This year's World Series will be remembered for the Cardinals' scintillating comeback after twice teetering just one pitch away from being eliminated in Game 6 before rallying to win, then claiming the title the next night to cap a fairy-tale run after being left for dead in late August.
But what has been the most grossly under-publicized aspect of the Series — in fact in all of sports this year, and maybe many years — was Albert Pujols' epic performance in Game 3. He simply turned in the most impressive offensive display in Fall Classic history, when he tied the Series record for homers (three), hits (five), RBIs (six) and had 14 total bases to snap that mark.
It happened on a Saturday night and afterward the biggest story on ESPN and ESPN.com was Michigan State's victory over Wisconsin on a Hail Mary deflected pass. The next Monday, when the national gabfest circuit was in full voltage, the attention turned to Tim Tebow leading Denver from a big deficit to beat Miami — in a battle of NFL teams that had a combined 1-9 record beforehand.
Could you imagine the massive attention Pujols' night would have received if the Yankees' Alex Rodriguez or Derek Jeter had done that? How about the Red Sox' David Ortiz or Adrian Gonzalez?
It would have been chronicled as not only the best outing in baseball, it would have been compared ad nauseam to perhaps being the best performance ever in sports. But the feat has been relegated to almost footnote status. Little has been made about it nationally even in the Series' aftermath.
Other than the East Coast bias in much of network television coverage, the lack of coverage might have been affected by few people seeing it live. The Nielsen Co. says only 6.6 percent of the nation's homes with a TV were tuned in, making it the second-lowest rated World Series game in records that date to 1971. And it drew the lowest rating in St. Louis of any of the seven contests.
Contributing factors undoubtedly were that the game ended up as a blowout (Cards won 16-7), there was scintillating college football action on TV elsewhere and the game was played on a Saturday — traditionally the least-watched night of programming.
Bottom line
The Series was a big jackpot for many local businesses, including the three stations that carried live game broadcasts.
KTVI (Channel 2), the local Fox affiliate, cashed in as it televised all the games. Spencer Koch, who runs that station as well as KPLR (Channel 11), estimates that KTVI's revenue during the Series was 70 percent above what it would have been without the games given that the station also had a lot of local coverage wrapping around the network feed.
"It was very lucrative, but you have to invest money, too,'' he said. "A lot of overtime went into producing all that. But it was money well spent, it was like seven Super Bowls spread over 12 days.''
The ratings far exceeded Koch's projections and culminated with 89 percent of area homes with a TV in use tuned in when the final out was made according to Nielsen — astounding in this era of 500-channel television.
KMOX (1120 AM) carried the local radio coverage and in a twist the Cards won the Series for the second time in a row in their first season after switching outlets in the market. They also were champs in 2006, their first of five years at KTRS (550 AM).
"To win the World Series the first year back on KMOX was special for us and for Cardinal Nation,'' said John Sheehan, who runs the station. "... KMOX (advertising) sold out quickly. ... Playoff baseball brings advertisers in that wouldn't otherwise advertise in St. Louis and I think the entire radio community saw a lift. KMOX is having a good year and our partnership with the Cardinals has been a big part of it.''
WXOS (101.1 FM) had the national radio play-by-play feed and its general manager, John Kijowski, was ecstatic.
"The postseason was tremendous for us,'' he said, adding that the 70 percent revenue boost KTVI says it gained translated to his station, too, "if not more. It was a very good run.''
Trade bradford?
The Rams were somewhat lost in the Cards hoopla but something said on ESPN during the Series still is worthy of attention. Its NFL draft guru Mel Kiper said that if the Rams end up with the top pick they should trade quarterback Sam Bradford, who they took with the No. 1 selection two seasons ago, and grab Stanford QB Andrew Luck.
"Andrew Luck is going to have the highest grade I've given to a QB since John Elway — now no one's ever gotten a 10, but Elway was the closest,'' Kiper said on "SportsCenter,'' adding that ''it's the highest rating I've given to any player, any position in my 35 years of doing this. Luck's going to be close, if not right there, with John Elway. Sam Bradford was not to that level. I think it's a no-brainer. If you're St. Louis and you're picking No. 1, you look for takers for Sam Bradford, you hope you get multiple high picks and you draft Andrew Luck.''
Fellow talent analyst Todd McShay didn't quite agree.
"It wouldn't be my Plan A,'' he said. "My Plan A would be to see what I could get for that pick.''
IN the BOOTHS
Missouri at Baylor, 6 p.m. Saturday, FSM — Joel Meyers (play-by-play), Brian Baldinger (analysis), Jim Knox (reporter).
Rams at Cards, 3:15 p.m. Sunday, KTVI (2) — Sam Rosen (play-by-play), Chad Pennington (analysis), Jody Jackson (reporter).
