Dolfan in NYC Posted September 23, 2014 Share Posted September 23, 2014 It's almost time... barring a collapse, it looks like... American League Oakland/Kansas City @ Los Angeles of Anaheim Detroit @ Baltimore National League San Francisco/Pittsburgh @ Washington St. Louis @ Los Angeles of Los Angeles (this may swap) So, not only do we have the very real possibility of a Freeway Series, but we also have the possibility of - to Rippa's horror - a Beltway series. Baltimore announced they're going with a 4 man rotation for the Quarterfinals (I forget whatever they call it). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mistah Na1m4rk Posted September 23, 2014 Share Posted September 23, 2014 Phooey. Phooey on all this. Anyone up for a Cockroach Cup? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RIPPA Posted September 23, 2014 Share Posted September 23, 2014 It would be a Beltways Series. But yeah... I can't wait for everyone to be all stunned when the World Series ratings crater Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Lucia Posted September 23, 2014 Share Posted September 23, 2014 I can't wait for the BASEBALL IS DEAD articles that we get every year from football columnists. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pipGofern Posted September 23, 2014 Share Posted September 23, 2014 Ratings wouldn't crater so bad if the dipshits at national outlets like, I dunno, the four letter network maybe featured the Pirates, KC, Oakland, etc instead of carrying installment #445 of Red Sox-Yankees or the gazillionth Derek Jeter Greatest Human In Humanity night on their national telecasts. It's the Tiger Woods Syndrome...you teach tv audiences to only pay attention to these guys over here and ratings tank when those guys flame out. Say what you will about football but their rules about x number of national games per team and/or every team needing at least one prime time game is something the doofs at MLB should learn from. Sorry for the rant but national baseball coverage is a major pet peeve of mine. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RIPPA Posted September 23, 2014 Share Posted September 23, 2014 Well that is a different issue. My point is this With no large market East Coast team in the playoffs - it is going to hurt the ratings. No Boston, NY, Philly, etc... means less people watching period. (As in actual eye balls available to be in front a TV screen.) The more teams in the same time zone the better And if it is LA vs. LA or LA vs. San Fran - no one on the East Coast is going to watch. Yet MLB will stupidly start the games at 5 pm in the West in trying to attract the East Coast - thus screwing the West Coast fans... who would be the ones most likely to watch in the first place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kuetsar Posted September 23, 2014 Share Posted September 23, 2014 Ratings wouldn't crater so bad if the dipshits at national outlets like, I dunno, the four letter network maybe featured the Pirates, KC, Oakland, etc instead of carrying installment #445 of Red Sox-Yankees or the gazillionth Derek Jeter Greatest Human In Humanity night on their national telecasts. It's the Tiger Woods Syndrome...you teach tv audiences to only pay attention to these guys over here and ratings tank when those guys flame out. Say what you will about football but their rules about x number of national games per team and/or every team needing at least one prime time game is something the doofs at MLB should learn from. Sorry for the rant but national baseball coverage is a major pet peeve of mine. It doesn't help that the playoffs are scattered all over the cable dial. Say what you want about FOX or ESPN, but at least you know where the games will be. Yeah I know it isn't hard to look up, but most of the viewing public won't search for the games. . . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RIPPA Posted September 23, 2014 Share Posted September 23, 2014 Yeah - though that only applies for the playoff series and not the World Series But yeah - I am almost positive TBS outdraws Fox Sports EDIT - I am sure Joe will have access to an updated number but a chart I found from Aug 2013 has TBS - 87% of available homes FS1 - 75% of available homes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Lucia Posted September 23, 2014 Share Posted September 23, 2014 re: national outlets only carrying big markets. I actually did a breakdown of this earlier, and there's a reason they do it - those games with bigger markets generally draw larger ratings than games featuring smaller markets, even if they're better teams. It's a short-term/long-term thing: do you try to build up those smaller markets and stars in them (Gordon, McCutchen, etc) and deal with awful ratings now, or do you go back to the well with the larger markets, get higher ratings today, and sacrifice long-term buildup? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EdA Posted September 23, 2014 Share Posted September 23, 2014 Ratings wouldn't crater so bad if the dipshits at national outlets like, I dunno, the four letter network maybe featured the Pirates, KC, Oakland, etc instead of carrying installment #445 of Red Sox-Yankees or the gazillionth Derek Jeter Greatest Human In Humanity night on their national telecasts. It's the Tiger Woods Syndrome...you teach tv audiences to only pay attention to these guys over here and ratings tank when those guys flame out. Say what you will about football but their rules about x number of national games per team and/or every team needing at least one prime time game is something the doofs at MLB should learn from. Sorry for the rant but national baseball coverage is a major pet peeve of mine. Yes, because the NFL does not give us tons and tons and tons of Steelers, Pats, Broncos, Seahwaks, 49ers, Packers and Cowboys games. Curse the NFL for not showing winning/popular teams! /snark over Personally, I don't watch ESPN unless they are showing a pro football game. So I couldn't tell you what they show of MLB - because god knows you couldn't pay me to watch ESPN's baseball coverage. I know Oakland gets some love but they are hampered by being on the West Coast and Fox/ESPN being East Coast-centric. I know the Fox Saturday games used to give me plenty enough Pirates games over the past couple years. And the Indians used to get plenty of love when they were good. KC is a weird situation as this is their first year of not being atrocious in almost 30 years. Was Fox and ESPN supposed to show some of those shitty Pirates and Royals teams of the past 15 years? That doesn't seem like a good way to sell baseball to me. And back when I was a kid and I didn't have cable, the only games I could see were whatever local games I could get and the Saturday Game of the Week and Monday Night Baseball. In the 80's the meant a helluva lot of Mets, Dodgers, Cubs and Cardinals. So it wasn't exactly better back in the day. The thing is, people will watch pretty much anything when it comes to playoffs. But it sure would help if the networks got better production values and announcers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EdA Posted September 23, 2014 Share Posted September 23, 2014 re: national outlets only carrying big markets. I actually did a breakdown of this earlier, and there's a reason they do it - those games with bigger markets generally draw larger ratings than games featuring smaller markets, even if they're better teams. It's a short-term/long-term thing: do you try to build up those smaller markets and stars in them (Gordon, McCutchen, etc) and deal with awful ratings now, or do you go back to the well with the larger markets, get higher ratings today, and sacrifice long-term buildup? Well, the obvious solution is to show the large market teams when they play the small market teams - schedules permitting and all that. But I mean, the problem is if you schedule an August Red Sox-Royals game at the beginning of the season and the Royals end up 20 games out at that point, you have set yourself up for a turd sandwich. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Lucia Posted September 23, 2014 Share Posted September 23, 2014 That's obviously a good idea, but considering that each team only plays non-division rivals twice a year, there's a chance it can work out poorly. The Royals got both the Red Sox and Yankees in September, so that worked out great for them to get national airtime. But the Mariners? Three of their four series against those two teams were done by the end of June, and they were still hovering around .500 then. I think that's why teams like the Orioles and Rays get helped a lot on the national scale - they play those two teams 18 times a year, and there are plenty of chances for them to show up on the national stage. The same is true with the dregs of the NL West - we know we're going to get a lot of Dodgers and Giants games in late timeslots, and the DBacks, Padres, and Rockies will show up more often than you'd expect. If only they were, you know, good. There really is no easy answer aside from "focus on the local audience and worry about the rest later". When you have teams pulling local ratings each night of the summer that cream everything else on TV in that market, broadcast and cable, you're doing something right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
odessasteps Posted September 23, 2014 Share Posted September 23, 2014 It would be a Beltways Series. But yeah... I can't wait for everyone to be all stunned when the World Series ratings crater Parkway Series. I cant be the only person who always takes 295 instead of 95. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EdA Posted September 23, 2014 Share Posted September 23, 2014 That's obviously a good idea, but considering that each team only plays non-division rivals twice a year, there's a chance it can work out poorly. The Royals got both the Red Sox and Yankees in September, so that worked out great for them to get national airtime. But the Mariners? Three of their four series against those two teams were done by the end of June, and they were still hovering around .500 then. I think that's why teams like the Orioles and Rays get helped a lot on the national scale - they play those two teams 18 times a year, and there are plenty of chances for them to show up on the national stage. The same is true with the dregs of the NL West - we know we're going to get a lot of Dodgers and Giants games in late timeslots, and the DBacks, Padres, and Rockies will show up more often than you'd expect. If only they were, you know, good. There really is no easy answer aside from "focus on the local audience and worry about the rest later". When you have teams pulling local ratings each night of the summer that cream everything else on TV in that market, broadcast and cable, you're doing something right. Exactly. People have seemingly ignored that MLB does great ratings on the RSN's. So maybe people need to look at declining playoff ratings as something more than the sport dying and actually need to look at...I dunno...the crappiness of Fox and TBS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
piranesi Posted September 23, 2014 Share Posted September 23, 2014 Beltway series? Parkway series? You all know what it's going to be...you just don't want to admit it. "Right" way series again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
odessasteps Posted September 23, 2014 Share Posted September 23, 2014 Beltway series? Parkway series? You all know what it's going to be...you just don't want to admit it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrick B. Posted September 23, 2014 Share Posted September 23, 2014 Beltway series? Parkway series? You all know what it's going to be...you just don't want to admit it. God damn it. It's coming back to me now. The heartbreak of a new baseball fan seeing his team come close to the crown, but yet so far... In all seriousness, that was a fun team in the '80s. Ozzie, Coleman, McGee, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
odessasteps Posted September 23, 2014 Share Posted September 23, 2014 I apologize to all non-piranesi cardinals fans for playing the atomic bomb this early. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niners Fan in CT Posted September 23, 2014 Share Posted September 23, 2014 I don't have a lot to root for in these playoffs. Go Royals I guess? Fuck the Cardinals is a good one.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
piranesi Posted September 23, 2014 Share Posted September 23, 2014 I don't know why you guys are talking so much about something that never happened and is some kind of weird made-up internet meme made by people who tapped into a bad dream I had once about SOMETFHINGTFHATHNEVFERHAPPENFN BALAHAHAHAHBALAHAHABAJALAHLA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
odessasteps Posted September 24, 2014 Share Posted September 24, 2014 Someone had great line on twitter With balt, oak, pit and kc maybe in the playoffs, its the 70s again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pipGofern Posted September 24, 2014 Share Posted September 24, 2014 The Pirates clinched their second straight playoff berth last night. Going by the celebration, their post-season mission is clear: Arrive. Raise Hell. Leave. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Craig H Posted September 24, 2014 Share Posted September 24, 2014 And with the Cubs victory over the Cards last night, the NL Central is still up for grabs. In a season like this, where the Cubs were practically destined to have a losing season, it has been a lot of fun. Ending the season by fucking the Cards over and letting the Buccos take over the Central would be the mint icing on the cellular peptide cake. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Nature Boy Posted September 24, 2014 Share Posted September 24, 2014 As a Sox fan, I can't really complain about the tendencies of national networks to carry my team's games. I can see where others may have problems with it though. A Detroit World Series win would be heart warming at least. I mean, that city has been through so much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
piranesi Posted September 24, 2014 Share Posted September 24, 2014 And with the Cubs victory over the Cards last night, the NL Central is still up for grabs. In a season like this, where the Cubs were practically destined to have a losing season, it has been a lot of fun. Ending the season by fucking the Cards over and letting the Buccos take over the Central would be the mint icing on the cellular peptide cake. Yes. Collude with your fellow gross hippie commune-mates, "man." Get "mellow" and write some manifestos and "occupy" the student union. I'm sure it'll be "groovy" to make fun of the "squares." But "the man" isn't going anywhere. : Omnis October, Decretum tibi fidelis in aeternum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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