If only viewers found Yankees games as interesting as the soap opera now surrounding the team perhaps YES Network’s ratings wouldn’t be so down.
Slugger Alex Rodriguez says he is trying to get back in the Yankees lineup and seems to believe the team is intentionally keeping him out of it with the Biogenesis scandal swirling around him. If A-Rod can actually get back on the field again, perhaps the viewers will return.
With Rodriguez and fellow stars Derek Jeter, Mark Teixeira and Curtis Granderson all missing all or most of the season, YES has seen a 39 percent drop in viewership. This is despite the fact the patchwork team has remained competitive in the AL East and wild-card races.
Through Monday night’s loss to the Rangers, Yankees games had averaged a 2.50 rating — down from 4.10 at this time last year. There had been a steady decline from the 4.60 they earned in 2009, the year of their most recent World Series championship.
The Mets have experienced a similar, though less severe, decline on SNY with their ratings down 30 percent from this time last year going from 2.61 to 1.82. There’s no great mystery why as the team has spent most of the year under .500. Though recent seasons have ended bitterly, they have started off successfully.
The positive is the uptick that has occurred when Matt Harvey (1.96 rating) and Zack Wheeler (2.34 rating) start. The significant advantage Wheeler holds is likely because of the small sample size of starts he has had. The Mets are plotting their future around those young arms and their emergence, particular Harvey’s, has now become the prevailing story line with the Bernie Madoff mess slowly subsiding.
Harvey’s starts have created a buzz the team has not seen since it was a consistent contender from the late ’90’s to the mid-2000’s. The rest of the team has yet to match Harvey’s performance, though.
Youth is not the prominent word around the Yankees as all the previously mentioned injured players are on the downside of their careers. The team is working toward getting under the $189 million luxury tax threshold starting next season and the four years and $86 million left on Rodriguez’s massive 10-year, $275 million deal could make it difficult for the Yankees to pursue big names in free agency.
Everyone understood Rodriguez would be on the decline at this part of his career, but the hope was his pursuit of home-run history would put viewers in front of their TVs and fans in The Bronx. Now that seems unlikely as the Yankees slugger is in the midst of a lost season and declining numbers, even if he gets back on the field.
The Yankees are expected to get Jeter back this weekend and Granderson may not be far behind. Perhaps a pennant race and the return of some big names could bolster the numbers late in the season.
jterranova@nypost.com