Good Pitching Beats Good Hitting--Yet No One Watched

Ah, yes.  The World Series that no one saw or heard about (as predicted last week) ended in five games last night.  For a blowout series, it was a very good one.  We saw very good pitching matchups, solid baseball (minus a couple of boneheaded managerial decisions) and a long starved fanbase getting its first championship in two generations.

What I like the most about this is that the Giants are a great example of how an organization should be run.  Unlike my Cubs, who seem to do things entirely wrong almost all of the time, the Giants have built from within with solid pitching and great defense up the middle.  They supplemented that with second-tier, or worse, free agents that fit their style of play.  From that, they build great chemistry and a team that is ready to compete when it counts.

The young Giants pitching shut down the explosive Texas lineup.  Mitch Moreland, not exactly the expected leader, was the only Rangers hitter who seemed to have a clue, and the youngsters with spunk closed the series out quickly because of that.

The sad part is that this series got very little press.  ESPN had very little about the series on Sports Center.  Instead, they concentrated on football, which they have a current financial stake in.  So, in the interest of a quick dollar, ESPN fails to promote a sport that they have a long term stake in.  This was their opportunity to promote a young, likable team in the Giants against a young, likable team in the Rangers.  These are two organizations who have done a great job with what they have, yet ESPN chose to act like baseball ended when the Yankees and Phillies were eliminated.  This wouldn't even be an issue if they weren't the "worldwide leader" in sports.  They put themselves in that spot, and they now have control over what the public perceives as the truth in sports.  People look to ESPN for their sports knowledge, water cooler information and live sporting events.

Here's the truth:  Baseball is not as easily manipulated for television as football and basketball.  Baseball has no time limits.  Baseball has no TV timeouts.  The beauty of baseball is that the winning run could be scored on the first pitch or the last pitch.  ESPN, and television in general, doesn't like anything that doesn't build to a climax.  It doesn't make for "good TV".

NFL games run three hours on the dot.  How does this happen, you ask?  Hmmmmm.  How do you think?  Ask Jeff Fisher about that.  ESPN wants control over the timing of the games.  What's next?  Outcomes?  You don't think they already try?  Baseball isn't so easy to manipulate.  Ask the Black Sox how easy it is to fix games and get away with it.

Another question to be asked is whether ESPN is trying to drive the price of baseball down.  When the FOX contract is up, you can guarantee that ESPN will want a stake in postseason baseball.  Are they not talking about it on purpose in order to buy the rights for less money?  That seems entirely plausible, because I cannot remember a World Series with less hype in my lifetime.

If you ask me, ESPN's got it all wrong.  They need to be promoting baseball.  One reason would be that they own the rights for most of the six-month baseball season, so it seems as if that would be a financially sound thing to do. Also, baseball can be riveting from the first pitch.  Especially in games that mean something.  Football and basketball, on the other hand, are generally decided in the last quarter of the game.  So, if I'm not a fan of the team, what encourages me to tune in for the entire game?  Unfortunately, in today's microwave society, people don't want to stay tuned in.  They want highlights--dunks, big hits, etc.  It's why the home run plays so well on Sports Center.  Pitching doesn't sell today.  Unless you understand the game.

So, with that, I say goodbye to baseball for a few months.  It's always a bittersweet end for me.  I miss the game when it's gone, but it means the Cubs are back in first place, at least until April 1st!