AROUND THE HORN THURSDAY
A LITTLE BIT OF EVERYTHING
SPORTS MAKE UP 96 OF TOP 100 TELECASTS IN 2025
According to SBJ, the Sports and Business Journal, sports accounted for 96 of the 100 most-watched shows of 2025. That tied with 2023 for a record number and increased from 87 during the Olympic and election year of 2024. Football games -- college and the NFL -- made up 92 of this year’s top 100 telecasts. The overwhelming majority of them will come from the NFL (an estimated 84 games).
MLB put two World Series games in the top 100 with Games 6 and 7 of the Dodgers-Blue Jays Fall Classic. That’s the first time since 2019 that MLB has two spots in the top 100.
SBJ is a publication of Street & Smith. When I was a kid, this was around the time of the season when I started patrolling magazine stores for Street & Smith’s Baseball Yearbook magazine. I would read it cover-to-cover, then start over. Take a look at the articles in this edition and remember there was no such thing as the internet in those days, and you can see why I was hooked.
IF YOU SPEND IT, THEY WILL COME
I really don’t care who you root for (I really don’t), I just like to tell you about things in baseball that give you a reason to root. For example, is there any reason to root for a penurious team that chooses not to provide quality and entertaining players to their fan base because they are too damn greedy (or cheap)? I prefer to commend teams like the San Diego Padres.
May I remind you that the Padres live in the same division as the Los Angeles Behemoths? But does that stop them from acquiring players that still give them a chance to win the NL West? No, it doesn’t. The Friars have not won the division since they went back-to-back in 2005 and 2006. They have not played in the World Series since 1998. And do you know how many world championships they have won since their creation in 1969? To use Jayson Stark’s favorite phrase in his classic “Strange, but True” stories in The Athletic, “Right you are. That would be none!”
I bring this up because yesterday, the San Diegans announced that the Padres have set a new franchise record for season ticket memberships, eclipsing the previous mark set in 2025, and Memberships for the 2026 season are sold out for a fourth consecutive year. All remaining tickets for the 2026 season are now available only on a single-game basis.
Look at the five teams with over three million in attendance in 2025:
Here are the four teams in 2024:
And the five teams in 2023:
The Dodgers, Phillies, and Padres are the only three teams to appear in each of the last three years. Each of those teams has not been afraid to spend, and each has been rewarded with loyal fan bases.
THE LAS VEGAS ATHLETICS HAVE NO TRADEMARK
For the second time, the Athletics has been denied the “Las Vegas Athletics” and “Vegas Athletics” trademarks by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The half-assed John Fisher, who owns the half-assed franchise, screwed this up like he screwed the fans in Oakland (tell us how you really feel, Billy-Ball).
The A’s were told the nickname “Athletics” was too generic and could be confused with other activities, even though it is associated with Las Vegas, which it is not. That has been the club's nickname since the Philadelphia Athletics began playing in 1901, and it worked when they moved to Kansas City in 1955 and Oakland in 1968. “The marks in the prior registrations do not support the applicant’s claim of acquired distinctiveness because they are not the same marks,” the case document reads.
The team is playing solely under "Athletics" while playing in West Sacramento, California. The USPTO argues “athletics” is an overarching term that is too broad to be trademarked.
The best part of the story is that the Oakland A’s fan group, Last Dive Bar, filed for the trademark BEFORE anyone else did. The Last Dive Bar consists of three friends determined to make life difficult for Fisher. You can support their efforts by buying their merch.
You can livestream the construction of the park in Vegas, scheduled to open in 2028, on the site of the former Tropicana Hotel.
WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC CAPS
My favorite is the Netherlands.
HERE’S A QUIZ
This one might be a stretch, but I think you may know it.
Which Hall of Famer had his only two-triple game in his very first MLB game?
HINTS:
He played a total of 2588 games and tripled in 45 of them, but his debut game was the only time he hit into more than one.
He hit those two triples off a Hall of Fame pitcher.
He was the Rookie of the Year that season.
