Two of the most celebrated Major League Baseball teams -- perhaps in the history of the game -- are now playing again in sports' biggest event, the World Series: The New York Yankees and the Los Angeles Dodgers. 

Can they help boost baseball to improved TV viewership -- at least in the short term?

Baseball could use the boost. Other sports have usurped baseball a long time ago -- especially the NFL (and most recently with the NBA), in terms of overall consumer popular and TV viewership for their respective playoffs and championship season-ending contests.

Major League Baseball will count on two teams having a long history with each other, which started when Dodgers were based in New York, in Brooklyn.

They have met 12 times during the World Series -- the most ever for any two Major League Baseball teams.

The Yankees by themselves are perhaps baseball's biggest brand name. They have won 27 World Series -- by far the most for any baseball team.

The Dodgers have won seven. They have made 40 appearances in the series, also the most by any team. The Dodgers have been in the big series 20 times, tied with the San Francisco (New York) Giants for the most in the National League.

This Yankees-Dodgers matchup is the first time in 43 years -- since 1981, when the Dodgers beat the Yanks four games to two, averaging a massive 41.4 million Nielsen-measured viewers.

Only three World Series have surpassed the 40-million-viewer mark in the last 56 years (1968-2024).

Two were were where the Yankees and Dodgers competed. The other 40 million-plus World Series was in 1980 where the Philadelphia Phillies beat Kansas City Royals four games to two,  average 42.3 million TV viewers.

This is not to say that this series is expected to hit anywhere near those levels. Sports TV viewing -- and TV viewing in general -- has been tremendously fractionalized in many arenas.

Still, one might expect the games should improve dramatically the recent World Series numbers.

Last year’s World Series, for example, where the Texas Rangers beat Arizona Diamondbacks four games to one, pulled in an average 9.1 million viewers.  

It isn’t just the team name recognition but their respective high-profile players as well.

Two record setting hitters will go against each other: Shohei Ohtani (for the Dodgers) and Aaron Judge (for the Yankees).

All that leaves the only other question: How much will TV advertisers buy in?  

A year ago, the World Series pulled in $180.6 million in national TV advertising revenue, according to EDO Ad EnGage, for a five-game series.

A six-game series the year before took in $182.2 million.

During the pre-pandemic year of 2019 the Washington Nationals beat the Houston Astros four games to three -- taking in $293.7 million.

Live sports programming continues to be a major reason -- if not a growing one -- for brands to continue to spend big media dollars. 

Having two marquee sports team brands pitted against in each other in a championship final event will amp this up to another level -- in addition to expected high TV advertising price increases on the Fox Television Network.

Time for brands to get off the bench, grab some marketing bats and swing big.