Relegation
I've been watching a ton of baseball this year. I don't really know why. Well really I do know why. The Sox won last year. It was a nice change from what I'm used to. Unfortunately, I am not a baseball fan. I keep watching, and now I think I understand large parts of the sport. I can appreciate a lot of the sport. I do find it fascinating that the game is so intellectually complex, so cerebral on some levels, when played correctly. I just don't find it to be good sport. To me football (and I'm talking about soccer here) is so much more entertaining. But that's all personal preference.
My dad didn't really care for sports all that much and aside from a few Ali fights, I don't recall him ever following anyone in particular. He still doesn't. And I don't have any specific memories of him taking me to a ball game at any time, although it's possible. But I do recall going to soccer games with him.
Chicago, before 2003 was a bad town for a baseball fan. To me, although I love underdogs, a team that doesn't win a championship in 90+ years is a team that shouldn't exist. To call them an underdog is somewhat of a misnomer. Failure is a more appropriate term.
And although no one cares, I think there is a solution for such teams. Relegation. In the Premier League in England if you are one of the worst few teams in the league, you get the boot and go down to their equivalent of AAA ball. Why we don't do that here I don't know. Frankly, I think it is the only way the Cubs have a chance at success. The are owned by the Tribune company which has no incentive to improve the team so long as their ballpark is a shrine, filled with beautiful people and beer. The GM and coach are either perennially incompetent or tow the party line. And you continually hear "wait till next year." It's a lie. No one will stop going to that ballpark regardless of the product on the field. The owner makes more money by fielding a low payroll team than by fielding a good one. So what's the point? Just imagine if the Cubs were playing AAA ball along with the (former) Montreal Expos, Pittsburgh Pirates, Tampa Bay Devil Rays and Kansas City Royals. And wouldn't you love to see some scrappy guys from AAA ball elevate to the big game as a team? I know it's about as American as Fish and Chips or Mincemeat Pie but the alternative is just as rotten.
My dad didn't really care for sports all that much and aside from a few Ali fights, I don't recall him ever following anyone in particular. He still doesn't. And I don't have any specific memories of him taking me to a ball game at any time, although it's possible. But I do recall going to soccer games with him.
Chicago, before 2003 was a bad town for a baseball fan. To me, although I love underdogs, a team that doesn't win a championship in 90+ years is a team that shouldn't exist. To call them an underdog is somewhat of a misnomer. Failure is a more appropriate term.
And although no one cares, I think there is a solution for such teams. Relegation. In the Premier League in England if you are one of the worst few teams in the league, you get the boot and go down to their equivalent of AAA ball. Why we don't do that here I don't know. Frankly, I think it is the only way the Cubs have a chance at success. The are owned by the Tribune company which has no incentive to improve the team so long as their ballpark is a shrine, filled with beautiful people and beer. The GM and coach are either perennially incompetent or tow the party line. And you continually hear "wait till next year." It's a lie. No one will stop going to that ballpark regardless of the product on the field. The owner makes more money by fielding a low payroll team than by fielding a good one. So what's the point? Just imagine if the Cubs were playing AAA ball along with the (former) Montreal Expos, Pittsburgh Pirates, Tampa Bay Devil Rays and Kansas City Royals. And wouldn't you love to see some scrappy guys from AAA ball elevate to the big game as a team? I know it's about as American as Fish and Chips or Mincemeat Pie but the alternative is just as rotten.
posted by Ranger | 12:21 PM
1 Comments:
Baseball, the most wonderful thing of this earth, but soccer, to give it the American name, during the World Cup, is the most exciting thing to sit and watch. And then there's this with baseball, the best time to watch it isn't early in the season, but in June, July and August after it's been marinating for awhile.
Having said that, if there is anything better than watching a good pitcher, a Beckett for instance, drop a curve on some poor son of a bitch with two strikes, I don't know what it is and I don't care when it is.
A frozen rope down the right field line and an anguished throw to the plate on a stand-up double with a guy trying to score from first in a tight game holds up pretty well too.
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