This year’s ALCS between Orioles and Royals will be revered by die-hard baseball fans, but hated by TV executives.
The Baltimore Orioles and the Kansas City Royals will meet in the American League Championship Series later this week.
Yes, you read that right.
Baseball fans will be treated to quite the interesting matchup, but there’s one big question lingering in the heads of television executives: will anyone watch it?
The Royals, after 29 consecutive years without a playoff appearance, are plowing through the postseason with dramatic wins thanks to clutch hitting and incredible base-running. The Orioles ran through the AL East this year, winning their first division title since 1997, in addition to taking down three straight Cy Young winners in the ALDS when they took down the Detroit Tigers and pitchers Max Scherzer, Justin Verlander and David Price.
The Orioles and Royals have their die-hard fans without any doubts (I myself am a lifelong Orioles fan), but there’s still some obvious reasons about the appeal of this series to a casual baseball fan.
First of all, this series lacks obvious star power from either team that would draw the casual baseball fan to their TV.
The die-hard baseball fan certainly knows about the great stories of players like Royals third baseman Mike Moustakas — who was demoted to the minor leagues earlier in the season, only to appear in the postseason and hit the go-ahead homerun in Game 1 of the ALDS.
For the Orioles, first baseman Steve Pearce — who was released by the Orioles earlier in the season — came back to play a huge role in filling the multitude of holes in the Orioles’ roster.
With this series, it lacks the superstar names like Mike Trout, Derek Jeter, David Ortiz and Miguel Cabrera. Casual baseball fans wouldn’t be tuning in to the series for these individual superstars, but rather for the interesting narratives and storylines.
TV executives have to be wondering if this is enough for people to tune in.
The executives’ main concern has to be the size of the markets, though.
At just over two million in the city and metro area, Kansas City is one of the smallest markets in all of professional sports. Baltimore isn’t much better, topping off at 2.6 million, which is also shared with Washington D.C.. These two markets are certainly guaranteed to watch, but TV executives hope that this series draws other markets.
Will New York and Boston watch their rivals and will Detroit watch theirs? Will larger markets like Los Angeles and San Francisco tune in to scout their potential World Series opponents?
Well, they should.
Just because this matchup doesn’t feature the usual cast of characters like the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox or Detroit Tigers, it doesn’t mean it’ll be any less entertaining.
Embrace this remarkable series.
Are you a fan of the Colorado Rockies, Houston Astros, Seattle Mariners or any other team who has struggled over the last few years? Well, look at what’s happened. Two teams who struggled for more than a decade are now facing each other for a spot in the World Series.
I’ll be watching and you should be too. The TV executives will thank you.
@efelderstein14
ef684013@ohio.edu
