety of fans, who wants to see a potential 90+ loss team? Both the Cubs and White Sox could reach this mark, as fans already know.
“We know we’re going to get the best ratings if we put the Yankees and the Dodgers and the Red Sox on television, and we had good conversations in our negotiations about a player like Andrew McCutchen,” ESPN President John Skipper said.
While fans complain that ESPN has too much of an East Coast bias, if the Yankees and Red Sox are destroying the competition, why shouldn’t their games be broadcast on ESPN? For both the Cubs and White Sox, the solution is simple: win more games and you’ll be on national television. Chicago is a big market. Bud Selig, ESPN etc. all know that. If the local teams can turn it around, the national audience will be there for them beyond Bud Selig’s tenure as Commissioner.