Baseball whomps debate in TV ratings

In the battle between playoff baseball and presidential politics, it's no contest.

Fox News Channel reported this morning that the Republican debate Sunday night drew about 2.5 million viewers, including nearly 800,000 in the 25-54 age group.

But Game 7 of the American League championship series between the Red Sox and Cleveland Indians drew about 19 million viewers to Fox. The two events overlapped for about the first hour of the game, which was the highest-rated game since Game 7 of the 2004 ALCS between the Sox and Yankees.

It's a good bet that those numbers were even more skewed in Red Sox Nation, despite the presence of former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney on the debate stage.

Still, Fox News Channel trumpeted its viewership, noting that the debate was also up against Sunday Night Football on NBC. It also said that nearly 48,000 viewers sent text messages of who they thought won the debate, nearly 3,000 more than after the last Fox News Channel GOP debate in New Hampshire last month.

In that very unscientific survey, Ron Paul, who has an outsized following on the web, won with 34 percent, ahead of Mike Huckabee with 27 percent, Rudy Giuliani with 11 percent, Romney with 10 percent, Fred Thompson with 9 percent, and John McCain with 5 percent.