2021 World Series

I really could care less who wins this best of seven series.  First off the two best teams in baseball for the past six months aren't present.  It would have been nice to see the San Francisco Giants and Tampa Bay Rays battle for the top spot in baseball.  But, the addition of playoffs has bastardized the World Series.  Instead it will be the Houston Astros and the Atlanta Braves.

I won't be watching any of the games from start to finish because I don't care to invest four hours in a game.  Then multiply that by up to seven depending on the number of games that are played.  No thanks.  I have a life and if Major League Baseball (MLB) really wanted me to watch, the games would start about 4 p.m. where I live in the central time zone.  But, baseball has to show them in primetime for the FOX TV network which has literally millions of dollars wrapped up in rights payments to MLB.

I won't have much to say about the games outside of writing about them the same way I have the past couple of years.  I will be keeping track of the time of the games since they are very long and frequently become incredibly boring.  Based on the last two seasons my guess is the average length of game for this series will be about three hours and 30 minutes.  Time will tell.  Check back here after each game for an update.

A Snooze Fest

On Monday I posted about a long boring baseball game played between two American League baseball teams that lasted over 5 hours.  But, in fairness, the game lasted 13 innings.

Yesterday, the length and boredom of playoff baseball got even worse.  The Astros and White Sox took four hours and 32 minutes to play a nine inning game.  The game wasn't close.  Houston won it 10-1 and wrapped up the divisional playoff series between itself and Chicago.

There were a total of 18 strikeouts and eight walks.  But, the real boredom factor was fans had to sit through 11 pitching changes in which there was no action whatsoever.

MLB please wake up because your fans are all asleep. 

Classic? Hardly

ESPN, one of Major League Baseball's business partners, has taken it upon itself to declare last night's playoff game between Tampa Bay and Boston a "classic".  I've been watching baseball for over 60 years and this game was far from being a classic.

First off the game was just one of a best of five series, of four playoff series.  In the grand scheme of all baseball games played it is just a flyspeck on the windshield of all games played.

The game lasted 13 innings, which in MLB's bastardized version of baseball is fairly long.  But, that doesn't make it a classic.  In fact the game was boring and lasted 5 hours and 14 minutes.  Snooze. Yawn.  Boring.

And to top it off, 35 of the 105 at bats in the game had absolutely no action by the fielders.  28 batters struck out and there were an additional seven hitters who walked.  A full one third of the game was played without the ball being put into play.

Still, MLB plods along clueless as to why attendance is falling and TV ratings continue to shrink.  It's simple; the games are boring and they last way too long.

Another Bad Decision from MLB

MajorLeague Baseball (MLB) has done it again.

For the past several years the "At Bat" app, by MLB, has shown every single game for free on the final day of the season.  But, not this year.

With a red hot wild card race in the American League and the National League West division still undecided, MLB should have let its fans see the games without charge regardless of where they live.  But, no that was not the case.  In fact, MLB didn't show any of its 15 games free.  On a normal day the app has a free game of the day.  Sometimes they are good games like the Rays and Astros or Giants and Brewers.  And, sometimes they're crappy games like the Diamondbacks and Pirates or Orioles and Rockies.

My guess is TBS, which pays MLB a lot of money, didn't want any competition this particular day for its showing of the Yankees and Red Sox.  OK, fair enough.  But those were only two of the four teams competing for the last two wild card spots.  Seattle and Toronto were both in the race until the final day.

But it ultimately comes down to money.  And showing a team from the Bronx against a team from Bean Town would result in the highest rating and in the end the most revenue for TBS.

MLB you blew it again.

A Terrible Day in Columbia, Mo.

I will keep this short.  I have been a Missouri Tiger fan for seven decades.  I saw my first game at Memorial Stadium in 1969 and have been hooked on Mizzou football since.

Today I returned to what is now Faurot Field at Memorial Stadium for the first time since prior to the Covid-19 pandemic.  I was excited when I walked into the stadium but that feeling didn't last long.  Missouri went three and out on its first possession and Tennessee responded by punching Missouri in the mouth and scoring in less than two minutes.  And the Volunteers continued to score on each of their seven possessions in the first half.  At halftime the score was 45-10 Tennessee and it got worse in the second half as the Vols ran it up on the Tigers.  The final was 62-24 and it could have been worse.

I am not happy with the way Missouri's 2021 season is progressing.  They are now 2-3 and will be lucky to win more than four games this year.  Coach Eliah Drinkwitz is in his second year and the honeymoon is over.  He hired a new defensive coordinator in Steve Wilks this past off season.  Wilks changed the Tigers defensive scheme to a 3-3-5 today, but without success.  As a fan who pays for the privilege to buy tickets, tickets and parking, I am not happy.  Wilks will be lucky to make it to the end of the season.  Drinkwitz is a good coach and will get more time, but he had better turn this around soon.