Baseball for Dummies?

This is about my love-hate relationship with ESPN Sunday, Monday and Wednesday Night Baseball. First, let me say something unequivocally positive. For twenty years I’ve enjoyed seeing games that I otherwise don’t have access to. This was especially true before the days of mlb.com or TV all access packages. Now it’s just that I enjoy getting those games for free.

Now for the kvetching. First, I’d love to know what percentage of those games actually involved the Mets and Yankees because to me it seems like an awful lot of them did. Those that didn’t involved the Cubs, Braves and Dodgers. Precious few were like last night’s game, the Rays and the Rangers, two teams that those of us who don’t live in their hometowns, virtually never see. How often have the Rockies and the Astros been featured? Or the Indians and the Reds? Only when they play the NY teams, I think.

Second, ESPN can’t seem to decide who it is appealing to. Its ads are obviously aimed at morons who think a team is composed of one star and some other guys with bats and gloves as in, “Alex Rodriquez and the Yankees take on David Ortiz and the Red Sox.” Its broadcasters run the gamut. Some have been so crammed full of meaningless statistics (“Yeah Joe, he is batting .313 with men on first and third who are wearing Number 17 and 31”) that they are bursting at the seams. So is the booth itself with the pointless addition of Steve Phillips as a third voice. Others, former players like Joe Morgan, point out things that might actually interest a baseball fan.

My favorite nights are when there’s a rainout and no national back-up game is available. ESPN, bless its pointy little head, then switches to local feeds and we hop from game to game, inning after inning, picking up local broadcasters and coverage. Then the rain lets up, the tarp is removed and “Alex Rodriquez and the Yankees take on……