Slightly smaller crowd for All-Star Game

A sign held up by Pete Rose fan appealing to the MLB commissioner to let the former player into the Hall of Fame.

Last year’s Major League Baseball All-Star Game had Yankees great Derek Jeter playing in his final game.

This year’s game had a Mike Trout home run but nothing quite as historic as Jeter’s farewell. And so as you’d expect, viewership for the contest fell slightly from last year.

This year’s game averaged 10.9 million total viewers, according to Nielsen overnights, down 4 percent from last year’s 11.3 million.

It was still the biggest crowd for any sports all-star game this year.

And it should be the most-watched program of the week on broadcast, finishing just ahead of NBC’s popular “America’s Got Talent” last night.

Perhaps more interestingly, while total viewership fell, among core baseball fans ratings rose.

Men 18-34 (3.4) saw a small gain, up 3 percent, but among male teens 12-17, ratings soared by 19 percent, from a 2.1 to a 2.5.

Interestingly, the biggest ratings for the game did not come in Cincinnati, which hosted the 86^th annual contest, but in Kansas City, which sent the largest number of starters to the game.

Kansas City averaged a 31.4 household rating, compared with a 22.8 for Cincy.

Trout earned the game’s MVP award for the second straight year as the American League won 6-3.

But it was what happened on the field before the game that drew the most buzz. Pete Rose, MLB’s all-time hits leader who has been banned from the Hall of Fame for betting on baseball, was introduced as one of the hometown Reds’ four franchise players.

He drew big applause, with a small smattering of boos. Social media went nuts discussing whether Rose’s inclusion in the pregame ceremony was appropriate.

Tags: all-star game, fox, mlb, mlb all-star game, mlb ratings, sports tv