Consider that Sunday and Monday, only one MLB team — the Philadelphia Phillies— managed to outdraw its local NFL counterpart on local TV. Even the Yankees couldn't completely win New Yorkers' hearts and TV remotes. Consider:

•Sunday's TBS Tampa Bay Rays-Texas Rangers drew 11.1% of households in the Tampa area. But the NFL Buccaneers, playing Cincinnati on Fox in the same time slot, drew 15.1%.

In the Dallas area, that MLB game drew 9.7% of local households while the NFL Cowboys — playing Tennessee on CBS in a later time slot — drew a local Dallas TV rating more than three times bigger —34.1%.

•Sunday's TBS San Francisco Giants-Atlanta Braves game drew 12.7% in Atlanta. The Falcons, playing earlier in the afternoon at Cleveland on Fox, drew 20.3%

The MLB/NFL gap was almost as big in San Francisco Sunday night when the Giants drew 12.7% locally. But the winless 49ers — albeit on prime time on NBC— drew 19% of Bay Area households.

•The Yankees, albeit in ratings matchups with the NFL that weren't head-to-head, didn't homer. Games in their sweep of the Minnesota Twins averaged 11.9% in the New York area. That topped the 11.3% that the New York Giants drew locally playing at Houston on Fox. But the Jets, in prime time against the Vikings Monday, drew 15.8% in New York.

It was no contest in the Minneapolis area. After the Twins averaged 22% of local households in their series, Monday's Vikings game drew more than double the households —45.7%

Only the Phillies, locally drawing 27.7% in Sunday prime time compared to the Eagles getting 24.1%, emerged as weekend NFL dragon-slayers.

That the big-market Yanks and Phils are still alive should help going forward. But TBS' first-round MLB games are averaging a diminutive 2.7% of U.S. TV households. NFL game telecasts, albeit with some regionalized coverage lumping together local TV markets in ratings, are averaging 11.5%.

MLB playoff ratings don't look so hot compared to last year's partly because not all the right teams — TV-wise — were around.

The five MLB teams that made the playoffs this year but didn't last year — Texas (Dallas-Fort Worth), San Francisco, Atlanta, Tampa Bay and Cincinnati — have local TV markets whose average size is 39% smaller than the teams they replaced: Los Angeles Angels and Dodgers, Boston, St. Louis and Colorado (Denver).

Meaning? When it comes to television sports ratings and the NFL, everybody else is playing for second place.