Courtesy the Dallas Morning News

(August 16, 2010) Rangers television ratings have spiked since the All-Star break, and this week's abbreviated Yankees series proved the team's best ever on cable.

Wednesday night's loss to the Yankees earned the American League West leaders their highest-ever rating for a game on Fox Sports Southwest. Not only that, their record 9.3 rating, which translates into 9.3 percent of the Dallas-Fort Worth market's 2,544,410 homes with televisions, was the highest-rated program in the cable network's history. The old leader in the cable clubhouse was an 8.2 for a Lakers-Mavericks game in March 2002.

The 9.3 shattered the previous Rangers cable record of 8.0, which lasted about 24 hours. It was set in Tuesday's victory over the Yankees. That's a 16 percent increase in one night, and 35 percent better than the previous record of 6.9 established in a September 1998 game against the Angels.

Here's wishing all your 401Ks such an increase.

With local sports ratings such a hot topic and visions of October baseball in Arlington, let's take a fun look at some of the locals' postseason ratings over the last two decades. It should remind that bandwagon jumpers are always welcome.

Rangers

In their first and most prolonged postseason, the four games against the Yankees in 1996 bounced between KDFW (Channel 4), KXAS (Channel 5) and KXTX (Channel 39). The ALDS averaged a 24.9 rating here and a 16.2 in New York. Alas, the Yankees won where it really matters, on the field, three games to one.

By 1999, the third and last time the Rangers reached the playoffs against the Yankees, one-third of the postseason audience disappeared. The three-game average dropped to 16.3.

Regular-season ratings traditionally hover from 2.0 to 3.0. And that's a good season.

Cowboys

In their last NFL championship victory, over the Steelers in Super Bowl XXX in January 1996, they scored a 58.5. That was a smidge better than the 58.0 they posted in the victory over the Bills in Super Bowl XXVIII and almost a whole point better than the 57.3 for their blowout of the Bills in Super Bowl XXVII.

Most unusual about the three games in four seasons was that all were broadcast by NBC, which means KXAS (Ch. 5) reaped the rewards.

Regular-season ratings usually hit the high 20s for yucky opponents and in the mid- to upper-30s for NFC East and glamour teams.

Mavericks

In Game 6 of the 2006 NBA Finals against the Heat, they pulled a 39.6 on WFAA (Channel 8). The series averaged a 34.6.

For the fateful Game 3 in Miami, when the Heat came back from being 13 points behind with six minutes remaining, the number was 34.0.

The Mavericks' first-round exit against the Spurs this season averaged 10.2.

As with all the teams, regular-season ratings fluctuate with the won-loss record. This season, they averaged 3.4 over the air on KTXA (Ch. 21) and 2.5 on Fox Sports Net.

Stars

In Game 6 of the 1999 Stanley Cup Finals, the last championship won by a local team, the Stars averaged 19.5 locally on ESPN.

At 12:32 a.m. Dallas time, when Brett Hull scored the game-winning goal in the third overtime, the rating was 22.1. That was not the highest-rated period of the night. That came between 10:15 and 10:45 p.m., when the rating peaked at 24.0. Apparently, some viewers chose sleep over history.

The series was split between ESPN and Fox. The three games on ESPN averaged 16.6. The three games on Fox (Channel 4) averaged a 25.2 rating.

In 2007-2008, the last season they made the playoffs, they averaged 1.9 for their opening-round victory over the Ducks; picked it up to 2.7 against the Sharks; and dropped to 2.4 in the Western Conference Finals loss to the Red Wings.

All the series went six games, which were televised by Fox Sports Southwest and Versus and over the air by KDFI (Channel 27) and Channel 5.

The Stars would be happy if they could get back to consistent 1.0 ratings.

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