Letters to the Editor
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MLB vs NFL
Look, I think it's fine for you to salivate over the new season of the National Field Goal League. This contrived corporate bread-and-circuses amusement fits perfectly into our contemporary national life. How else could Americans receive the vital information they require to choose between Coors, Budweiser and Miller Lite?
I disagree with the "traditionalist" theory about the Wild Card in baseball. When you expand to thirty teams, you need to broaden the participation in the playoff season. You don't need to NFL-ize the game itself with the DH, an abomination.
Oh, and by the way, thanks for completely ignoring the fascinating race in the NL Wild Card, involving the NL West and the Phillies. We'll be happy to stay under the radar a while longer.
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RE: caddis
I do find it odd that you bring up the following attack on football to start your defense of baseball:
This contrived corporate bread-and-circuses amusement fits perfectly into our contemporary national life. How else could Americans receive the vital information they require to choose between Coors, Budweiser and Miller Lite?
Because I've noticed that Major League Baseball doesn't have an official beer (it's certainly not Budweiser), I've never watched an MLB playoff game where they broke away from the actual game to interview a "star" from a Budweiser commercial, and I've never noticed how I when I don't have cash at an MLB box office, I can't pay with anything besides Visa.
Phew, thank god these contrived corporate gimmicks haven't infiltrated our national pastime. Certainly, it's a reason to embrace MLB and avoid the NFL.
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caddis
Look, I think it's fine for you to salivate over the new season of the National Field Goal League
Sure, I mean why would you tune in to the culmination of the Watch Guys Stand Around For Awhile League? All you're going to miss is them scratching themselves since most players will be involved in what 1 play out of 20? You didn't need to watch most of the regular season anyway since there's so many games no single game really means anything.
Fortunately, they plaster the stadium with ads so people have something to look at when they're there. Shame their plan to put ads on the bases fell through.
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Baseball is irrelevant.
Or at least that's where it's heading with our ADHD culture and sports media.
Prediction:
Football will become a monster. Bigger players, harder hits, more brain trauma. 10+ concussions per game today. Maybe 30+ in 10 years. Players will die earlier and earlier. Dementia will set in at 35. Ex-players will commit more and more felonies, people will die. Congress will convene. Every idiot in the country will have 2 replica uniforms of their favorite showboat. Coors Light will become the second largest MNC right behind WalMart. And King will predict the outcome of every game until the fourth Clinton Administration.
And then there is baseball. The greatest game. Forgotten. Go watch Ken Burn's "Baseball" and then go watch a Shawn Merriman interview. What do you want your kids playing?
The irony is sad. The much needed ban on steroids will actually hurt the baseball. We only want to watch freaks. Long live the NFL! (short live the players).
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DEA quote
"Today we reveal the truth behind the underground steroid market: dangerous drugs cooked up all too often in filthy conditions with no regard to safety, giving Americans who purchase them the ultimate raw deal."
...the DEA will be issuing this same press release in 20 years, with just names, places and figures changed.
No!! They've also got to change the reference to another crappy 80s movie!
- "These people thought they were getting stronger and faster...but the drug dealers were just selling them true lies."
- "They put their illegal product out there, but we issued a total recall."
- "To all the Chinese drug dealers: we're bringing the red heat."
- "If you're working out in Hartford and expecting steroids from Santa, you're going to have a crappy Christmas in Connecticut."
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Fiddle with a pigskin
"...the sport that stands like a colossus astride our culture." Is he referring to football? Sad culture that is, if that's the case. But like Rome and the gladiators, who had a much lower life expectancy than the general population just like NFL linebackers, the majority does enjoy it's blood sport.
Baseball, not unlike basketball, is a sport that is played hard and nearly daily throughout a long season. For my tastes and on the whole with few exceptions, both those sports require a higher level of athletic ability, more complex playing and coaching strategies, fewer body blows and are more interesting than football. Another writer remarked that NFL football is made for T.V. and I couldn't agree more. The TV is what sits, not stands, like a colossus astride our, um, "culture", life expectancies be damned. And yes, I abhor boxing too.
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wild card?
actually the wild card has made the September (and earlier) games more important, not less so. would you prefer that only 4 teams out 32 make the playoffs each year? note that several of the Wild card teams have won the world series since its introduction in 1995 (and at least one, my tigers made the series only to lose it). Because twice as many teams make the playoffs each year, more teams have a chance to make it at a later stage in the season....thus keeping interest in more cities past July and August. this is fairly obvious and i am surprised I even have to point it out. what if we still had only two divisions with no wild card? I bet the Yankees would have won the east just about every year (as they did with three divisions and a wild card). how is that exciting?
you can argue that MLB needs some tweaking, but unless you want to drastically cut the number of teams, having 8 playoff teams is an absolute necessity. even if we eliminated the two florida teams I think there should still be 8 playoff teams.
maybe you, and the rest of the sports media just likes Football better than baseball? sounds like a logical explanation to me.
btw, MLB just had a record season for attendance. I think the system works pretty well.