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World Series’ big 2009 ratings go beyond presence of New York Yankees

While the New York Yankees were largely responsible for the World Series’ strong ratings this year, there were other reasons Fox drew big numbers for the event, Toni Fitzgerald writes. Fitzgerald writes that one must also credit Major League Baseball and adjustments it has made to the scheduling of Series games the past two years. "The effects were not evident last year, when the Series generated among the worst ratings in recent years because of a poor matchup of teams, the Philadelphia Phillies and Tampa Bay Rays," Fitzgerald writes. "But they were this year. The Yankees-Phillies matchup finished with an average 19.4 million total viewers, the best since the Boston Red Sox snapped an 86-year dry spell in 2004."
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