MLBeat

As John mentioned previously, it's quite easy these days to find yourself completely shut out of the MLB playoffs, something that once may have been considered mandatory viewing in these parts. Life without cable is a killer, at least if you have any affinity for watching the playoffs without racking up a bar tab for each game. Throw in some West Coast time difference and a spoonful of My Team Didn't Even Make the Playoffs, and you end up with a guy who spends his TV time getting his heart broken every weekend at the altar of college football.

So we'll limit ourselves to one little World Series Thought as we prepare for what should be a thoroughly watchable championship.

The story as you all know is the Colorado Rockies and their white-hot streak to end the season: they've won 21 of 22 coming into tonight's Game 1. Everyone realizes that the Boston Red Sox are probably baseball's best team overall, but Colorado's got a lot going for them. (King Kaufman lays out the dichotomy pretty well.)

The main thing in the Rockies' favor at this point -- even more so than Coors Field, or the fact that Boston will be putting Manny and maybe even Youkilis in the outfield there -- is that streak. Win something like 21 of 22 games and eventually the streak begins to take on a life of its own. It gets in your head, not to mention your opponent's head, and we all know that ninety percent of baseball is half mental. Game 1 is of the utmost importance in situations like this. Win, and the Red Sox will start to think they are up against something larger than an upstart team in black and purple. Lose, and the spell is broken.

Unless, that is, there is more to the Streak than the Rockies are letting on. Perhaps they're really doing something differently that has led to this unprecedented September-October success. I asked this question in a column I wrote about the postseason years ago, and it bears asking again now: if there were ever any hidden advantage, any bit of chicanery, any discreet edge you could gain with the LCS or World Series on the line, why wouldn't you take it? What would the most effective hidden advantage be? Sign-stealing? Creative groundskeeping? Advanced pitch-charting software? Some sort of humidity-altering device that changes the behavior of a batted or thrown ball? How about a well-documented proclivity towards Christianity in the clubhouse that might lead people to lower their suspicions re: your team's capacity for shenanigans?

When I made this point back in 2002 in re: the St. Louis Cardinals, people thought I was accusing the Cards of cheating. I wasn't, not exactly, nor am I accusing the Rockies now. Just pointing out that there is a lot more going on in a baseball game than you are going to find on the Fox cameras, no matter how many there might be. Enjoy the Series.

Labels: colorado rockies, world series

As baseball's playoffs speed along, I want to stop and reflect on baseball's presence on TV and on the radio.

I am old-fashioned perhaps. I like to listen to baseball on the radio. I am also on a budget, so I don't have cable TV. This has made it very difficult for me to follow the Division Series phase of the baseball playoffs. Especially in St. Louis, where the ESPN radio affiliate, 1380 ESPN (KSLG) has shunned baseball and is not airing but a few of the games.

Owned by Simmons Media Group, a media conglomerate, 1380 ESPN fancies itself a football station. For this reason, the ESPN radio broadcasts of Division series games have been piped through 1380's sister network, 1490 WESL, a Fox affiliate, also under the ownership of the Simmons Media Group. So imagine that. You turn on the FOX affiliate and it's there that you find the ESPN radio crew doing the baseball game. OK, that's bizarre, but here's the problem: the signal of 1490 is extremely weak. This effectively means that I, a St. Louis denizen, cannot listen to the playoffs on the radio. And St. Louis is supposed to be "baseball heaven."

I realize that most people have cable nowadays. I used to have cable—before Charter came through and did an "audit" wherein they realized that my house was not supposed to get cable. So I don't have cable anymore. I could spend $60 more per month but the only time it really seems worth it is when ALL of the Division playoffs are on TBS. What I'm wondering is: why is FOX trying to alienate baseball fans? And, how on earth did Major League Baseball accept an arrangement under which zero of the first round of playoff games would be on broadcast TV. Am I the last person on earth who doesn't have cable, or are there others that are also missing the playoffs? I mean, are you telling me that FOX couldn't have at least bought the rights to the weekend Division series games? Picture me yesterday afternoon—Saturday—when the Cubs take to the field to stave off elimination. The game is not on TV and it is not on the radio. It might as well not even be happening.

1380 ESPN is run by hacks. Fine. Because of contractual obligations, they ran high school football instead of playoff baseball. Playoff baseball would also take second-chair to the weekly LeRoi Glover Show, should the two begin at the same time. I turn on 1380 this afternoon to see if the Red Sox game is on and I get Rams post-game. That's the 0-5 Rams, people.

My friend has this wild theory that FOX continues to buy the rights to baseball because it is trying to ruin baseball. FOX's master-plan is to prove that football is the national pastime, and baseball is just something you might find on TBS. Baseball is like an odd, contagious entity that FOX can't figure out. That's why the NLCS is not on FOX this year. Only the Yankees are good enough for FOX. If FOX really loved baseball, and wanted to promote it, why would it leave Tim McCarver in the booth? Why would it include animated, annoying Sliders explaining what a curve ball does? Why would it give away the NLCS?

I hear every year about how the ratings are way down for baseball. Duh. Of course they're down. The highly interesting matchup between the Rockies and D-Backs will not be on broadcast TV. In St. Louis, I have a better chance of hearing the game on 850 KOA coming out of Denver than I do of catching it on the local ESPN radio affiliate.

I think that the program directors in TV and radio offices have too quickly bought into this notion that baseball is dead and no one wants to listen to games anymore. From what I can tell just by talking to people, baseball is not dead. People still enjoy listening to baseball on the radio. People still want to turn on the TV and watch the NLCS. But no one is going to be watching a game that is practically hiding on TBS. And no one is going to listen to a baseball game that isn't on the radio.

You knew this one was going to go to extras before it began. The wildcard playoff. Rockies, Padres. This was the best game since Molina took the Cardinals over the Mets, since Dave Roberts took a bag from the Yanks. This game had your national league MVP, Matty HaHa, driving in runs and busting his mouth at the plate with the winning run. This game had your national league ROY, I don't care about Ryan Braun. Tulowitzki is an instant veteran, going 4-for-7 tonight with three runs and a rib, fielding his position oh so well. Hairston puts the Pads up 8-6 in the top of the thirteenth, Hoffman comes on. No one has more saves in ML history, but, hey, Hoffman is out of gas, throwing gas on the fire. Matsui doubles, Tulo doubles, Holliday slams one into the wall for a triple. Tie game! Carroll lines one to right, Giles has the throw, Holliday is coming home, Barrett drops the ball, Holliday is down at the plate—but safe! The Rockies win! Rockies win!

If you've got your breath
Take it away—
Thirteenth inning.

See you in Philly. This team has won 14 of 15. Catch the Rox on KOA 850 AM. I can hear them all the way across Kansas in St. Louis...