Last Updated on: 25th November 2013, 12:57 pm
Hello, friends
So I should apologize for the lack of posting I’ve done. it’s a long story I won’t bore you with – but in the interest of not glazing over it I’ll just say it’s been hectic, and somewhat productive, few weeks in the job hunting department.
Onward!
The Baseball playoffs are in full swing but to much less fan-fare than usual. Much of this is likely due to the lack of either New York teams, which tend to draw large nationwide audiences. Things are likely to get worse before they get better in terms of ratings.
Right now, Philadelphia and Tampa Bay are poised to move on to the World Series. These are two teams that do not enjoy large followings of fans outside their cities, and in the case of Tampa Bay you could argue, even in their city. The two teams that Tampa and Philadelphia have strangleholds on are the LA Dodgers and the Boston Red Sox. Both big markets and both with large followings outside those markets. That combination would also draw the added soap opra storyline of Manny Ramirez returning to Boston to face his old team.
While it looks unlikely that this will become the case, you have to think that MLB Broadcasters and their advertisers are paying for miracle.
Interestingly, the small market teams may not be the biggest ratings killer for the World Series. It is possible, and likely – if you ask me, that Philadelphia could wrap up their series with a win tonight and that Tampa could polish of Boston tomorrow night. However, due to the playoff schedule being laid out before they started – game 1 of the World Series would not be played until next Wednesday. That would mean a 6 day lay-off for the Phillies and a 5 day break for the Rays. That is an eternity for fans of a sport that is used to having their team play almost every night. Any momentum, which is non-existant as is, that had been built will be long dead by the time next Wednesday rolls around.
The reason for laying out the schedule this way? Well in the past MLB has liked to start the World Series on a Saturday night. However, it has become evident that Saturday is a dead TV night. Sunday is loaded with NFL football and other good prime-time programming. So you’re looking at having your series be two games old by the time people actually start to watch. I guess they think by starting Wednesday you can get people hooked with a couple games and then keep them through the weekend. Iunderstand skipping Monday due to Monday Night Football… What’s wrong with Tuesday? Oh well.
An interesting side-effect of the long break is that it works out great for the two managers who will want to get their pitching rotations set. Typically in a series if you get to a game 6 or 7 and you want to start your Ace, you do it with the knowledge that you’ve now lost him for Game 1 and 2 of the next series and now you’re looking at only getting your best pitcher in to 2 games (3 and 7) in the next round as opposed to 3 if he were rested. So I guess it works out well for someone.
Hockey is now in full swing. The Leafs haven’t really given anyone an indication as to what type of team they’re going to be this year, though the smart money is still on being a bad one. However, after opening the season with a one goal victory over the defending champions, the Leafs promptly were spanked 6-1 by the Canadiens on Saturday. That was followed on Monday afternoon with a shootout loss to St Louis in which they looked like a very good team in the first half of the game – and a fairly bad one for the second. So after three games we’ve assentially a seen a win, a loss and a tie… I guess we’ll have to keep waiting. The Leafs face the currently undefeated Rangers on Friday.
I think that’ll due for now. I hope all our Canadian friends had a good Thanksgiving and our American friends…. a good Columbus Day. Someone tell me what you guys do down there on Columbus Day. I mean, I know what you’re celebrating… I just don’t know how you celebrate it.