Fox believes the numbers add up

The two National League Championship Series games that were rained out didn't help. Neither did the fact that a team minus pitching ace Pedro Martínez was facing the St. Louis Cardinals. No offense to the organization that once boasted Stan Musial, Bob Gibson, and Mark McGwire, but the Midwest is not known as a Nielsen ratings grabber. Add to that two of the marquee teams, the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees, were sent packing in the first round.

Yet Fox Sports president Ed Goren was still happy yesterday because the Mets had stretched the NLCS to a seventh game.

``I think commissioner [Bud] Selig said it very well the other day when he said the early numbers are down, but you don't know how long the series will go," Goren said on a conference call promoting the World Series, which Fox begins airing tomorrow night. ``And [the numbers are] going to be down just a tad, really just a percentage point or two from last year.

``Looking ahead to the World Series, our ratings people say a New York-Detroit series, game for game, would potentially outrate a St. Louis-Detroit series. But having said that, it's more about the volume than about the matchup."

So a seventh game would delight him, just like it did last night.

Fox analyst Tim McCarver said it really didn't matter which team advanced to play the Tigers. (The Cardinals advanced with a 3-1 win over the Mets.)

``What's intriguing is that whoever wins goes to Detroit and will be the underdog, and here Detroit was such a prohibitive underdog against the Yankees, and now they are cast as favorites in the World Series," said McCarver. ``They went from one extreme to the other in a period of about 10 days."

We can't help but think Fox is being overly optimistic, though. The Division Series games averaged a 4.9 rating, down from last year's 6.6. The NLCS games have been equally lackluster, as last Friday night's game drew a 6.1 (lower than NBC game shows ``1 vs. 100" and ``Deal or No Deal"), Saturday's drew a 5.7, and Sunday night's (6.4) was no match for ``60 Minutes" on CBS (12.9) or ABC's ``Desperate Housewives" (13.6).

On the other hand, baseball was very good to NESN. It was the highest-rated regional sports network for baseball for the third straight year, and its average rating was almost 20 percent higher than the No. 2 network (Fox Sports Midwest in St. Louis). NESN also had the top-rated baseball program 83 times this season.

``Red Sox fans are far and away the most passionate, loyal fans in the country," said NESN president Sean McGrail.

It's one thing to put your foot in your mouth. But doing it with a microphone in front of you is asking for trouble. Fox baseball analyst Steve Lyons learned that last Friday while bantering with Lou Piniella. Lyons thought his remarks were funny, but Fox executives thought they were racially insensitive and directed at Piniella's Hispanic heritage, and showed Lyons the door.

He was done with the NLCS broadcasts, but that didn't mean he was silenced. He told his story Monday to Glenn Ordway on WEEI's ``The Big Show," then to Todd Feinberg on WRKO later that night. The next morning, Lyons made his case on ``Mike & Mike in the Morning" on ESPN Radio.

Then there's Lamar Thomas, the former University of Miami player who was told to put down his mike by Comcast Sports Southeast. Thomas was fired over comments he made during a brawl between the Hurricanes and Florida International University last Saturday night, even once threatening to join in the melee.

And finally, Ray Dunlap, a pit reporter for Speed Channel's NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series telecasts, has been suspended for this weekend's race at Martinsville, Va., after taking issue with a claim that 10 percent of NASCAR fans are Hispanic, and then making jokes on the topic on the air.

Familiar voices Sean McDonough and Ted Sarandis will be back on the air Sunday from 7-10 p.m. on WTKK, filling in for the vacationing Eddie Andelman on the ``New Sports Huddle." . . . Mum's the word from both Sunbeam stations, but speculation is that Larry Ridley, sports anchor at Miami's WSVN-TV, is coming north to work at WHDH-TV and fill the void left when Wendi Nix moved on to ESPN. Ridley, a Nashville native, worked at a station in Mississippi before joining WSVN last year . . . Doug Flutie will join hosts Kevin Winter and Russ Francis every Sunday on 890 ESPN Radio's ``NFL Countdown," which airs from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Flutie's segment will run at 11:20.

Susan Bickelhaupt can be reached at bickelhaupt@globe.com.