World Series History

Okay, one more baseball site, and it’s on to regular business. I waited 24 years for a Cardinal World Championship, I have to hold on to the baseball theme for one more day.
One thing I mentioned in yesterday’s column was the fact that ESPN predicted doom for the Cardinals with each game.
I’m not sure what happened to ESPN. When it appeared in the late 70’s, it was a funky mix of sports reporting, strange local events, and, of course, Australian Rules Football.

The little network that could started building up ratings numbers and was soon broadcasting major league events in hockey, football, baseball, and basketball.
They reached their peak, IMHO, in the late 90’s, when you could count on six or seven baseball games per week, with virtually all teams being covered. Their Sunday night game was proudly advertised to visit every ball park each year.
Then, Major League Baseball, ever the clueless clod run by the most incompetent management in any power anywhere, decided that all of this coverage was bad for the game. Instead, they limited ESPN to a couple of games per week, doling out the rest to Fox, who dutifully enforced the utterly asinine blackout rules.
The result? ESPN concentrated their meager coverage on money-making markets, eventually turning into the AL East apologistic shills that they are today.
When was the last time the Yankees played the Red Sox and it wasn’t the Sunday night game (or Fox’s Saturday game, for that matter)?
And, most despicable of all, ESPN poo-poos any World series not featuring their AL East darlings. The proof? Listen to the opening comments of their story covering the Cardinals championship:
“No Fall Classic, for sure. Flatter than the Midwestern heartland and a flop in the TV ratings, this World Series crowned a champion that barely made it to the postseason and then had to survive rain and cold as much as the bumbling Detroit Tigers.”
Oh, how differently that opening would have read if the mighty Yankees had been victorious.
Today’s FamilyFirst site celebrates the history of the World Series. Despite baseball’s flat, bumbling flop management (thanks, ESPN, for the terms), the World series remains a compelling contest each fall.
http://www.baseball-almanac.com/ws/wsmenu.shtml