Thank goodness that the worst-played, worst-managed, worst-televised, worst-spoken and worst-cluttered playoffs have gone to their maker.
It’s not too early for MLB and its partner TV networks to start working on next season.
First step: Change the in-game disclaimer from “Any rebroadcast, retransmission or account of this game, without the express written consent of Major League Baseball, is prohibited” to be more realistic, as if anyone would steal what MLB, ESPN, TBS and Fox did to these playoffs.
So MLB should borrow from the medicines advertised during the games, specifically for treatment of Acute Smoltz Spinratis: “MLB advises that you first check with your health care provider. . . depression and thoughts of suicide may occur.”
Thank goodness that the worst-played, worst-managed, worst-televised, worst-spoken and worst-cluttered playoffs have gone to their maker. An institutionalized freak show that senselessly appropriated the worst of our worsening to conclude with a requisite riot and looting in LA by those who wear their MLB-licensed caps as a pledge of allegiance to their street gangs.
Call it the Fallen Classic surrounded by American Flag bunting.
The games themselves have been diminished to a state of malnourishment to the degree that saw World Series batters who never before bunted, the elimination of new, significant extra inning rules that determined the teams that reached the playoffs, pitchers failing to cover first base and base runners and fielders not knowing how many are out.
And media who complain about it or simply point it out are placed on the defensive, lest they be condemned as old and cranky for sustaining 100-year-old sense.
Consider Fox’s Derek Jeter after Game 1 of the WS when Aaron Boone, as per his six-year force of habit, provided as much aid and comfort to the Dodgers since Benedict Arnold said, “They went that way.” After yanking Gerrit Cole after just 88 pitches, apparently to save Cole for a big game, Boone did what he does: used and abused his bullpen.
Jeter: “I don’t want to be one of those guys who says, ‘Back in the day when we played …’ but we were talking about how when we played the Mets in 2000, Al Leiter pitched Game 6 and threw 140-something pitches.
“Cole was dominating this game. And if you take him out after 88 pitches for I don’t know what reason, it’s a domino effect on not only this game tonight, [but] tomorrow’s game and the rest of the series.
