So I watched the World Series. It was good to see my favorite team from my childhood finally make the Series. I wish the Series would have been more competitive. But with the ratings at a 30 year low, many folks missed it anyway so the Rangers need not be to ashamed for not showing up. The ratings for baseball has steadily decreased and I don't know if they will ever return.
Baseball is suppose to be America's pass-time. But everyone knows the sports get killed in the ratings now. Stretch run baseball pitting teams that are fighting for the play-offs get crushed by NFL pre-season games. The Chase in NASCAR bumps baseball now too. I find it ironic since I think baseball most truly represents American society. See the other two major sports try their darnest to make things fair and equal for all teams. They have salary caps and all incoming players come in through a nice orderly draft process. The playing fields have the same dimensions. Baseball doesn't care about any of this. To hell with a salary cap. As for players, the whole world is their market. They sign them as young as 16. They build academies in Hispanic nations to find the best talent as early as possible. A player defects from Cuba, he's a free agent and can sign with the highest bidder.
The thing that is most telling is the stadiums. While the pitcher's mound is uniform and the distance between bases is predetermined, everything else is open to the owner's interpretation. Can you imagine if some football fields were 110 yards while others were 95 or 98. That's what baseball does. Each team is on it own to determine field dimensions. That is the beauty of the sport. Every thing changes from day to day, game to game.
That's the beauty of baseball in that it is different. The players have "stufff". They go on unexplainable hot streaks and unbelievability awful cold streaks. They make errors and never can make another throw. The game is perfect for fathers and sons, families and eating. I hope it can make a comeback.
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