Over the next week the Texas Rangers and San Francisco Giants will square off to see who becomes the 2010 World Series Champions. Though it’s impossible to know who will ultimately come out on top, there are a few things that can be counted on.
Fox is pissed.
If you asked Fox executives before both League Championship Series who they wanted to make it to the World Series, they would not have said the two teams that made it. Not surprisingly, the only World Series to get a game with more than 20 million viewers has featured the Yankees or the Red Sox. According to Sports Media Watch, 22.8 million viewers tuned in to watch game four of the 2009 World Series between the Yankees and the Phillies. The last World Series with that many viewers was 2004 between who? Shocker. The St. Louis Cardinals and the Boston Red Sox. This World Series will be entertaining, but ratings will go down from last year.
Lack of replay matters.
There has been one missed call after another in the playoffs. Whether it was an out that was called a hit or a ball that obviously hit a batter and was called a wild pitch that scored a run, the umpires have and will continue to have problems making the correct calls. It’s not their fault. Plays happen so quickly that it’s impossible for them to make the correct call every time with no help. Every other sport has some sort of replay system, and it’s time for baseball to catch up. Something can and will go wrong. Hopefully it won’t cost the Rangers or Giants a ring.
You won’t hear good TV announcing
If you’ve ever listened to Joe Buck and Tim McCarver do a baseball game before, you know what I’m talking about. They’re terrible. Buck talks to the audience like they’ve never seen a baseball game before. As for McCarver, the man says “In my opinion” before he says anything every time, without fail. Tim, we know it’s your opinion, you’re the color commentator. That’s your job. That’s like me saying that this column is my opinion. Though, if Joe Buck or Tim McCarver somehow read this, I want them to know that this column is made up of the opinion of Eagle sports editor, Sam Lindauer.
Viewers on the East Coast will go to bed at a reasonable hour.
The good thing about having two West Coast (sort of West Coast for the Rangers) teams in the World Series is that viewers on the East can go to bed before 1 a.m. With the long TV timeouts and God Bless America, by the time the games were over in the LCS series, the only other show competing with it was an infomercial for Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts. It will never happen, but these games should start a little earlier. People can afford to miss Seinfeld reruns if that means starting games at 7 p.m. instead of close to 9 p.m.
The Winner: Anyone’s guess.
This series is a complete tossup. Anything can happen in the playoffs. The Giants weren’t supposed to beat the Phillies. The Rangers weren’t supposed to beat the Rays or the Yankees. Any team that gets hot at the right time can win the World Series. It’s not about playoff experience or being clutch. It’s about playing great baseball at the right time. Both teams are playing well, but that could come to an end at any time. Teams go through stretches where everything goes right, and both teams are going through one of those stretches right now. Whoever can keep that up for another week will be holding a parade.
blasky@theeagleonline.com
