If ratings go up after 11, perhaps the networks should start the games after 11, thereby maximizing their high exposure time.

What's that? This is a fallacious argument? People are tuning in more late because it's the end of the game?

Wouldn't that be true if the games started earlier?

The real problem is not when the games start and it's not, as MLB officials tried to convince a few years back, pitchers and batters taking too much time with adjustments between pitches. The real problem is the length of the commercial breaks. Night games started at approximately the same time back in the 70s but they finished earlier because the commercial breaks were shorter.

Shhhh...we're supposed to pretend this problem is an insoluble fact of life.

Also, baseball should have day games on weekends. There's no reason not to. There wouldn't be any problem with bedtimes and kids watching the games would become real fans. The NFL playoffs are during the day and, curiously enough, the NFL is the most popular league in the US.

Oh - that's it, isn't it? MLB is afraid of taking on the NFL directly on a Sunday afternoon, for fear that the ratings for the World Series would lose to Week 8 of the NFL. That would be humiliating!

Nice job. The starting rotation, which had been somewhat inconsistent in the second half of the season, gelled remarkably in the postseason. Beckett suddenly was pitching like he did in his prior World Series and not like the gopher ball artist he was in 2006. Schilling pitched well - not as dominating as in 2001 or 2004, but pretty well nonetheless. Dice-K found enough energy in his tired arm to give two stellar 5+inning starts. And of course Jon Lester's story is miraculous.

I don't know what to say about the 1-sided series. I do know that last year, everybody was writing off the NL altogether and then the Cardinals won. Even though it seems the AL is much stronger, the NL has won 3 of the last 7.

I do think that MLB has to get rid of the "all star game determines home field advantage in the WS" rule. It's really quite silly. It was a stunt to divert attention from the Tie Game a few years back, but it's pretty much run out its usefulness.

The Rockies' brilliant run was pretty much fated to end, and having a week off before the WS killed their energy. As King says, there is going to be some kind of gap when one LCS is a sweep and the other goes seven games.

I don't care so much about the off days, but I do wish that some of the games would be played while the sun was shining. Baseball is a game that should be played in the sun when it's warm, not in the cold dark when it's freezing.

Do you think somebody should explain to Shooter why it's inappropriate for a member of the military to ack like a partisan hack, even if he's being criticized by partisan hacks? How the military is supposed to be non-political?

No, why bother.

You guys really think a letter calling the Red Sox "douchebags" qualifies as "Editor's Choice"?

Classy move, guys.

the unfrozen caveman lawyer would mop the floor with Ugg.

There's a lot of talk about how Reid and/or Pelosi must have some hidden, flawed strategy that is guiding their thinking and their repeated capitulations to GOP/Bush demands. Perhaps the answer is much simpler than that.

Perhaps Pelosi and Reid simply are not terribly clever people. I realize it's counter-intuitive to think that anybody could be outwitted by W, but perhaps that's the best explanation.

I have yet to see any real proof to the contrary.

King, you say Manny Ramirez had no thought of throwing home on the Lofton play. You may be making this statement based on his post-game interview with Chris Myers. It was clear to me that Manny and Chris were talking about two different plays. Myers asked him what he was thinking on the Lofton play and Manny replied that he knew that he should have called off Lugo and taken the ball himself. Manny was not talking about the hit with Lofton on second, but rather the pop-up by Lofton that Lugo had misplayed by going way too deep into the outfield. After Manny said this, Myers sailed past the fact that what Manny said made no sense in response to his question (probably thinking "Hey, it's Manny Ramirez, it doesn't have to make sense") and asked the follow-up question of where he was going to throw the ball. At that point, Manny had a confused look in his eye. He is thinking "why would I throw home when Lofton is going to second?" So of course he would throw it to second, which is what he said.

It's kind of funny to watch people talk past each other, but I'm surprised more people didn't catch this point of confusion.

Just how offensive this law is to a significant portion of the rank and file of the Democratic party. They really seem to be blithely unaware that literally millions of Americans have serious ethical issues with the practices of the Bush administration that have entailed flagrant lawbreaking. Why on Earth are leaders of the Democratic party complicit in these shenanigans?

The answer is simple: money.

The question is whether the leadership thinks that the party can work in this atmosphere. Personally, I'm all for a leadership purge. The complete rejection of the concept of "rule of law" by everybody in power is utterly nauseating.