Baseball playoffs score high for Sportsnet

I received an email last week from a reader commenting on my recent Toronto Star column regarding Rogers Sportsnet's decision to keep a baseball playoff game from Ontario viewers. ``Nobody cares about baseball," the writer told me. ``Who cares?"

Well, judging by the weekend ratings, a lot of people still care about the grand old game. Or is it the national pastime? Whatever it is, it's alive an well with three Sportsnet games scoring more than 500,000 viewers even though not all of the games were on all four channels.

Also doing well is the CFL, which again finished second only to hockey. Not doing so well, sadly, is Toronto FC. The team's key game against San Jose on Saturday drew a paltry 145,000 viewers to CBC -- 31,000 fewer than the number who watched an under-20 World Cup quarterfinal between Germany and Brazil the same day.

Here are the top-rated shows on English-Canadian television, as supplied by BBM overnight ratings:

1. NHL: Penguins at Leafs, Saturday, CBC: 1,686,000

2. NHL: Canadiens at Oilers, Saturday, CBC: 1,004,000

3. CFL: Blue Bombers at Tiger-Cats, Monday, TSN: 949,000

4. CFL: Lions at Eskimos, Friday, TSN: 824,000

5. NFL: Early games, Sunday, CTV: 762,000

6. NFL: Jets at Dolphins, Monday, TSN: 759,000

7. CFL: Stampeders at Alouettes, Monday, TSN: 722,000

8. CFL: Argonauts at Roughriders, Saturday, TSN: 698,000

9. MLB: Twins at Yankees, Friday, Sportsnet: 638,000*

10. MLB: Yankees at Twins, Sunday, Sportsnet: 620,500

11. MLB: Red Sox at Angels, Friday, Sportsnet: 587,000

12. NFL: Colts at Titans, Sunday, TSN: 502,000**

13. Golf: Presidents Cup final round, Sunday, TSN: 476,000**

14. NHL Hockey Night In Canada pre-game, Saturday, CBC: 447,000

15. NFL: Patriots at Broncos, Sunday, City: 385,000

* Sportsnet East, Ontario and West only

** Viewers for NBC not calculated.