The thrills! The excitement! The match-up that everyone has been zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
37 comments on “TONIGHT! THE WORLD SERIES!”
I guess I can’t be too upset. I don’t get excited when a New York team is in the World Series, as I don’t live in New York. So I can’t expect a New Yorker to be excited when neither the Mets nor the Yankees are in it.
But I assure you, those in St. Louis are excited, as I am certain those in Dallas are too.
Ah, yes. The World Series. That utterly annoying excuse used by the networks to thoroughly screw up far better programming schedules.
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And, since it’s on Fox again this year, that means that no “Simpsons” and no “Family Guy” for this week. (And, if the series isn’t wrapped up by Game 4, no “Terra Nova.” Okay–maybe that’s not a total loss, but watching some less-than-stellar CGI dinosaurs is still more entertaining than watching some idiot trying to hit a ball with a piece of wood.)
As usual, wake me around game 4 or 7 or whatever one actually defines something.
The World Series started tonight? Are the Bears or the Colts in it?
Soccer is better anyway. *Goes back to lurking*
I like soccer more than baseball myself (Go New York Red Bulls!). However, both can be dull, especially if you’re just watching a bad, uneventful game. The difference is that with soccer it’ll be over in an hour and a half while baseball (and most major sports for that matter) seems to go on forever.
JosephW, I think FOX said House & Terra Nova won’t be back for two weeks. And the schedule I’ve seen has them listed, but listed as repeats for Monday. So, its either more baseball or reruns. Monday TV viewing on FOX is ruined anyway. lol. I guess I’ll just watch more Netflix that night.
Speaking as a non-American, I never fail to be amused by the term “World” series being used for a competition that only two countries take part in. Mind you, Americans also believe the name football goes with the ball game played mostly with the hands, rather than the one played using the feet.
Speaking as a non-American, I never fail to be amused by the term “World” series being used for a competition that only two countries take part in.
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Well, the United States is the center of the universe. 😉
. Mind you, Americans also believe the name football goes with the ball game played mostly with the hands, rather than the one played using the feet.
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In the end, a lot of sports have the word football in them beyond the most commonly known usage: for association football. American football, Aussie rules football, and so on. Many of them don’t use the foot nearly as often as you would assume.
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But then, Wikipedia has an interesting potential take on the etymology of the word: that the origin of “foot ball” may mean to play ON foot, not WITH the foot.
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If that’s the case, then so many sports being called football makes perfect sense. 🙂
“But then, Wikipedia has an interesting potential take on the etymology of the word: that the origin of “foot ball” may mean to play ON foot, not WITH the foot.”
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Ah, Wikipedia, that well known font of always accurate information. That logic for the name of the game doesn’t sound at all like retroactive justification. Using that reasoning, golf should also be renamed football – it’s played on foot and with a ball. Baseball too. Heck, most ball games bar polo.
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Okay, sarcasm aside, it might be true, but when it comes to information on Wikipedia, I take it not with a pinch, but a whole cellar full of salt.
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As for what Americans call football, I wouldn’t find the name so contradictory if the Americans would accept that they should tag “American” before the name to designate its their version, and accept that what they call soccer is football, both because it fits the name better, and because it laid claim to the name long before Americans got the idea of putting armour on Rugby players.
I think I’d like to play bar polo.
As for what Americans call football,
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Maybe you should’ve just said your entire post was sarcasm?
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The first game of our football was played between Harvard and Yale in 1869. And the name isn’t changing any time soon, so, I highly recommend you get over it.
“Maybe you should’ve just said your entire post was sarcasm?”
Sorry, I didn’t realise I needed to spell it out.
“The first game of our football was played between Harvard and Yale in 1869.”
And football, the kind where you don’t use your hands, dates back to medieval times.
“And the name isn’t changing any time soon, so, I highly recommend you get over it.”
And since you seem to be getting overly heated about some tongue in cheek comments, I think I’ll leave the conversation at this juncture.
Sorry, I didn’t realise I needed to spell it out.
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Sorry, I didn’t realize that we needed to bow down to the rest of the world for the naming of our sports. Because, sarcasm (and tone in a text medium) aside, it reads to me like you’re getting pretty anal about it yourself.
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It’s not association football, it’s football. It’s not American football, it’s football. It wouldn’t surprise me if in Australia, it’s not Aussie rules football, but just football as well.
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But we’ll get right on that renaming… just after we finish coming up with a new name for the World Series.
. And football, the kind where you don’t use your hands, dates back to medieval times.
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The Chinese were playing football-esque games than 2000 years ago. And no, I didn’t need to look that up on Wikipedia.
I’m something of a casual soccer fan myself, and I’m going to tell you that it will remain soccer (stemming from British university slang “socca” short for “Association Football”) for the forseeable future. The reason for that is this: American football is the most popular sport in the country. It doesn’t matter if they call baseball the national pasttime or if traditional football (aka soccer) is the most popular sport in the world (in general, American sports fans don’t watch international sports anyway, except maybe the Olympics). NFL pulls in the big numbers in this country. Heck, US football is so popular in parts of the American South like Texas and Georgia that they will throw parades in some towns for their youth and high school players. It’s a juggernaut and there’s no stopping or changing it.
Mets fans bitter much these days?
While I wanted to see the Yankees in the series, I simply loathe Texas and St. L.
I would have been interested in Detroit and the Phillies, but these two teams…fergetaboutit.
And, just when the World Series ends, I’ll bet Simon Cowell will demand that X Factor supercedes all other Fox programming for more days. Sigh.
That is not the X-Factor that I would like to see on television…
Tell me about it! Seems like a straightforward pitch for a series – it’s Heroes meets The X-Files. You mean to tell me ABC wouldn’t like to fill the “Lost”-sized hole in its lineup with a show like that?
I already answered this when you made the same snide and unwarranted comment on Facebook, Chuck. Not sure why you feel the need to repeat it. This isn’t about the Mets, who it was clear since the Allstar break had no shot at the postseason. It’s about the fact that I don’t give a crap about the teams that ARE there. If the Red Sox hadn’t collapsed, I’d be interested. If the Cubs had come from nowhere to get in, I’d be there for every minute. If the Yankees hadn’t been eliminated I’d be actively rooting…for the other team.
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I have no ill will towards fans in either St. Loo or Big D. But I have zero interest in either team and I suspect the vast majority of the country shares my indifference. Or are you going to claim they’re all bitter Mets fans?
Or are you going to claim they’re all bitter Mets fans?
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Well, as a bitter Cubs fan, I can say that the Cardinals playing for yet another World Series is indeed a 6-ton anvil being dropped on the groin. 🙂
Come on, you got to admit the Rangers winning their first championship would be pretty cool.
I guess, for a guy in the east side of Kansas, an all-midwestern matchup is pretty cool. To each their own, though.
I’m pretty sure people living in Texas or St. Louis care at least. Every team has its fans.
Sorry, Peter. I didn’t see the answer on FB — normally I would have expected your comment to pop up on my wall. I apologize for repeating myself unnecessarily.
I certainly wouldn’t claim that the entire country is bitter Mets fans, but let’s wait and see what the World Series ratings are before assuming the rest of the country is sleeping through the games.
It was a snide remark, I’ll concede. As a lifelong Cubs fan (surrounded by a family of Cardinals fans…sigh…), my main “baseball bitterness” tank ran dry years ago. But having lived through 1969*, I can usually find a remaining drop of bitterness to spray in the direction of the Mets.
*For you youngsters in the audience, 1969 was the year in which the best Cubs team of their era managed to squander a large lead in the month of September, leading to the eventual triumph of the “Miracle” Mets, in their very first trip to the World Series. 40+ years late, Cubs fans are still waiting for a World Series trip. We know from bitter…
I certainly wouldn’t claim that the entire country is bitter Mets fans, but let’s wait and see what the World Series ratings are before assuming the rest of the country is sleeping through the games.
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Here you go. From Adweek.com:
. The 2011 World Series got off to a thrilling start Wednesday night, as the St. Louis Cardinals eked out a 3-2 win over the Texas Rangers. Unfortunately for Fox, the quality of the on-field action wasn’t reflected in the ratings. According to Nielsen live-plus-same-day data, the Series opener averaged 14.2 million viewers from 8:00 p.m. to 11:13 p.m. EDT, down 6 percent from the year-ago 15 million (Rangers-Giants). Game 1 of this year’s Fall Classic notched a 4.2 rating among adults 18-49, an 11 percent drop from last year’s 4.7. Wednesday night’s broadcast marked the second smallest national audience for a World Series opener.
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PAD
PAD is absolutely correct. I kept watching the MLB Network late in the year to watch the red Sox collapse. I watched every game of the Yankees-Tigers division series. I watched nearly every game of the Phillies-Cardinals series.
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Now, last I knew it was 1-0 in the seventh inning of a WORLD SERIES game and i have virtually no interest.
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Didn’t have much more interest in the LCS’s either.
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Baseball, in trying to be like other sports, has screwed itself. With revenue sharing and wild cards, it has been far more likely that the two best teams are NOT in the World Series. so instead of marquee names and big stars, we get teams that got hot late in the year.
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And baseball is the easiest sport for an underdog to win. Stars are more easily able to dominate other sports. Were the Jordan Bulls ever going to lose a first round series. Heck, no!
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In football, wild cards have won it all, but it’s generally been teams close to the talent level of the best. The chances of this year’s Colts beating this year’s packers is practically nil, while it’s not at all unusual for a poor team like the Orioles to beat a team with far more talent in short series.
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So, we now have on an increasingly regular basis teams in the World series that were not the best for the season but in October and inferior teams with small fanbases and little general interest playing in what should be baseball’s showcase event.
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Which is why this year’s World Series is almost guaranteed to have the lowest ratings in history, far below the record held by the 2008 Phiilies-Rays Series and the 2010 Rangers-Giants Series. The only Series in the last four years NOT to draw anemic numbers, Phillies-Yankees of course.
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I’m wondering if the World Series ratings would have been low regardless of who was playing (well, except perhaps if the Cubs were involved).
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A few weeks ago, a Monday Night Football game between the Colts & Bucs went up against the ALDS matchup of the Yankees at Tiger.
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And in the end, even in New York City the the NFL early regular season game had more viewers than the MLB playoff game. Nationally, it wasn’t even close; baseball as the national past time is just that: it’s time is long past.
My general ennui related to the World Series of America is counterbalanced by my excitment at a new issue of X-Factor (the comic book) hitting the stands yesterday. Another awesome episode in the life of my favorite mutants. I like Rahne’s costume; kinda looks like Wolverine’s old one.
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By the way, are the Hangman and Bloodbath new caracters you created or, as the story seems to imply, have they been around awhile? I’m not familiar with them if the have been.
I seem to remember a villian named Hangman appearing in old Spider-Woman and Werewolf by Night comics.
Totally understand why a lot of the country don’t care because if the Rangers aren’t in the playoffs, I’m not watching and using the time to catch up on the many shows on my DVR. But since the Rangers are in the mix, I’m tuned in hoping for them to win their first ever championship. Hey Peter since I kicked in $25.00 towards your daughter’s dream, can I ask for a little good karma sent towards Michael Young, Josh Hamilton, Nelson Cruz, etc?
I gave you game two. Be grateful.
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PAD
Thank you kind sir! Very excited for game 6 tonight! I want the Rangers to win it tonight if for no other reason then I want a new episode of Fringe tomorrow night.
Game 2 was phenomenal (for those that chose to watch).
An outstanding game and from perspective a great ending!
Well, I can certainly understand your feelings on the subject, PAD. I would feel much the same way were it the Mets in the World Series.
Not that such a thing is going to happen any time soon…
(ba-dump)
May the Rally Squirrel drag his nuts across your keyboard…
Seeing this for the first time after being offline for days and after the Albert Pujols Show. Which I also missed.
Sounds like this has been a good series. And I wish I’d seen it.
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I guess I can’t be too upset. I don’t get excited when a New York team is in the World Series, as I don’t live in New York. So I can’t expect a New Yorker to be excited when neither the Mets nor the Yankees are in it.
But I assure you, those in St. Louis are excited, as I am certain those in Dallas are too.
Ah, yes. The World Series. That utterly annoying excuse used by the networks to thoroughly screw up far better programming schedules.
.
And, since it’s on Fox again this year, that means that no “Simpsons” and no “Family Guy” for this week. (And, if the series isn’t wrapped up by Game 4, no “Terra Nova.” Okay–maybe that’s not a total loss, but watching some less-than-stellar CGI dinosaurs is still more entertaining than watching some idiot trying to hit a ball with a piece of wood.)
As usual, wake me around game 4 or 7 or whatever one actually defines something.
The World Series started tonight? Are the Bears or the Colts in it?
Soccer is better anyway. *Goes back to lurking*
I like soccer more than baseball myself (Go New York Red Bulls!). However, both can be dull, especially if you’re just watching a bad, uneventful game. The difference is that with soccer it’ll be over in an hour and a half while baseball (and most major sports for that matter) seems to go on forever.
JosephW, I think FOX said House & Terra Nova won’t be back for two weeks. And the schedule I’ve seen has them listed, but listed as repeats for Monday. So, its either more baseball or reruns. Monday TV viewing on FOX is ruined anyway. lol. I guess I’ll just watch more Netflix that night.
Speaking as a non-American, I never fail to be amused by the term “World” series being used for a competition that only two countries take part in. Mind you, Americans also believe the name football goes with the ball game played mostly with the hands, rather than the one played using the feet.
Speaking as a non-American, I never fail to be amused by the term “World” series being used for a competition that only two countries take part in.
.
Well, the United States is the center of the universe. 😉
.
Mind you, Americans also believe the name football goes with the ball game played mostly with the hands, rather than the one played using the feet.
.
In the end, a lot of sports have the word football in them beyond the most commonly known usage: for association football. American football, Aussie rules football, and so on. Many of them don’t use the foot nearly as often as you would assume.
.
But then, Wikipedia has an interesting potential take on the etymology of the word: that the origin of “foot ball” may mean to play ON foot, not WITH the foot.
.
If that’s the case, then so many sports being called football makes perfect sense. 🙂
“But then, Wikipedia has an interesting potential take on the etymology of the word: that the origin of “foot ball” may mean to play ON foot, not WITH the foot.”
.
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Ah, Wikipedia, that well known font of always accurate information. That logic for the name of the game doesn’t sound at all like retroactive justification. Using that reasoning, golf should also be renamed football – it’s played on foot and with a ball. Baseball too. Heck, most ball games bar polo.
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Okay, sarcasm aside, it might be true, but when it comes to information on Wikipedia, I take it not with a pinch, but a whole cellar full of salt.
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As for what Americans call football, I wouldn’t find the name so contradictory if the Americans would accept that they should tag “American” before the name to designate its their version, and accept that what they call soccer is football, both because it fits the name better, and because it laid claim to the name long before Americans got the idea of putting armour on Rugby players.
I think I’d like to play bar polo.
As for what Americans call football,
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Maybe you should’ve just said your entire post was sarcasm?
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The first game of our football was played between Harvard and Yale in 1869. And the name isn’t changing any time soon, so, I highly recommend you get over it.
“Maybe you should’ve just said your entire post was sarcasm?”
Sorry, I didn’t realise I needed to spell it out.
“The first game of our football was played between Harvard and Yale in 1869.”
And football, the kind where you don’t use your hands, dates back to medieval times.
“And the name isn’t changing any time soon, so, I highly recommend you get over it.”
And since you seem to be getting overly heated about some tongue in cheek comments, I think I’ll leave the conversation at this juncture.
Sorry, I didn’t realise I needed to spell it out.
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Sorry, I didn’t realize that we needed to bow down to the rest of the world for the naming of our sports. Because, sarcasm (and tone in a text medium) aside, it reads to me like you’re getting pretty anal about it yourself.
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It’s not association football, it’s football. It’s not American football, it’s football. It wouldn’t surprise me if in Australia, it’s not Aussie rules football, but just football as well.
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But we’ll get right on that renaming… just after we finish coming up with a new name for the World Series.
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And football, the kind where you don’t use your hands, dates back to medieval times.
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The Chinese were playing football-esque games than 2000 years ago. And no, I didn’t need to look that up on Wikipedia.
I’m something of a casual soccer fan myself, and I’m going to tell you that it will remain soccer (stemming from British university slang “socca” short for “Association Football”) for the forseeable future. The reason for that is this: American football is the most popular sport in the country. It doesn’t matter if they call baseball the national pasttime or if traditional football (aka soccer) is the most popular sport in the world (in general, American sports fans don’t watch international sports anyway, except maybe the Olympics). NFL pulls in the big numbers in this country. Heck, US football is so popular in parts of the American South like Texas and Georgia that they will throw parades in some towns for their youth and high school players. It’s a juggernaut and there’s no stopping or changing it.
Mets fans bitter much these days?
While I wanted to see the Yankees in the series, I simply loathe Texas and St. L.
I would have been interested in Detroit and the Phillies, but these two teams…fergetaboutit.
And, just when the World Series ends, I’ll bet Simon Cowell will demand that X Factor supercedes all other Fox programming for more days. Sigh.
That is not the X-Factor that I would like to see on television…
Tell me about it! Seems like a straightforward pitch for a series – it’s Heroes meets The X-Files. You mean to tell me ABC wouldn’t like to fill the “Lost”-sized hole in its lineup with a show like that?
I already answered this when you made the same snide and unwarranted comment on Facebook, Chuck. Not sure why you feel the need to repeat it. This isn’t about the Mets, who it was clear since the Allstar break had no shot at the postseason. It’s about the fact that I don’t give a crap about the teams that ARE there. If the Red Sox hadn’t collapsed, I’d be interested. If the Cubs had come from nowhere to get in, I’d be there for every minute. If the Yankees hadn’t been eliminated I’d be actively rooting…for the other team.
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I have no ill will towards fans in either St. Loo or Big D. But I have zero interest in either team and I suspect the vast majority of the country shares my indifference. Or are you going to claim they’re all bitter Mets fans?
Or are you going to claim they’re all bitter Mets fans?
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Well, as a bitter Cubs fan, I can say that the Cardinals playing for yet another World Series is indeed a 6-ton anvil being dropped on the groin. 🙂
Come on, you got to admit the Rangers winning their first championship would be pretty cool.
I guess, for a guy in the east side of Kansas, an all-midwestern matchup is pretty cool. To each their own, though.
I’m pretty sure people living in Texas or St. Louis care at least. Every team has its fans.
Sorry, Peter. I didn’t see the answer on FB — normally I would have expected your comment to pop up on my wall. I apologize for repeating myself unnecessarily.
I certainly wouldn’t claim that the entire country is bitter Mets fans, but let’s wait and see what the World Series ratings are before assuming the rest of the country is sleeping through the games.
It was a snide remark, I’ll concede. As a lifelong Cubs fan (surrounded by a family of Cardinals fans…sigh…), my main “baseball bitterness” tank ran dry years ago. But having lived through 1969*, I can usually find a remaining drop of bitterness to spray in the direction of the Mets.
*For you youngsters in the audience, 1969 was the year in which the best Cubs team of their era managed to squander a large lead in the month of September, leading to the eventual triumph of the “Miracle” Mets, in their very first trip to the World Series. 40+ years late, Cubs fans are still waiting for a World Series trip. We know from bitter…
I certainly wouldn’t claim that the entire country is bitter Mets fans, but let’s wait and see what the World Series ratings are before assuming the rest of the country is sleeping through the games.
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Here you go. From Adweek.com:
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The 2011 World Series got off to a thrilling start Wednesday night, as the St. Louis Cardinals eked out a 3-2 win over the Texas Rangers. Unfortunately for Fox, the quality of the on-field action wasn’t reflected in the ratings. According to Nielsen live-plus-same-day data, the Series opener averaged 14.2 million viewers from 8:00 p.m. to 11:13 p.m. EDT, down 6 percent from the year-ago 15 million (Rangers-Giants). Game 1 of this year’s Fall Classic notched a 4.2 rating among adults 18-49, an 11 percent drop from last year’s 4.7. Wednesday night’s broadcast marked the second smallest national audience for a World Series opener.
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PAD
PAD is absolutely correct. I kept watching the MLB Network late in the year to watch the red Sox collapse. I watched every game of the Yankees-Tigers division series. I watched nearly every game of the Phillies-Cardinals series.
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Now, last I knew it was 1-0 in the seventh inning of a WORLD SERIES game and i have virtually no interest.
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Didn’t have much more interest in the LCS’s either.
.
Baseball, in trying to be like other sports, has screwed itself. With revenue sharing and wild cards, it has been far more likely that the two best teams are NOT in the World Series. so instead of marquee names and big stars, we get teams that got hot late in the year.
.
And baseball is the easiest sport for an underdog to win. Stars are more easily able to dominate other sports. Were the Jordan Bulls ever going to lose a first round series. Heck, no!
.
In football, wild cards have won it all, but it’s generally been teams close to the talent level of the best. The chances of this year’s Colts beating this year’s packers is practically nil, while it’s not at all unusual for a poor team like the Orioles to beat a team with far more talent in short series.
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So, we now have on an increasingly regular basis teams in the World series that were not the best for the season but in October and inferior teams with small fanbases and little general interest playing in what should be baseball’s showcase event.
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Which is why this year’s World Series is almost guaranteed to have the lowest ratings in history, far below the record held by the 2008 Phiilies-Rays Series and the 2010 Rangers-Giants Series. The only Series in the last four years NOT to draw anemic numbers, Phillies-Yankees of course.
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I’m wondering if the World Series ratings would have been low regardless of who was playing (well, except perhaps if the Cubs were involved).
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A few weeks ago, a Monday Night Football game between the Colts & Bucs went up against the ALDS matchup of the Yankees at Tiger.
.
And in the end, even in New York City the the NFL early regular season game had more viewers than the MLB playoff game. Nationally, it wasn’t even close; baseball as the national past time is just that: it’s time is long past.
My general ennui related to the World Series of America is counterbalanced by my excitment at a new issue of X-Factor (the comic book) hitting the stands yesterday. Another awesome episode in the life of my favorite mutants. I like Rahne’s costume; kinda looks like Wolverine’s old one.
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By the way, are the Hangman and Bloodbath new caracters you created or, as the story seems to imply, have they been around awhile? I’m not familiar with them if the have been.
I seem to remember a villian named Hangman appearing in old Spider-Woman and Werewolf by Night comics.
Totally understand why a lot of the country don’t care because if the Rangers aren’t in the playoffs, I’m not watching and using the time to catch up on the many shows on my DVR. But since the Rangers are in the mix, I’m tuned in hoping for them to win their first ever championship. Hey Peter since I kicked in $25.00 towards your daughter’s dream, can I ask for a little good karma sent towards Michael Young, Josh Hamilton, Nelson Cruz, etc?
I gave you game two. Be grateful.
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PAD
Thank you kind sir! Very excited for game 6 tonight! I want the Rangers to win it tonight if for no other reason then I want a new episode of Fringe tomorrow night.
Game 2 was phenomenal (for those that chose to watch).
An outstanding game and from perspective a great ending!
Well, I can certainly understand your feelings on the subject, PAD. I would feel much the same way were it the Mets in the World Series.
Not that such a thing is going to happen any time soon…
(ba-dump)
May the Rally Squirrel drag his nuts across your keyboard…
Seeing this for the first time after being offline for days and after the Albert Pujols Show. Which I also missed.
Sounds like this has been a good series. And I wish I’d seen it.