This Is What Baseball is REALLY About
October 29, 2008 by Dave C
Filed under Major League Baseball
It shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who knows anything about the way Major League Baseball operates that Commissioner Bud Selig went home to Milwaukee, the day after announcing that Game 5 will be completed in Philadelphia, if they have to stay there until Thanksgiving. Bud, or Mud as I will affectionately refer to him from now on, displayed his arrogance, his stupidity and the primary reason why I will never voluntarily watch a baseball game for as long as I live.
Simply put - Mud is scum. Come to think of it, calling him scum is being kind for the kind of human this man really is. He has turned a game that was once loved by so many into the worst kind of corporate contest - a true division of the haves and have-nots.
Under Mud Selig, baseball now only has four relevant franchises - the New York Yankees, the Boston Red Sox, the New York Mets and the Los Angeles Dodgers. It has actually reached the point that in Mud’s eyes, the American League only comprises of the pinstripers and beantown boys, while the Mets and Dodgers make up the National League. You could almost hear the amplified F-bomb that Mud dropped when the Dodgers were eliminated in five games in the NLCS and you could DEFINITELY hear the one he let loose when the Sox were dropped by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (Mud probably thinks that’s what they’re called for the amount of attention he pays to that city). He knew that the few baseball fans left in America and the small core of Canadian fans (who he has yet to alienate following his systematic dismantling of the Montreal franchise) have little to no interest in the Phillies and Rays and baseball was facing a ratings disaster in what used to actually be a fall classic.
Mud can thank himself for that one.
You see, in the other major pro sports, the playoffs create such an incredible buzz because fans of those sports get excited, no matter who’s playing. The NBA, NHL and NFL have systems set up that fans of every team are familiar with the other teams’ players, which generates interest even when a given fan’s team is eliminated. That doesn’t exist in baseball and Mud is completely to blame for selling MLB as a four-team sport.
The fact that more people are probably interested in watching Barack Obama babble for 30 minutes tonight than watch what could be the deciding two-and-a-half innings of the baseball season is very telling of where baseball ranks in the eyes of many. MLB is without question, the WORST PRO SPORTS LEAGUE IN NORTH AMERICA and that includes the NHL, a league that took an entire year off to settle a greed problem. I urge all of you to boycott tonight’s game and to boycott every ball game from here on in until Mud Selig is removed from office. Don’t feed his arrogance.
Do it for the Kansas City Royals and all those other teams that have faded into oblivion because of Mud.
Do it for Les Expos.
BURY THE FREAKING MUD!!!
DC
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October 29th, 2008 at 1:18 pm
I agree with your overall point here, but sadly still find myself tuning in to the playoffs like a leming heading over a cliff… I’m not a watcher of the uber-long regular season, but I suppose they have to justify those retarded salaries by making these “athletes” play 156 games each year.
The best idea for baseball would be to condense their schedule by about half, and add some form of violence to the sport. Maybe they make it so the first baseman is allowed to literally “hold” the runner… Who knows… But anything is better than what it’s like watching what might as well be a stock ticker. It’s all stats, no substance…
October 29th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
Strangely, I don’t think they should change the game. It’s the attitude that needs a makeover and that starts from the top down. Selig’s the idiot who allows this to happen. If it were up to him, everyone would still be roiding up.
October 29th, 2008 at 1:54 pm
Oh, I agree, but I still believe the main impoetus would be to shorten the season a bit and reduce the economy of baseball as a result. This would allow for parity, and therefore should likely spread interest to the other teams (outside the big-4)…
October 30th, 2008 at 8:36 am
The best idea for baseball would be to condense their schedule by about half, and add some form of violence to the sport. Maybe they make it so the first baseman is allowed to literally “hold” the runner… Who knows… But anything is better than what it’s like watching what might as well be a stock ticker. It’s all stats, no substance…
Spoken like a typical football fan….
As for Dave’s point, he mentions the Royals being terrible, but yet why not comment on the Rays going from below the Royals to the World Series? Also if you are going to list the relevant franchises, you have to at least mention the Cubs, no? Also let me conclude with Baseball is the #2 sport in the country now, behind football and head of basketball, hockey, golf, nascar, etc…
October 30th, 2008 at 8:38 am
“This would allow for parity”
There is more parity in baseball today then there is in the NFL.
October 30th, 2008 at 8:51 am
Spoken like a typical football fan? Dude, I’m far more a hockey fan than football… Either way, my comment about adding an element of violence was more a joke than anything else…
Disagree here. Baseball’s top teams (Yanks, BoSox, Dodgers, Mets) in terms of “popularity” are generally always stronger than the middling or bottom teams (Jays, Marlins, Brewers etc). In the NFL, you can look at Atlanta as an example of parity at work… With a 4-3 record, clearly anyone can beat anyone on any given Sunday… (for proof, look at STL beating DAL in week 7…).
October 30th, 2008 at 10:39 am
Dan my comment was also meant as a joke, sorry if it didn’t come across that way. But I also think it does apply to a lot of people who try to change sports that they dont like. An example would be with soccer, as I hear a lot of American’s say, well why don’t they shorten the field, or eliminate offsides. Hey if you dont like it don’t watch. How would American’s like it if Europeans tried to change football?
As far as the parity argument, true there are teams which are usually in the top standings every year (Boston, NY for example), but I think in baseball it is proven that if you have smart management and spend your money wisely you can have success. Football, due to the shorter schedule and unbalanced schedules, has a greater chance of having a fluke team make the playoffs. With the long baseball schedule, you can fake it for a month or two, but after 162 games the cream usually rises to the top. Yet we’ve still had only one team repeat as world champions in the past 8 years. Not bad.
October 30th, 2008 at 10:40 am
(for proof, look at STL beating DAL in week 7…).
You can also use this example in baseball…the Royals could take 2 out of 3 from the Yankees (which they did twice). In football St. Louis may beat Dallas on any given sunday, but if those teams were to play 19 times, I’d be willing to bet that Dallas wins about 15 of those games.
October 30th, 2008 at 11:10 am
I don’t see too many fluke teams making the playoffs in the NFL, at least not in recent years. At least, nobody who makes it out of the first round…
See, in my opinion, baseball relies a lot more on percentages than football does. Football is more based on pure athleticism. Before that gets anyone riled up, let me explain:
Baseball - Playing 162 games means the best teams lose 60+ games per season. That leaves a lot more room for weaker teams to create the illusion of parity, as they are bound to win a few off the stronger teams.
Football - Playing 16 games, and not every team in the league each season, means the margin of error in terms of losses is far less if a team wants to make the playoffs.
Ultimately, I believe (and this is strictly my opinion) that football is less polarized than baseball. Sure, NFL has some weak teams that never seem to get any better (I’m looking at you, Detroit), but baseball has some teams that seemingly have been horrible forever (see: Cleveland Indians, Milwaukee Brewers).
October 30th, 2008 at 11:22 am
Dan…Cleveland was one game away from the World Series last year, and was dominant in the mid to late 90s. If you are going to call out bad baseball franchises, take a look at KC and Pittsburgh. Those two have been terrible since the early 90s, although KC did finish above .500 in Tony Pena’s first season as manager. Other than that every other franchise has had a stretch where they’ve been above league average. Milwaukee finally figured out how to build a competitive team by drafting well, and as a result they’ve been competitive for the past 3 seasons.
In football I can think of quite a few teams who have been terrible for quite a while. Detroit for one, Arizona (except for the fluke season in the late 90s where they made the playoffs), Houston and Cincinnati had the good first year under Lewis but haven’t done squat since. Plus San Fran, Oakland and Miami have been terrible for awhile now.
October 30th, 2008 at 11:26 am
“Football - Playing 16 games, and not every team in the league each season, means the margin of error in terms of losses is far less if a team wants to make the playoffs.”
Prior to this season and to an extent last year, the NFC was the definition of medicority. 8-8 shouldn’t be enough to get you into the playoffs. Now to be fair MLB has certain division which this is also true (Looking at you NL Central and West), take St. Louis making the World Series with ‘83 wins in 2006. Personally I’m not a fan of that, and I rather see a group of really good teams then a whole bunch of mediocre teams, because that usually means the level of play isn’t as high (see Colts-Bears Superbowl and Pittsburgh-Seattle).
October 30th, 2008 at 11:39 am
I’m not condoning parity in either sport from a fan’s point of view, but rather a marketing point of view (as the original article was discussing). Realistically, I agree, 8-8 is a pathetic record to carry into the playoffs. However, that is a great indicator of parity…
From your previous post, you’re right (I’m not a baseball fan, so I’m stuck with Cleveland being a crap team, likely from the time where I was a baseball fan - ie the 80s).
October 30th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
Cleveland will win the AL Central next year, so hop on that bandwagon now and enjoy the ride.