First of all, I realize this isn’t a new concept. Sports leagues have been whoring themselves abroad for quite some time, but none have ever done so as cheaply as Bud Selig has done with our beloved Major League Baseball.
Remember how the Cincinnati Reds used to open up every season as the first game because they were the oldest team in baseball?
Remember when you could watch the Major League opener on ESPN from noon until bedtime?
Well, now ESPN sells a lie because this year Opening Day was Wednesday, March 28th 2012. It just took place across the globe at 6 a.m., which is a lot like a sucker punch from someone promising long lasting kiss.
I’m a big fan of baseball. I’ve told many people for many years that baseball is my religion. I look at Opening Day the way that a lot of people look at Christmas. When I see Commissioner sell my Opening Day I want to know how much he and MLB made for slapping my face! I’ve been looking all over the internet for days to find out, but the problem is that I can’t find any information on this.
What I can find is indignation, anger, frustration, and a feeling of betrayal. Thank you Bud! Thank you very, very much. I’ve seen enough of your stupid ideas to know that you shouldn’t be trusted to make decisions by yourself. For every cool thing you’ve done, like interleague play and the 50 and 100 game suspensions for steroids (albeit well after the fact when much of the problem was created by you and the MLB Players Association looking the other way) you’ve screwed up so many times it’s hard to count.
Bud Selig failures:
• The Wild Card, part 1 which just increased the odds of both the Red Sox and Yankees to make the playoffs.
• The Wild Card, part 2 which just increases the odds that both the Red Sox and Yankees make the playoffs.
• Exhibition games that determine the allocation of tens of millions of dollars and, more importantly, home field advantage in the World Series.
• The only missed World Series.
• His “granting” the move of (his) Brewers into the National League in 1998.
• And then recently his oddly forcing the new ownership of the Astros to move to the American League West.
• The unbalanced schedule which allows ESPN, FOX Sports, MLB.com, the Yankees’ YES Network and the Red Sox’ New England Sports Network to profit and further the inequities between the haves and the have nots in baseball by allowing the AL East, NL East and AL West to profit greatly while destroying baseball in Middle America. No one wants to see 16 games between the Astros or the Royals against anyone, and it’s killing those markets!
Ok, back on track and feeling a little better for letting off some steam. I had started writing this while I was listening to a Minnesota Timberwolves game on the radio. I got up to turn it off when they did a segment updating sports scores during which the radio host at 9 p.m. said: “I’m a season ticket holder for the Twins. I consider myself a big baseball fan in general, and I had no idea that the season started… that’s just stupid.”
So I am not alone. This season’s “Opening Day” never really happened for most of the fans of Major League Baseball. Opening Day at 6 a.m. across the globe, with little marketing and no reward for the fans, just sucks! It’s disrespectful, disgusting, and reeks of Selig’s greed.
Loading ...
Just to add some more salt in my wounds… Opening Day took place on the 28th which we’ve established, and have documents stating, box scores, and even some ESPN highlights of Ichiro singles…
Well I was just cleaning up my inbox on gmail, and on the 29th at 7pm I received an email from MLB promoting the opening series in Japan. BANG UP Job Bud! Please step down and bring in a person who has no direct tie to ownership.
Man, I feel your pain. I don’t mind the game trying to expand internationally. But why Japan?!?! The game already has a solid foothold there! Supposedly the Netherlands has a burgeoning baseball fan base (mainly because they still own some Carribean islands), why not play some games in Amsterdam? Just keep the drug testers on standby (just kidding).
Yeah, Brad, listening to MLB radio and reading some national sports mags, all I’ve seen is praise for Selig. I agree with your list and add this one…the split game 5 of the 2008 World Series. That game turned out to be the clincher for the Phils, but it should never have been started in the first place. He allowed the game to go on through 3 innings of utter downpour, and was very lucky that Tampa tied the game in the 6th before he suspended it. Both teams wasted their best starting pitchers, and the field was downright dangerous before the suspension. It made for a fun night when they picked it up 2 days later, of course, but it could have had major implications if someone had been injured.
Was not a fan of the wild card, but it has brought some excitement to September. If has expanded the opportunities for the Sox and Yanks to make the playoffs, it has also allowed some out-of-nowhere wild cards to win the title. I do, however, think that the new “play-in game” is an abomination. It’s bad enough that the 8th best regular season team won the Series last year (yeah, I’m still bitter), but now allowing a possible 10th place team to win? They’d have been better off expanding the Division Series to 7 games.
As for interleague play, I’m a fan of the limited schedule. Fans in the opposite league get to some players they wouldn’t otherwise….I wish it would have existed in the 80’s. I had to drive to Baltimore to see my favorite AL players, and I couldn’t do that very often Yeah, you get some sucky matchups…but if nobody watches the Royals-Pirates games, how many more will watch the Royal-A’s or Pirates-Reds games instead?
And finally, the World Series was fine when the home field was simply alternated by league, year to year. The MLB all star game is easily the best of the major sports, but it’s still an exhibition.