Whether it matters that the World Series didn’t resonate with an audience beyond casual baseball fans is its own discussion. The desire for ratings is something TV networks care about because they are the ones paying for the broadcast rights. As long as the product is good and the games and series are competitive, the rest is moot, because the point of any postseason is to see athletes compete when the stakes are highest.
The Texas Rangers’ run will be remembered mostly for Adolis Garcia, and he missed most of the Fall Classic with a strained oblique. Neither that injury nor Max Scherzer’s mattered at all, and Corey Seager, who hasn’t had a bad postseason, won his second “Oh yeah, he did win a World Series MVP” World Series MVP.
Congratulations to the Rangers fans for finally having a reason to shut up about 2011. I’m sure it was great to hear people complaining about how boring and unexciting these playoffs were, and since I’m going to do, feel free to find another puff to blow smoke up your ass.
If you want to read on, just know that I’m not bashing the Rangers or taking anything away from their performance. Being a pork belly is no coincidence; Texas proved they can get as hot as anyone and came back to life at the perfect time.
Agree. To proceed.
Outside of a few games in the championship series, the winning team was clear within four or five innings, and while I don’t know who to blame for this, my gut feeling is to fault Rob Manfred. The commissioner spent the playoffs defending his new format while trying to find fault with today’s approach to the game.
His only motivation is to restore baseball to its glory days by forcing teams to play the way they did in the glory days. It doesn’t matter that bullpen games can quickly devolve into offensive slugfests — which happened in Game 4 of the WS, even if Arizona’s fireworks came after Texas had a 10-0 lead — and sports leagues love offense, it’s un- American.
Old heads consider three-outcome at-bats, shifts and overuse of the bullpen as life hacks that cheapen the game. Their points are valid, but they ignore the fact that modern players are conditioned to hit, throw and field this way because it is their best option against bigger, faster and stronger competition. Pandora isn’t going back in the box, and it’s bizarre to force old philosophies on people out of stubbornness.
There needs to be a better approach to the evolution of baseball. Basketball and football attempt to incorporate more wide-open styles, with varying results, and while each sport presents its own problems, the NBA does not attempt to limit three-point shots, and the NFL will never limit passing attempts.
If Manfred could impose three hit singles per game, or reward starting pitchers for going six innings, he would. I mean, if you force extra innings in the regular season, you get a free man at second. So what about when a team’s starter goes six, the bullpen only has to get two outs per inning over the final three frames?
No? Does that sound like a clown show? I agree with that.
Baseball is at odds with itself, and instead of trying to understand why hitters have trouble seeing a pitcher until he’s in the lineup for the third time, they’re told that the solution lies somewhere in the history of the game. game is located. I just want to grab Manfred by the shoulders and shake him out.
There’s no new element hidden in the Howard Stark expose, Rob, so you can stop watching MLB home movies like a depressed, domineering sociopath.