THURSDAY TIDBITS

NOVEMBER 6, 2025

THE FANS WERE EVERYONE WAS WATCHING BASEBALL

This year’s World Series averaged 15.71 million viewers, the best average viewership for a World Series since 2017, when Houston and L.A. played a seven-game series that averaged 18.9 million viewers. The Series was up two percent over last year’s five-game Dodgers-New York Yankees series.

Game 7 was the most-watched World Series game since Game 7 in 2017 between the Astros and Dodgers.

Game 7 was the largest Saturday live sports audience — excluding the NFL and the Olympics — since the Yankees clinched the 1996 World Series against the Atlanta Braves.

In Canada, Game 7 was the most-watched English-language broadcast on record in Canada outside of the 2010 Winter Olympics, which were held in Vancouver.

In Japan, despite a 9 a.m. local start time, Game 6 was the most-watched World Series game on a single network in the country's history.

Richard Deitsch of The Athletic wrote that the combined North American audience for Game 7 was “an incredible 38.2 million viewers.”

ESPN Terminates Betting Partnership With PENN Entertainment

I saw the headline above and felt a rush of positivity. Now, there’s a step in the right direction.

Wrong again.

The story is that ESPN is winding down a betting partnership with PENN Entertainment and will segue to a deal with DraftKings.

And that is wrong again.

I’m not some old guy yelling at kids to get off my lawn. I really don’t care where they play. I just don’t want them gambling while they are doing it.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“When baseball is played well in high-stakes games, it provides indelible moments frozen in time, easily summoned decades later.” - Dan Shaughnessy, Boston Globe 11/5/2025

Dan Shaughnessy of the Boston Globe will always be one of my favorite columnists. Even though I haven’t lived in Boston for 10 years, I still make sure I read him regularly. In his column yesterday, he referred to his grandkids, which I don’t recall him doing before. But that could be my addled brain. I just loved this little bit of the column that addressed the greatness of Game 7 of the Series.

“For me, the best part was learning that three of my grandsons stayed up to watch a baseball game that wouldn’t end till after midnight.

One night earlier, all three went trick-or-treating dressed as their favorite ballplayers. The 8-year-old went out as Freddie Freeman. His cousins, ages 9 and 7, wore the jerseys of Alex Bregman and Ceddanne Rafaela.

I don’t know who bagged the most Reese’s peanut butter cups, but all were rewarded with a hall pass for Game 7. They could stay up for the whole game, even though it would end long past bedtime.

Good parenting, I’d say.”

I agree.

FRANK ROBINSON ON BARRY BONDS

In 2014, when asked by Jeremy Schaap on ESPN’s “Outside the Lines,” who is baseball’s all-time home run king, Robinson said, “Hank Aaron. I don’t think Hank Aaron had any help. He did it naturally. And I really don’t think that Barry Bonds did it naturally. I can’t sit here and say I have proof. I don’t. But I have eyes. I played the game. I know what it takes to hit home runs.”

One of the four Robinsons in the Hall of Fame, Frank adamantly believed that neither Bonds nor Pete Rose belongs in the Hall of Fame.

Trivial question: Can you name the four Robinsons in the HOF? (answer below)