LLWS: Jackie Robinson West Blows Away White Sox In TV Ratings

By John Dodge

CHICAGO (CBS) -- Based on TV ratings, a group of baseball-playing kids are a much bigger attraction than one of the city's major league baseball teams.

Monday's victory for Jackie Robinson West in the Little League World Series on ESPN was watched by five times more people than the Chicago White Sox game on Comcast Sports Net.

The little leaguers drew a 3.7 rating locally, compared with a paltry 0.7 for the White Sox.

That means that nearly 131,000 households were tuned into the game featuring 11- and 12-year-old boys. Compare that to the big kids, who were watched in fewer than 25,000 homes.

Granted, the White Sox are a below .500 team and essentially out of playoff contention. JRW is three games away from a World Series title.

The Monday Night Football preseason game, which featured Cleveland rookie quarterback Johnny Manziel, had a 3.0 rating.

Only two other programs on Monday drew bigger audiences in Chicago.

"Under the Dome" on CBS (5.2, 184,000) and "The Bachelor" on ABC (4.2, 149,000).

However, those number pale in comparison to the whopping numbers in Las Vegas and Philadelphia.

Wednesday night's game between Philly's Taney Dragons and Las Vegas, Nevada—with 13-year-old female sensation Mo'ne Davis on the mound—was the highest rated LLWS game ever to air on ESPN.

In Las Vegas, the game received a 16.4 rating and in Philly, a 14.9 rating. Both are Little League World Series records in the respective markets.