Last week we examined a post about how the lack of Sox and Yankees games were hurting Baseball ratings and that in the next few months that's pretty much all we were going to get in the upcoming weekends. Well according to Barry Horn of the Dallas Morning News, you can add the Texas Rangers and the " Josh Hamilton Story" to the mix as well....
Just about the time Sports Illustrated plastered Hamilton on its June 2 cover, Fox began making inquiries about shuffling its Saturday afternoon schedule to accommodate a Rangers game or three. But the team smartly had little interest in moving the three subsequent pre-All-Star Game Saturday home games from evenings to broiling afternoons in Arlington.
Imagine the raised eyebrows from coast to coast had TV listings showed the Rangers hosting the then-first-place Rays on Fox's June 7 broadcast. What next, the Arizona Cardinals hosting the Detroit Lions on NBC S unday Night Football?
Still, Fox remains hard at work trying to find a place for the Rangers in the coming weeks.
"We have major interest," is the way Fox spokesman Dan Bell summed it up.
Over at ESPN, Hamilton is "our new hero." That's how Len DeLuca, senior vice president for programming, described the Rangers center fielder.
"The Rangers are in the center of our radar screen now as opposed to the periphery," DeLuca said. " Josh Hamilton put them there. Now the team has to continue winning games."Obviously the main weekend games are already set, but others can certainly be added and many of you in the midwest are usually the ones getting the third option on Saturdays. The story is wearing thin on real Baseball fans who have heard about it for the past few years, but for the weekend warriors it might actually pull in some viewers.
Hot air: Josh Hamilton adds to Texas Rangers' clout with networks (Dallas Morning News)
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