Monday, October 29, 2012

EXTRA: The long wait begins

This is one American League baseball fan who isn’t all that appalled that the Detroit Tigers managed to get so thoroughly whipped in the World Series this year – making it the third straight season that the National League champion  gets the ultimate bragging rights.

Ugh!

AFTER ALL, THE current setup for playoffs baseball to qualify for the World Series meant that the American League allowed its seventh best ballclub to become its league champion for 2012.

I’m sure the New York Yankees, Oakland Athletics, Texas Rangers and Baltimore Orioles all would have done better against the Giants than a four-game sweep. Heck, I’m sure the Tampa Bay Rays and Los Angeles Angels also would have managed to win a series game – even though they didn’t qualify for the playoffs. As would have the 85-win Chicago White Sox!

But now the series is over, and baseball fans will either have to start following the activity of the Dominican, Puerto Rican or Venezuelan leagues, or the Pacific League in Mexico, or else wait until late February for the arrival of spring training.

It also didn’t surprise me to learn that the Facebook Talk Meter says that the World Series this year is being out-played by all the interest in Hurricane Sandy (which threatens to make Hurricane Katrina of ’05 look like a baby’s bath by comparison).

SANDY REGISTERED A 7.12 on the Talk Meter, while the World Series was at 6.71.

And for what it’s worth, President Barack Obama (3.86) and Republican presidential challenger Mitt Romney (3.5) are lagging significantly behind the series. They’re probably wishing the World Series had gone the full seven games so that they could make an appearance at a ballgame to get some public attention.

Sandy, as she appeared on Saturday. Image provided by NOAA

Now, they’re probably going to have to give the appearance of helping out the hurricane relief – if they want to be noticed in this final week prior to Election Day.

So at least in some sense, people have their priorities straight.

  -30-

No comments: