Since 2003 the All-Star game has counted, and the winning league gets home-field advantage. A completely idiotic attempt by Bud Selig to make the game more interesting by instituting a dumb new rule. In that time, the game has seen some of its worst ratings. This year, it hit rock-bottom with a 7.5, the lowest rated All-Star game ever.Here's breakdown of the ratings over the last 14 years from The Biz of Baseball. I've put the games that "counted" in bold.
'10 | Fox | Anaheim | 7.5 |
'09 | Fox | St. Louis | 8.9 |
'08 | Fox | N.Y.* | 8.6 |
'07 | Fox | S.F. | 8.4 |
'06 | Fox | Pittsburgh | 9.3 |
'05 | Fox | Detroit | 8.1 |
'04 | Fox | Houston | 8.8 |
'03 | Fox | Chicago | 9.5 |
'02 | Fox | Milwaukee | 9.5 |
'01 | Fox | Seattle | 11.0 |
'00 | NBC | Atlanta | 10.1 |
'99 | Fox | Boston | 12.0 |
'98 | NBC | Denver | 13.3 |
'97 | Fox | Cleveland | 11.8 |
Congrats Bud, not only does your rule suck from a baseball standpoint, but it's not helping the ratings either.
