Each week, the Statsman, Paul Bruno, takes aim at an issue, or person, in the pro sports scene, which has singled itself (himself) out for the wrong reasons. This week it’s:
The 2008 World Series – Baseball Embarrasses Itself
The World Series is supposed to be the ultimate showcase of the summer pastime. However, the sport has managed to shoot itself in the foot on a number of levels.
On one side, we have one club that should really be touted as a Cinderella team. The Tampa Rays play in one of the smaller markets in the league and are near the end of one of the most remarkable single season turnarounds in league history. They enjoyed the first winning regular season in club history in winning the league’s toughest division. Then they knocked off the Chicago White Sox, one of the oldest franchises in baseball. They followed that up by defeating the Boston Red Sox, merely last year’s defending champs.
On the other side, the Philadelphia Phillies, a collection of power hitters and power pitchers led the team to the post-season where they dismantled the Milwaukee Brewers and then went out ad defeated one of the glamour teams of baseball, the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Manny-led Dodgers created a great deal of second half buzz and the Phillies overcame that to advance to the Series. Despite their long history, it marks only their sixth visit to the Series.
So the World Series gives the league a chance to trumpet the fact that secondary market cities can be competitive with the bigger market clubs, RIGHT?
NOT SO MUCH.
The major networks did not hold the rights to all games and many people couldn’t even watch some of the games. Then, the games start so late that many people missed or did not bother to watch the late finishes, after midnight in Eastern Time zones.
Looking deeper at some other issues, the spectre of the annual question, to DH or not DH, remains.
The entire minor leagues use the DH position, yet the National League does not permit it. So, in the World Series you have two sets of batting order rules and allow pitchers, some of whom have never batted in the regular season, to take an at bat on this big stage.
Further to that weather has become an issue in this Series, raising some talk that neutral sites, immune to weather conditions, be considered. Alternatively, better use of weather information should have been in place to prevent the embarrassment of rain curtailing what could have been the deciding game.
The result of that latest gaffe is that the deciding game could be a four inning mini-game, also unprecedented in baseball history.
The net effect of all this, is a lack of focus on the big prize in the sport.
THAT STINKS.
Posted by Paul Bruno, “The Statsman”
Posted by thestatsman 
