The Worst Idea Ever
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by user Thefeed
I'd never read anything by Mike Freeman of CBS Sportsline before today. I don't know that I'm going to get into the habit of it either. Freeman advocates making a change to the way we play postseason baseball. The problem, he says, is that cold weather is ruining the game,
- "This is baseball’s signature moment, when the nation and world are looking at the sport, yet it feels like amateur hour. How can a big-time sports league allow its signature game to be so utterly mishandled?"
A tad melodramatic there Michael? It's raining, it happens. The only thing more tiresome than someone talking about the weather is someone complaining about it. There are sunny days, there are rainy days and windy ones, too. Welcome to planet Earth.
- "Baseball purists hate what I am about to say but baseball needs to take a tip from the NFL. If baseball and TV insist on playing the World Series this late in the year, and at night, then why not adopt a permanent warm weather site or series of sites?"
Because baseball isn't football. The NFL has a winner take all game that is appealing to every football fan in America, they don't have to sell tickets to seven games at superpremium prices after asking fans to shell out for the whole season and the playoffs only to have the Series snatched away from them. It's one thing if you have tickets lined up to a Game Six in your hometown and it doesn't come to fruition, it's a lot more when you are asking people to travel to games that may never happen.
- "The NFL does not concern itself with making one or two cities happy. It worries about the entire sport. If Chicago gets to the Super Bowl again, the NFL will not play it at Soldier Field in February to make Bears fans happy. That would be stupid. The quality of football would be awful."
Je-sus. What is baseball if not October moments in front of rabid crowds? Aaron Boone's homer, Carlton Fisk's homer, Bill Mazerozki's homer - what are any of these things if they took place in front of sponsors and friends of the league and not in front of the hometown crowd. Do the images even matter? Think of the greatest moments in Super Bowl history, how many of them do you remember where they took place? Everyone knows where Willie Mays made his catch, old-timers can still tell you just where the ball fell into Sandy Amoros's glove and no one will ever forget Kirby Puckett and Jack Morris in front of the hankie waving loons at the Metrodome. That's not the case if those games are played at a converted football stadium.
- "Cold and rain are not conducive to splendid baseball; they are detriments. They injure the quality of play. Rain and wind add character to football games; those same elements add chaos to baseball. No wonder Kenny Rogers slimed himself with pine tar. He probably wanted to build a fire on the mound."
If they add so much character to football games, Mike, how come you don't advocate moving the Super Bowl to a cold-weather site. You just said the quality of football at Soldier Field would be awful. Which is it?
- "Baseball has been lucky in the past. The last postponement of a World Series game was Oct. 19, 1996, which was Game 1 at the New York Yankees. Baseball has eluded the kind of weather-primed traveshamockery it currently faces out of pure fortune."
Yeah, that's because it's the fucking WEATHER. Some times you get lucky, sometimes you get screwed with your shorts on. So it goes.
There you have it folks. The Worst Idea Ever.
Here's the best idea... keep the season just like it is (It's worked many times before just fine) and make everybody stop acting like a bunch of pussies. So it's cold out, Whaah! So it's rainy out, Whaah! Adapt and overcome, sissies!
These dudes are PROFESSIONAL athletes, who get paid handsomely to play under the circumstances... that's the beauty of the long season, every game is different! They'll man up and play when the game is played. Stop bitching like little whimps, America! (Two rainouts in 10 years is NOT an epidemic)