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Will Anyone Watch the World Series?
Friday, October 20, 2006
October always means the playoffs for Major League Baseball, as well as the World Series. It means the conclusion of the longest of the "big four" professional sports seasons here in the U.S. -- a regular season that began in April, dragged out through 162 regular season games, and culminates with two playoff series before the championship.
Because of the length of the baseball season, I've always felt that the World Series lacked any real drama. Many teams and their fans have known that the 2006 World Series was out of reach long ago. For example, the Chicago Cubs and Kansas City Royals could pretty much say goodbye to their playoff hopes way back in June. In those four months, I doubt that baseball fans in those cities have paid much attention to the pennant chase.
For the fans of the also-rans that made it to the postseason only to be eliminated shortly thereafter -- the Minnesota Twins, Oakland A's, New York Yankees, New York Mets, Los Angeles Dodgers, and San Diego Padres -- I'm sure things aren't much rosier. If you're a Mets fan, would you be anxious to see the St. Louis Cardinals face off against the Detroit Tigers in the upcoming World Series, or would you be too busy recovering from the major letdown of losing to the underdog Cards in the NLCS? I suspect that far more New York fans fall into the latter category than the former.
And then there's the rest of the country. Detroit and St. Louis are two of the smaller market teams in the Major Leagues. I think the average fan would have a hard time naming a handful of starters from either ball club. Albert Pujols of the Cardinals is the only legitimate superstar in either lineup, but I don't think he alone is enough of a draw. I know I won't be tuning in just to see Pujols play. The only other St. Louis Cardinals players I can think of without checking the roster are starting pitcher Chris Carpenter and center fielder Jim Edmonds.
I do a little better with the Tigers. For them, I can name outfielder Magglio Ordonez, catcher Ivan Rodriguez, and pitchers Justin Verlander and Jeremy Bonderman. I'm sure there are other players on the team whose names I would recognize, but I just can't generate them on my own. I consider myself an average baseball fan, so I'd be willing to bet that fans in other parts of the country suffer from the same lack of knowledge about these two World Series contenders.
Another reason that this particular World Series matchup lacks drama for me is that I don't even think the Cardinals should be there in the first place. The team only won 83 games all season long (compared to 95 for the Tigers), but still made it into the playoffs by virtue of the mediocre division they belong to. The Cubs and Pittsburgh Pirates were way off the pace and were non-factors, while Houston and Cincinnati provided the only real challenges. The Astros won 82 games on the season; the Reds won 80. The Tigers obviously had a much tougher time reaching the World Series, as the Twins won the AL Central with 96 wins, and the third-place White Sox had 90. St. Louis wouldn't have even been on the radar in that division!
I'm sure television producers and sportswriters are hard at work trying to find a couple of human interest angles to help promote the World Series. When no one really cares about the outcome of a particular sporting contest, the next best thing to do is push a few personal stories in an attempt to attract viewers. I guess I'll pay attention long enough to see what these journalists come up with, and then decide if I'll even bother reading the recaps and box scores in the newspapers or online after the games.
Otherwise, I'm just counting down the days until the World Series is over because I'm ready for this baseball season to end. It was an awful one for my hometown Cubs, and a disappointing one for my hometown White Sox, so next year can't get here fast enough. Until then, it doesn't matter to me whether the Tigers or Cards win the championship. They can flip a coin to decide, for all I care!
Posted by Mishmash Musings
3:37 PM
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