what's next Mr. December?

I’ve often argued that although not nearly as athletic as others baseball, unlike the other major sports, is the perfect game because there is no chance to Run-out-the-Clock. You must get through 27 batters in order to win a game, no matter how many mound trips, shake-offs or throw-overs to first base that a pitcher may take. Baseball is the perfect combination because of the symmetry: every major point of the game has the aura of three (three strikes, three outs, nine innings), the strategy: righty-righty matchups, double-switches, leaving a pitcher in and the pace which sometimes painfully slow leads to so much drama because there is so much involved.


Baseball allows for the only true home-field advantage which is based on rules not stadium acoustics, baseball has real strategy and being able to confine the adrenaline and being able channel it into concentration remains the best weapon for any player. Baseball has its downfalls too, it can be boring as all hell, it is too easily influenced by bad calls but most importantly it’s a kid’s game meant to be played on fields in the afternoons and instead has become manipulated by the dollar in every way.

In the mid and late 70’s, Reggie Jackson cemented his image in the hearts and minds of the fans of the New York Yankees and Oakland A’s for his heroics in the baseball postseason and earned him the nickname ‘Mr. October’. Two and a half decades later in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, Derek Jeter was dubbed ‘Mr. November’ as the Fall Classic was moved into November only after a 10 day hiatus in the regular season as the country dealt with the blow of the attacks. It was the only time that the world-series had been played in November and Jeter’s nickname seemed like it could not be overtaken for the sole reason that baseball wouldn’t purposely play the game of summer in a potential nor’easter. Well this is 2009 and we have a black president, a more stable Iraq than Pakistan and a porn industry which is bleeding money because of sites like YouPorn and XNXX and Bud Selig and his cronies decided that they can’t make enough money from April till October and now need to include another month to an already marathon season.

What disturbs me is not the fact that baseball extends for a few weeks but that playing into the middle of November is like having Hockey played in July, the feel is all wrong. Baseball of course has betrayed its fans over and over again by looking the other way as it became the ‘legitimate’ version of the WWE during the raging years in the late 90’s and early 2000’s and has spent itself into oblivion like a coked-out Wall Street executive of the mid 2000’s, so why should we expect anything different.

Last night I watched the first game of the World Series which started at 8pm which ensured that virtually no child under 14 saw the 5th inning. Which drips of irony as you still hear players refer to it as a ‘kid’s game’ while they are getting paid like those Wall Street execs who themselves have been accused of confusing their profession with a game.