FanNation - The Republic of Sport

Simply awful how the post season schedule worked out this year. Three sweeps and a burp leaves us with almost a week without baseball. MLB did not need that at all, not that it seems to much care about the postseason this year.

The NFL loves and exploits the two weeks off before the Superbowl, but MLB did nothing to build itself up this past week. If anything, the time off has probably cost MLB a lot of playoff viewers.

I love baseball, and I'll probably watch more of the two championship series and World Series than the vast majority of typical sports fans. I can guarantee, though, I probably won't be watching as much as I had in the past. But again, MLB does not seem to care based on the way it has seen fit to promote and present the postseason to us fans.

Face it. TBS carrying the playoffs was a bad idea. So MLB probably got the most dollars from TBS: it ripped off the fans! The announcers have been lackluster, and production has been awful. A couple of close homeruns followed by umpire conferences to make the call, and not a decent camera angle was available to show us a good replay. Some great ballgames were played - extra innings, comebacks, slugfests - but TBS might just as well have been announcing election returns for some small village in the Balkans.

The rest of the postseason features some great stories, too. A couple of upstarts going at it in the NL, and a couple of perennial brides' maids slugging it out in the AL. Is this what we're getting from the media, though? No. we get the annual Torre death watch, and a look at the nannies lined up outside of "The Boss's" house wanting an opportunity to look after his brood. Interesting stuff after the postseason, but not what I think fans want now, and certainly not what MLB needs to be projecting if it wants its games watched for the next couple of weeks.

"Don't blame MLB," you say? Why not? Has it done anything to put the championship series on the front page? No media days, as far as I know. No significant access to the players and coaches. No nothing! Just beat writers coming up with a slight new twist on the same old stories they've been running all year. MLB seems to think that even if it does nothing, it will still get a huge audience for the last two weeks of the playoffs. "Out of sight; Out of mind." Remember that, MLB, the next time you sit down to ink a new TV contract.

Okay, MLB, you got me (for the most part). I'm a diehard fan, and I will probably watch most of the remaining postseason action. But I deserve better than this.