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Poll Indicates Fans Don't Like Baseball's DH Rule

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When the Boston Red Sox beat the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series, the 2018 season came to an end.  Since 1973, the sport has had to determine how to use the DH when the National League faces the American League.  Since 1986, the league has used the rules of the home team.  So when an American League team is home, the game uses a DH, and vice versa in the National League park.

According to a recent Seton Hall Sports Poll, fans don’t love how that is played out. Only 11% of people surveyed in this month's Seton Hall Sports Poll like it the way it is currently played. 47% were divided almost equally on whether they prefer the DH in all games (25%) or in no games (22%).  41% said they did not know or had no opinion.

This past summer, the DH debate was discussed at the Owners meetings. "I think that is a continuing source of conversation among the ownership group and I think that the dialogue actually probably moved a little bit,” said Commissioner Rob Manfred at those meetings.

Ratings for this past World Series weren’t awful, they also weren’t fantastic either. Over five games, the 2018 Series averaged 14.3 million viewers. That’s 23% less than the first five games of the 2017 average of 18.7 million viewers.

In fairness, the 2017 World series–which also featured the Dodgers–ran all the way to Game 7 so the comparison is an imperfect one. This year was also the least watched World Series since 2014, when the San Francisco Giants and the Kansas City Royals averaged 13.9 million viewers over seven games.

The Seton Hall Sports Poll asked the 65% of respondents who said they did not watch the World Series why they did not watch.  Of that group, 46% said they had no interest in baseball, only 11% cited no interest in the Boston Red Sox or Los Angeles Dodgers in particular.

Ratings indicate that this 2018 World Series is the fourth-least watched since 2010.  The largest audience was in 2016 when the Chicago Cubs ended their curse against the Cleveland Indians.  That series averaged 22.9 million viewers thanks to the Cubs ending their historic 100-plus year “curse.”

"That response is a good one for MLB,” noted Rick Gentile, director of the poll.  “It says that the teams involved don't really cause diminished interest."

During the World Series, Dodgers 3B Manny Machado was accused of sign stealing by the Red Sox. The poll revealed that only 31% of fans said that Machado should be punished. 42% of respondents called it "no big deal."

However, the poll noted that when it comes to recruiting violations in collegiate sports, 76% said that the school should be punished and 15% said it was "no big deal."

"Sign stealing on the pro level is considered business as usual," said Gentile.  "It gets a shrug.  But when it regards the future of our high school athletes moving into college, cheating is a big deal.  And that's a good thing."

The Seton Hall Sports Poll has been conducted regularly since 2006. This particular poll also targets topics involving football and women’s sports issues.