POSTSEASON REDS & WHITES
and blues.
For a snapshot of everything that's wrong with
baseball in the last twenty years, and of everything I hope will be right with
baseball for the next twenty or so days, consider that yesterday was the first
time in the life of either of my sons -- Ethan is 7; Adam is 13 -- that they got
to see the Philadelphia Phillies play a postseason game. They have yet to see
-- and, at this rate, may never see -- the Pittsburgh Pirates play
one.
They've seen the Eagles and/or the Steelers play in the postseason every year of their lives. They've seen the Eagles play in a Super Bowl. They've seen the Steelers win one. They've seen the Penguins play in the postseason, get to the Eastern Conference Final, fall on hard times, bottom out, draft the best player in the world, return to the playoffs, and prepare to begin a season in which they are favored, at least by some experts, to go to the Stanley Cup Finals. But the Eagles and Steelers and Penguins play in sports with salary caps. Which is to say they have some sense of fiscal sanity. Which is to say they have some sort of competitive parity. Which means that kids -- and grown-ups, for that matter -- don't have to hope and pray and wait through a lifetime's worth of losing before they get to feel the thrill not just of their favorite teams playing in the postseason, but of their favorite teams actually having a realistic shot to qualify for the postseason.
This is just one of many reasons -- and it may, at least in the practice of fandom, be the most significant reason -- why the NFL and NHL are leagues far greater, with competition far more worthy of following and for rooting, than Major League Baseball. And yet another reason why we here in the Hermann House will be rooting for the Phillies to hang around in this postseason for as long as possible.
Sure, we want them to win the World Series. But we also know that, in the salary-cap-devoid, big-payroll-heavy, fan-un-friendly world of Major League Baseball, we may never get this chance again.
They've seen the Eagles and/or the Steelers play in the postseason every year of their lives. They've seen the Eagles play in a Super Bowl. They've seen the Steelers win one. They've seen the Penguins play in the postseason, get to the Eastern Conference Final, fall on hard times, bottom out, draft the best player in the world, return to the playoffs, and prepare to begin a season in which they are favored, at least by some experts, to go to the Stanley Cup Finals. But the Eagles and Steelers and Penguins play in sports with salary caps. Which is to say they have some sense of fiscal sanity. Which is to say they have some sort of competitive parity. Which means that kids -- and grown-ups, for that matter -- don't have to hope and pray and wait through a lifetime's worth of losing before they get to feel the thrill not just of their favorite teams playing in the postseason, but of their favorite teams actually having a realistic shot to qualify for the postseason.
This is just one of many reasons -- and it may, at least in the practice of fandom, be the most significant reason -- why the NFL and NHL are leagues far greater, with competition far more worthy of following and for rooting, than Major League Baseball. And yet another reason why we here in the Hermann House will be rooting for the Phillies to hang around in this postseason for as long as possible.
Sure, we want them to win the World Series. But we also know that, in the salary-cap-devoid, big-payroll-heavy, fan-un-friendly world of Major League Baseball, we may never get this chance again.
Posted: Thu - October 4, 2007 at 01:27 PM
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Published On: Jan 16, 2009 04:50 PM
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Published On: Jan 16, 2009 04:50 PM