Judging from the ratings numbers, viewers will no longer have to wonder what if New England Sports Network’s original special is never aired again.

The groundbreaking initial episode of NESN’s “What If…” special concerning then-Red Sox manager Grady Little’s decision not to relieve Pedro Martinez in the eighth inning of seventh game of the 2003 American League Championship Series earned good reviews, publicity, and – most importantly – good ratings. Add it all up and there’s very little debate or conjecture about the future of “What If…”

“The plan could change, but I think the idea for the time being is to produce a couple a year since it was so well-received,” said NESN promotions and public relations director Gary Roy.

The three-hour special replayed the fateful playoff game up to Little’s decision and then used taped footage and live commentary by Sox announcers Don Orsillo and Jerry Remy for an alternate, computer-simulated ending in which the Sox pulled out a 5-3 victory instead of what actually ended as a 6-5 loss. The special aired July 20 at the end of a Red Sox game broadcast and earned a 2.7 rating in the Boston DMA (designated market area).

Since rating means the percentage of possible households in a specific market tuned to a specific program, and the Boston DMA is credited with having 2,375,000 TV households in the most recent marketing survey, the 2.7 figure translates roughly into 64,125 households turned into “What If…”

“We were really thrilled,” said Joel Feld, NESN’s vice-president of programming and executive producer. “The show got north of a 4 in the final hour, so it obviously held up really well. The first half hour of the show’s ratings were even higher than the last half hour of the Red Sox postgame show.”

The Boston DMA includes Boston, all of eastern Massachusetts (Worcester County eastward excluding Bristol County), six counties in Southern New Hampshire, and southeast Vermont (one county) and is the biggest DMA in New England.

Feld said he plans to start meeting with people after the conclusion of the Red Sox season and decide what the next show’s topic will be.

“We’d like to air the next one sometime in early 2007, right around opening day so most likely in April,” Feld said.

The entire project, which involved extensive statistical analysis and simulations run by Diamond Mind, Inc., was fairly labor-intensive, complex, and sometimes tedious, but Feld enjoyed every minute of it.

“It was a fun endeavor for everyone involved,” he said. “I tried to approach it like I’m a fan because that’s what we all are. We wanted to not only inspire barroom and water cooler debate, but also settle it, too.

“As far as I know, this type of program has never been done in any other market before.”

A baseball fan, Feld was hard-pressed to come up with one debated moment or scenario he’d like to examine, but he did admit he wonders what might have happened if Cubs fan Steve Bartman hadn’t deflected a foul ball that was apparently about to be caught for an out by Chicago Cubs outfielder Moises Alou in the 2003 National League Championship Series. The action extended the at-bat and arguably helped the Florida Marlins rally to win the game and the series.

The fans weighed in on their choice for NESN’s next “What If…” project. The winner of an online NESN poll that ran for three weeks was “What if Bill Buckner made the play on Mookie Wilson’s grounder in the 1986 World Series?” That moment garnered 32.7 percent of the votes while runner-up “What if Drew Bledsoe hadn’t been hit by Mo Lewis and Tom Brady remained the Patriots’ backup in 2001?” drew 13 percent of the votes.

Raising funds for Jimmy

Bangor all-sports radio station WZON (620 AM) raised another $6,500 for cancer research and treatment through its annual Jimmy Fund Radiothon last week. This is the third straight year the Sports Zone has raised $6,500 or more for the fundraising arm of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and brings its fundraising total over the last 12 years to $47,000.

The Future’s now

NESN will provide 12 hours of live coverage of the inaugural Saturday’s Futures at Fenway event. The Futures at Fenway pregame show leads things off at 1:30 p.m. with a game between the Single-A Lowell (Mass.) Spinners and Oneonta (N.Y.) at 2 p.m., a postgame show at 5 p.m., a Triple-A game between Pawtucket (R.I.) and Rochester (N.Y.) at 6 p.m., and the Boston Red Sox game at Seattle at 10 p.m.

Andrew Neff can be reached at 990-8205, 1-800-310-8600 or at aneff@bangordailynews.net