That's the strikeout symbol, sports fans, and, undermined by Saturday's rain-delayed Game 3 marathon that didn't end until Sunday morning, this year's Phillies-Tampa Bay matchup had the lowest national ratings ever for a World Series. The margin wasn't close.

Meanwhile, 33.6 million people watched Barack Obama's paid half-hour presentation on seven networks Wednesday, two million more than watched the highest-rated episode of any regular series last season, the May finale of American Idol.

With 25.5 million broadcast viewers, Obama's infomercial scored higher ratings than regularly scheduled Wednesday-at-8 programming on two of the three big networks that carried it, CBS and NBC, picking up an additional eight million viewers on cable, including 3.5 million Spanish speakers on Univision.

In baseball ratings news, only 6.1 percent of TV households nationwide watched Game 3, which didn't end until 1:47 a.m. Sunday, making it the lowest-rated Series game of all time. It scored barely more than three-quarters of the tune-in of the previous clunker, the Saturday game between the Tigers and Cardinals in 2006, which was part of the previous least-watched World Series of all time.

This year's numbers for the entire series were more than 15 percent lower than those in 2006.

Things were different in Philadelphia, where more than half the region's households tuned in for Wednesday's clincher.

That was the highest-rated game locally, where, Nielsen Media Research reported, the six nights of Series baseball averaged a 36.5 rating, meaning 36.5 percent of all Philadelphia-area TV households were tuned in. The Tampa-market rating was only 28.2, on average.

On Wednesday, most local stations dropped their normal programs after the final out at 9:58 p.m. to cover the celebration and mayhem.

While Comcast SportsNet's Marshall Harris had to fend off a rabid (male) fan who repeatedly tried to kiss him on the cheek during his live shot, other encounters were not so pleasant.

A CBS3 van parked near Dilworth Plaza on the west side of City Hall was vandalized shortly before 11 p.m. as reporter Jamie Smith and photographer Adam Fox set up a live shot. A station spokeswoman said the windshield and other windows were shattered and personal items, including Fox's jacket, sunglasses and cell phone, were stolen. Police escorted the van back to the station.

Viewers tuning to NBC10 saw the series Lipstick Jungle, starring Brooke Shields, unaware that the station was sending its live coverage to the regularly scheduled Myphl17 news at 10 p.m., which it also produces.

NBC10 reporter Jamison Uhler, reporting live on Myphl17 from Chickie's & Pete's near the stadium complex, called it "a night I will never forget as a reporter."

"Normally, protocol is to give viewers a quick, concise report. But these were not normal times," he said. "The second our camera light turned on and we went live, I knew I had lost control. . . . The fans just swarmed, for what felt like a huge bear hug. They had to cut out of my report and go back to the studio."