DEAR Mr. Selig,
On behalf of at least half the country’s fellow kids, I want to thank you for allowing us to finally see the end of a World Series game!
And because Wednesday’s Game 5 ended at just 10 p.m., it was extra cool because we got to see the Phillies celebrate their championship, live. I never had the chance to see a big-league team do that before. Neither had my school friends.
My father said to tell you, “Thanks,” too, because he says he hadn’t been awake to see the last out of a World Series in over 10 years.
Thanks, again. You are the best commissioner, ever!
Your friend,
Little Jimmy
P.S.: Are all World Series games just three innings? My Little League games go six.
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The number of crowd close-up shots shown by Fox this World Series was way down. And not one complaint about it! . . . ESPN “SportsCenter” anchor Brian Kenny on Tuesday had the perfect throwback take on MLB’s confused state during Game 5, Part I: “What did Baseball know and when did it know it?”
ESPN Radio’s Colin Cowherd, Wednesday before Game 5 Part II, noted that the Phils cease selling beer after the seventh inning, thus patrons “will only have 1 1/2 innings to get drunk.”
On the field with Fox’s Chris Myers after striking out Eric Hinske to end the Series, Brad Lidge got it right. After thanking God, he thanked Carlos Ruiz and Chris Coste, the Phillies’ catchers. Someday, after scoring a TD, a RB or WR is going to point to the offensive line instead of himself.
How many of us, blessed with the ability and coaching to play major league baseball, wouldn’t run reasonably hard to first base? Yet, over five World Series games, there were at least six instances of players who might have made it to first, second or third but failed to run hard to first. In the World Series.
Throughout the postseason both Fox and TBS seemed unprepared to explain the “surprising” and “sudden” emergence of Rays pitcher David Price. But two years ago Price was classified a “can’t miss.” At 21, he was the first overall pick in the 2007 draft. At Vanderbilt, he won both The Roger Clemens Award as Division I pitcher of the year and The Dick Howser Award, baseball’s Heisman.
If the Jets want us to believe there’s a legion of indiscriminately wealthy saps out there who are daily falling all over one another to add thousands of dollars to outbid one another in an auction for 50-yard-line seats, well, sorry, I don’t believe it. You?
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Any Stat, Any Time: At 21-14, Giants, late fourth Sunday, Fox posted the following now-read-this about Steelers’ QB Ben Roethlisberger: “14 career fourth-quarter or OT-comeback wins when tied or trailing.”
When did winning a tied game become a comeback? A comeback from what, even? That means that one of the two QBs in every OT will be credited with a comeback win. Brilliant.
And does it matter that the fourth quarter can begin on your opponent’s 1-yard line or 99 yards away? Absolutely not, not when simply throwing stats at audiences counts more than first considering whether they make any sense.
A few hours earlier, CBS’ pregame noted that the Chiefs’ defense is last against the rush. Before kickoff of Chief-Jets, Dan Dierdorf said that, too. Both times that stat, the just-add-and-divide kind – the kind that can be highly misleading – was left at just that, no examination, explanation or elucidation.
It stood to reason that the Chiefs, 1-5 and outscored 75-165, would be last (or close to it) vs. the run. But often that’s not a defensive stat as much as it is a team stat. This season, third quarter, K.C. was down 31-0 to Carolina, 24-7 to Atlanta. Why would teams, eager to kill clock, pass?
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As Maynard G. Krebs, the “G” was for Walter, used to say, “What an age we live in.” When we enter voting booths Tuesday, we’ll see notorious TV time-buy scamdicapper Wayne Root‘s name on the ballot as a legitimate candidate for Vice President of the United States (Libertarian Party).
Root has the endorsement of the NBRO (National Boiler Room Operators).