OTM Open Thread 11/6: It sure looks like the Dodgers are good for baseball

Good morning! A fun note for anyone who is convinced that either (1) baseball is dying, or (2) the Dodgers are killing interest in the sport, necessitating the implementation of a salary cap: The 2026 World Series smashed ratings expectations across the board, and Game 7 was the most-watched baseball game in 34 years.

And note that the ratings success was not merely a function of expanded Canadian and Japanese audiences. In the US alone, 16.1 million people watched each game on average, which was an increase over last year’s dream Yankees-Dodgers matchup.

It is a blatant lie that forced parity and wage suppression lead to popularity, as anyone who has ever heard of college football or soccer can tell you. What consumer behavior actually shows us is that what people want from televised sp