Thorny playoff issues for MLB
Posted: Thursday, October 18, 2007 4:57 PM
The stately New York Times, quite willing to critique postseason baseball telecasts, presented some puzzling offerings Wednesday. It was posited that Colorado’s eight-day layoff, unprecedented in length save for the 1989 earthquake-interrupted World Series, could harm its chances at winning the Fall Classic.
In 1991 Minnesota clinched the ALCS on a Sunday afternoon, and then waited until Atlanta clinched the NLCS on Thursday night. The World Series opened on Saturday night in Minnesota and, despite the nearly-six-day layoff, the Twins won the first two games, and went on to prevail in seven games.
Ratings for the NLCS were disappointing and raised the issue of start times. Should Major League Baseball have scheduled games earlier to appease East Coast viewers at the expense of West Coast viewers and fans?
The New York Times forgot about the 1995 postseason when the Baseball Network televised games simultaneously and drew the ire of fans and scribes who demanded the right to see every pitch of every game. In 1999, the Mets-Arizona series was televised by ESPN with the Arizona games starting at 11 p.m. ET, creating an uproar in New York. Yet an earlier start would have had the Mets and Yankees overlapping.
The lesson, which the growing legions of critics prove daily, is that television can’t win!
As the Red Sox play for survival tonight amidst an uproar over Manny Ramirez’ comments, here’s a thought: I doubt that Manny’s teammates are too bothered over what comes out of his mouth, especially those experienced in MannyWorld. They only care about what comes off his bat.
But the fans of Red Sox Nation are a different story. And so it goes in today’s sports world where the disconnect between player and city has never been greater. With the explosion of Latins in Major League Baseball, fewer players will live where they work. Whether it’s the American players who gravitate to Florida, Arizona, and Southern California or the Latins who head home for the winter, a great baseball town like Boston will rarely have a true hometown star.
So the equation is that the fans care much more about THEIR town than the players. Players want to win, but if they don’t, they go home to somewhere else where they are treated like heroes. Players don’t spend the winter living the same angst that grips fans in New England like nowhere else.
As aggravated as some Red Sox fans may be, I doubt this is an issue that anyone raises on a night when they play an elimination game. Tonight has to be about Josh Beckett. It has to be about Dustin Pedroia trying to bust out of his slump (5-for-29, .226 OBP in the postseason), about Boston manager Terry Francona wondering whether to play Jacoby Ellsbury for a spark instead of Coco Crisp (5-for-26, .222 OBP in the postseason), and about someone getting a big hit off the Indians’ bullpen. There may be a day of reckoning for Manny, but it isn’t now.
The Red Sox had the AL’s best bullpen but Cleveland is winning the ALCS. In Game 3, a two-run game, Rafael Betancourt retired Kevin Youkilis, Davd Ortiz and Many Ramirez in the eighth inning, then repeated the awesome effort in the eighth of Game 4 (albeit with a four-run lead). Cleveland closer Joe Borowski wrapped up Game 3 with a 1-2-3 ninth (retiring Mike Lowell, J.D. Drew, and Jason Varitek), and the Red Sox haven’t touched the Indians’ relievers in a key situation.
