PM UPDATE! Add this to the list of reasons to love Matt Stairs (vid-link tip to Fire Joe Morgan):
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The last thing the Fox network needed this fall, what with the economy headed toward Gomorrah and advertisers wondering if they should rely entirely on Internet spam and the network already on the hook for a gaschmillion dollars for the World Series broadcast rights, was a Phillies-Rays matchup.
I guess a Brewers-Rays Series would’ve been worse, ratings-wise. But I nitpick. Phillies Nation, if there is one, is no vast traveling diaspora of disgruntlement and entitlement, though it certainly has its rabid tens of thousands among its metro-area millions. The Tampa area is at least two-thirds comprised of 80–year-olds who will grab your ear and force you to listen to stories about The Mick, Scooter, and Teddy Ballgame. To most casual baseball fans, Evan Longoria is just a typo.
I’ll certainly try to tune in whenever parentally possible with the McCarver-Buck blather on perma-mute, but imagine how much of America has mentally clicked over to the NFL, Nascar, and the scintillating new season of Survivor: Subprime Exurb Island. No amount of Fox up-close-and-personal vignettes of Rocco Baldelli’s mitochondria disorder, no doubt accompanied by washes of synthesized strings, will change America’s channel.
All I can say to that is “Waaaah.” Fox is paying back the karma bank big-time for so many venal sins, and I’m not even including the existence of Sean Hannity. There’s the aforementioned broadcasting team, there’s the 8:30 pm start time for East Coasters, even on weekends for frick’s sake. There’s the wide array of stupid-cams, with the apotheosis coming this year for the first time (I think): allowing the cameraperson to run onto the field and follow a batter as he jogs toward home plate at the end of his home-run trot.
Are we grumpy yet?
Unfortunately, the only alternative is radio, where Jon Miller this post-season has seemed stiff and Joe Morgan more checked-out than ever. I probably listened to 25 random innings among the seven-game Rays-Sox series, and I kept count of the interesting Morgan observations: One. He noted that the Sox infield shift against lefty slugger Carlos Pena had softened a bit after Pena dropped a bunt hit down the third base line, but it would make for complications if Youkilis had to cover second base on a force. Sure enough, the next batter hit a grounder to second, Youkilis had to cover the force, and the Sox barely got the out.
Then Joe went back to sleep. Most of the time he mailed in comments like, “You see, that’s what leaders do,” when Sox captain Jason Varitek hit a key home run in Game 6 after struggling at the plate most of the series. Let’s hope the Rays and Phils keep him awake. For me and the 2,314 other Americans tuning in, it should be a fascinating World Series.
Got an early over-under on the number of home runs the Rays and Phillies will hit at Citizens Bank Bandbox? Will you be watching? Discuss.
