The Yankees and Mets are engaged in their fiercest battle since 2000 as they duke it out for Juan Soto, but there’s an entirely different off-field issue that the teams’ broadcasters are sparring over.
After YES Network’s Michael Kay hit out at Mets radio voice Howie Rose over his opposing stance on MLB’s “Golden at-bat” idea, the voice of the Mets posted a reply to X on Tuesday politely inviting Kay to “check the demo[graphics].”
“Here’s the thing,” Rose writes, “MLB viewership among young fans has risen over the past couple of years. Check the demos. This one’s a bridge too far for me…”
The X post includes a link to The Post’s story citing comments Kay made earlier Tuesday on his ESPN New York radio show.
“Is [the Golden at-bat rule] perfect? No. Would I sign off on it? I probably wouldn’t,” Kay said. “But imagine the outcry because a guy is trying to do something to juice a game that is trying to be juiced.”
The proposed Golden at-bat rule would allow a team to pick one at-bat during each game to send a hitter of their choice to the plate, even if it was not said hitter’s turn to bat.
As Kay said on Tuesday, he believes the rule would increase the game’s spectacle-factor.
“And all of the people who say this is like sacrilege … Guess what? We’ve got you. It’s the young people, we don’t have them. So we have to turn the ninth inning into an event where your best player is going up against the closer. And you see no value in that because nothing can change in baseball because it’s not a sport, it’s a religion.”
The Yankees broadcaster’s comments came one day after Rose responded to news of the proposed rule in post to X.
“Whaaaaat? Is this an April Fool’s joke in December? Come on,” Rose wrote on Dec. 2.
So, with all the context out of the way, what do the demographics say?
According to MLB.com, the median age of an MLB ticket buyer dropped by six years — from 51 to 45 — between 2024 and 2019. The report states that there has also been a 9.8% increase in ticket buyers aged 18-35.
In a separate report, the league said that, during the 2024 season, “MLB’s national television partners registered double digit growth in the ‘Adult 18-34’ category.’”
These findings run parallel to the MLB Fanscore Report, which surveyed 70,000 fans and was conducted by a marketing and technology company independent from Major League Baseball.
One key point from the Fanscore Report: 70% of MLB fans (118.8 million) became fans of their favorite team at or before age 17. That’s the highest mark among the four major North American leagues, with the NFL coming in at 66%, the NBA at 60%, and the NHL at 48%.
Fanscore attributes MLB’s outsized ranking to the fact that 39% of survey respondents who said they are baseball fans played some form of baseball or softball during their early youth.