I Think It's October

The calendar says it is October which means it must be the baseball playoffs although too often this postseason, there has not been any baseball. Here are some random thoughts on what has occurred (and not occurred) over the past several weeks.

1. As indicated, the added days off are awful. Not only does this kill the momentum of a series, but Game 7 of the World Series is schedule for November 1. At least the game will be in Cleveland or Boston, so you know it won't be too cold. Moreover, the added day(s) of rest have, for the most part, to benefit the worse team. To be clear, one would figure that, on average, the stronger team would have a deeper pitching staff, but the added days off lessen that advantage. And in baseball, a sport where the differential between the playoff teams is extremely slim, every advantage given to the lesser team increases the randomness in postseason outcome. (I'm talking about you, the 2006 St. Louis Cardinals.)

2. I admit that I used to like Tim McCarver, but he has gotten really bad. His shock--repeated the other night--at discovering that a team is more likely to score 2+ runs after a leadoff home run than a lead off walk is beyond stupid. Look at it this way, Tim, would you be more likely to score 1 run with no one on and no one on base or score at least 2 runs with no one on and a runner on first. Not hard to guess which is more likely.

3. Be sure to watch FrankTV, starting Novemeber 20. Sorry, that just gets programmed into you.

4. Speaking of TBS, I do not begrudge MLB for having their games on this network. However, having Chip Caray as the main announcer was an utter disaster as Richard Sandomir and others pointed out. Even worse, was agreeing to 10pm start times for 2 of the NLCS games. Now I can live with the late start during the division series because there are 4 series occurring. However, I believe that this is the first time that the Champioship Series has had late games. MLB should not allow this. They should, as they have in the past, require that when there are 2 games, one starts at around 4:30 EDT and the other at 8 (and I mean the first pitch at 8 or 8:07). Otherwise, virtually no one on the east coast (and midwest for that matter) makes it to the end of the late games (or the early games if the Red Sox and Indians play another game like game 2). Yes, FOX is dreading the likelihood of Cleveland/Colorado, but if America had had more of a chance to watch the Rockies, there would have been more interest in one of the great baseball stories and one of the soundiest teams that I have ever watched.

5. When a ball goes past Manny's head in his first game against the Tribe next year, do you think he will have any idea why they are throwing at him?

If the Indians win tonight, enjoy the near week of no baseball before Game 1 next Wednesday.