Saturday, October 24, 2020

Nobody in the stands. Nobody watching at home. MLB writhes as America ignores the World Series

Last winter, 2020 looked like the Dodgers' year. They stood out as the clear NL favorite - and then added Mookie Betts. Yeesh. Practically everybody agreed: They were baseball's fucking Kardashians!

And last night, they did what the Yankees have failed to do in this millennium: They humbled Charlie Morton. Tampa can still rebound. But the juju gods may have taken part in early voting: At long last, the Dodgers seem to have ascended. 

But here's where everything went flat: 

We - the Yankees, that is - were supposed to be their final obstacle, and the ultimate confrontation was supposed to save MLB.

Back in March - Covid B.C. - the Gammonites foresaw an inevitable clash between the coastal titans. Yankees v. Dodgers... the biggest names in the biggest markets, a rivalry dating back to Jackie and Whitey, to Sandy and Mickey, to Duke and Joltin' Joe. It roused MLB's hopes. And LA kept up its side of the bargain. It was the Yankees who stumbled like Daniel Jones, the Jersey Giants' modern day Joe Pisarcik.  

So, it's Tampa... Hey, God bless the Rays, best team in the AL. But last night, America was more involved with Rudy Giuliani  in Borat. TV ratings for the World Series have fallen through the dumpster. Game one was the least watched series game in history.

There are no fannies in the stands, and nobody watching on the couch at home. 

MLB cannot staunch its lagging popularity. A NY-LA series would have helped. But it wouldn't be a cure. 

We have four-hour games with barely three minutes of game action. 

We have anemic lineups. The 2020 Cincinnati Reds - who made the playoffs! - had a 2020 team batting average of just .212.  

We have endless bullpens. MLB expanded the playoff rosters, hoping to bring more specialists. But teams just added pitchers.

We have expanded playoffs that include teams with losing records: Milwaukee and Houston.

We have the Astros' scandal, which still reeks. In 2017, with the help of cheating, Jose Altuve hit .346. This year, .217. 

We have games that are home run derbies.

This was supposed to be a huge World Series. The Yankees fell short, which is their new tradition.

4 comments:

  1. Very true, Duque. And tonight's game, which everyone will proclaim a wild and woolly, all-time classic, was the worst.

    I didn't see it live—thank goodness. But what a mess!

    A closer who can't get a .196 hitter to end the game with two outs and a 1-2 count.

    A rightfielder who can't make a routine play on a basehit.

    A runner who falls down racing around third with the potential winning run.

    A catcher who can't make a routine stop.

    And through it all, an endless series of strikeouts and home runs, led by a man who suddenly discovered his PEDs, sorry, power, at age 25, after bouncing around half the world as a singles hitter.

    Yeah, it's baseball like it oughta be. In hell.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I think that there needs to be a couple of basic basic rule "modifications' to save baseball, cuz, Lord it's getting dull with four hour K-athons.
    1) outlaw shifts to the extent that there must be two infielders on each side of 2nd at the time of the pitch.
    2) Each batter may only step out of the box twice per at-bat. A strike is assessed thereafter. [That covers dirt in the eye, missed signals, etc.)
    3)Only 5 pitchers may be used per game. After that if a pitcher is taken out of a game, that pitcher may not be used for the next two consecutive games and the roster spot may not be filled
    4) Lower the mound again like was done in the late 60's to take some of the "leverage" advantage away from the pitchers.
    MLB needs to address the state of the game, or the golden goose is dead. I don't know if they are watching Borat, but there were probably more people watching BIG10 football than the WS
    The Archangel

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