I know, certainly, that baseball's championship culminating event, the World Series will be on the airwaves and brought into the homes of whatever fans are still interested. I'm just not sure which channel.
The playoffs so far have been televised during the middle of the day on random channels that I don't get; namely TBS, the MLB channel, and Fox Sports 1. Literally, there were two games I could find on regular Fox: one saw Clayton Kershaw, the best living pitcher on Earth, get his ass handed to him by the scrappy Cardinals; and the other was, maybe Game 2 of the ALCS between the Giants and Cardinals. It was last Saturday evening.
Every single American League game was on TBS, an easy channel to get if you get basic cable. If you don't get basic cable, then, apparently, MLB is saying F-YOU. Fox Sports 1? The MLB channel? Playoffs on the MLB channel?
Now, I know my bitching falls on mostly disinterested ears: apparently enough people have basic cable, and maybe FS1 is widely available to basic cable subscribers, that baseball executives can make the statement "If you don't have cable, GFY." Most people I know feel the same way, so there's that.
This issue for me isn't about the shafting of the people too poor or too uninterested in television to pay for cable (as it has been in the past (me and my whiny bleeding heart)), the issue is about baseball, as an organization, screwing the pooch.
I love baseball. When asked which sport is my favorite, or mine in the sense of possession sports fans are prone to harbor, my answer is always baseball. That being said...
DON'T HIDE THE PLAYOFFS ON RANDOM CHANNELS I CAN'T FIND EVEN IF I HAVE CABLE. This is an important topic to me, frankly running neck and neck with the question HOW CAN WE SPEED UP THE PACE LATE IN GAMES.
I know the leisurely pace of a ballgame is one of the nostalgic-infused, Americana-soaked morsels that true fans really savor.
In a world where the NFL and our modified rugby game called "American Football" has a finite shelf-life, the slow fade of baseball from the main cultural consciousness is something that we're all painfully watching but shouldn't have to. Baseball can't help itself. I do like the one play-in game, because WHY COMPLAIN ABOUT MAKING IT MORE EXCITING? And I don't care that it's the hottest team instead of the "best" team---this new system may make it more prone for a mostly substandard team making the World Series, but so what? My Yankees lost to the red-hot group of kids with Marlins on their hats back in 2003--that's just baseball, so I know the feeling of being beat by hot pitching...
But, like the 2003 Yankees with the Marlins, the Angels and Orioles from this season had chances to beat the Royals and couldn't. So why not KC in the World Series?
It sounds like this year's playoffs have been exciting---extra innings, close games, rocking stadiums that were half-filled just a few months ago...
...just kinda wish I could watch some of it.
Anyway, and I realize that blasphemous statements are about to follow, but I think I'm rooting for the Giants. Representing Nor-Cal, baby! But I'm also not die-hard for the black-and-orange; I'd be fine with the Royals winning.
