There's an MLB post season
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by Suckatsports
In the face of adversity - and by that I mean, the TBS and FOX announcers - the Cleveland Indians are one game away from the World Series. I say this with apprehension, because as a Cleveland fan, I've seen this before. I'm not negative, I'm just jaded, and thus guarded until the outcome is already in hand. With that said, I'm incredibly excited about this, and I'm cheering every hit, every base, and every home run.
This is exciting for Cleveland, and it shows from Jacob's Field where the place is filled to 104% capacity and no one is sitting down, not even the handicapped old grandpa. They're waving towels, they're screaming at every pitch, and they are likely the difference in Paul Byrd hitting a blistering 90 mph on the radar gun. Cleveland Indians beat the Boston Red Sox last night by a score of 7-3, and even though the faithful were worried in the top of the 6th after back-to-back-to-back home runs, all ended up well. When Yettie Casey Blake gives you a home run, and old man river Kenny Lofton steals bases, you know something is going your way.
With Beckett going on Thursday, there's no doubt the atmosphere is going to be electric, and there isn't one Indians fan that isn't scared of what Beckett can do. He shut down the Indians in Game 1, and has been the only consistent player on the Boston Red Sox this entire post season. With a historic 3-0 comeback in their pocket, Red Sox faithful believe it's only a matter of time until the tide turns, but neutral fans don't see it that way. As always, biased fans are guarded.
I was thinking about this the other day though. How shitty must TBS feel for picking up this post-season, especially what they picked up? They had all the DS games, that included three sweeps, and one four-game series. They only pick up the NLCS, which was a thrilling 4 games in the middle of the night which pulled abysmal ratings. So, what TBS actually showed is just one paltry game above the minimum number of post-season games they could possibly show. Not only do they get the horrible time slots, but they've shown games which mostly have turned out to be stinkers. How much did they shell out for that celebrity loaded studio team to cover almost the smallest number of games possible.
This can be directly parlayed into a would-be matchup of Indians and Rockies in the World Series. If that turns out to be the case, just like the NBA Finals earlier in the year, it could be the least watched series in recent history. And, if you read the comments on Will Leitch's NY Times blog, it's dead on - no matter how much we hate the big market teams like Red Sox and Yankees, the truth is that they bring interest to the big games. They have the biggest fan bases (I guess that's why they're the big markets) and the bring the most fans and ratings to the games. Hate them if you wish, but it's teams like them, that make the sports world go round. Love them, or hate them, there's still a rooting interest either way.
Fair And Foul [NY Times Blog]
Cleveland tops Boston [Yahoo! Sports]
This post is cross-published from We Suck at Sports.
