Ratings For The Little League World Series Are Way Up

Well, it's official, I have gone from being pulled in 25 different directions at once a few days ago to being bored out of my mind with nothing to do and putting up endless blog posts tonight. The latest one has to deal with the ratings of the Little League World Series. Good news Little League fans, ratings are up! From The Canadian Press

ESPN, which owns the broadcast rights, has said viewership for its opening weekend coverage was up about 60 per cent from last year's opening weekend. ESPN2 telecasts are up 137 per cent.

The increase could be in part due to the tournament not having to compete with the Summer Olympics, as it did last year. Still, viewership is up from 2007, especially on ESPN2.

The 2009 tournament has been aided by some big-market teams making big splashes: the run to the U.S. semifinals by a team from the borough of Staten Island drew a big New York City media contingent.

Teams from San Antonio and Chula Vista, Calif., a suburb of San Diego, are playing for the U.S. title.

Mercer Island, Wash., is a suburb of Seattle. Plus, Warner Robins, Ga., was back in Pennsylvania two years after winning the title.

Keener also theorized the increased attention may be in part due to the economy.

"People are probably at home more than at the beach," he said. "Maybe it's the economy that has forced people to something that they might not otherwise do - watching more television."

The estimated attendance through 28 games in the 2009 tournament is 299,634, already exceeding last year's total by about 10,000 fans with three more games still to be played this year.

This Little League World Series has been exciting as any, especially seeing as this year we have seen 2 of the best Little League games in quite some time (Japan-Curacao and Warner Robins, GA-Chula Vista, CA last night, despite the less than satisfying ending). The only concern that Little League will have, and it might be a big one, is the weather. There is rain in the forecast tomorrow for Williamsport, but it appears as if the later it gets to be, the less rain there will be. If there is a substantial delay, there might be a hit.

Also, I am thinking of possibly live blogging the games tomorrow, however, my roommate is moving in at around the time the games are on and that might greatly hinder my ability to live blog. I might start something up and just stop when he moves in or the updates will have to be less frequent. We'll see when the time rolls around, I guess.