Stuff Like This Is Why Baseball Lost Me

You wouldn't know it now, but I grew up a HUGE baseball fan. Baseball was my love as my uncle played, coached and managed in the Major Leagues and my grandfather was Pete Rose's knothole (Little League) coach.

For the last 15-20 years, though, my love for baseball just isn't there anymore. I do like watching it from time to time, but it rarely pulls me in. Heck on Monday night, I watched the Colts-Titans Monday Night Football game (which I had no vested interest in) and not Game 5 of the World Series.

What happened in that Game 5 as I switched to it now and then was just pitiful. You all know what happened, so I won't go back into it.

I see it as Bud Selig gripping to have the Rays tie that game up so he could shut it down and not have to have a rain-shortened game end the World Series. I understand that, but there are rules in baseball in the regular season that also apply to the post-season (Joe Buck even stated that during the game).

Yet Selig admits that he wouldn't let a game end that way. What? Are we making rules up as we go now?

What if the Phillies were up 10-2 again? Would he have said it was cool to end it now? I mean, it does seem like a tough deficit but this is baseball were anything can happen as long as you haven't used all your outs.

I've been using this statement in other areas in my life: I'm not complaining as much about what just happened but the underlying circumstances that lead to it.

Halloween is Friday night. The World Series could still be going on then. That is freakin' ridiculous. Northern cities aren't fit for baseball on Halloween. There were snow flurries in Colorado during last year's "Winter Classic".

My view of World Series of late are players shivering in the dugout, players wearing hats with earflaps, long-johns and fans huddled under blankets. Ya know, a football game atmosphere.

I just said "my view". That's because you need to be in your 30s to actually watch these things. The games start at 8:37pm and end around midnight. The next generation of fans (kids) aren't watching these games finish. Most people who have a first shift job aren't watching these games finish either.

It isn't an overstatement either. I was a sophomore in high school during the 1991 World Series and missed several of the great finishes of those games. I did see the entire Game 7 ... but missed Kirby Puckett's awesomeness in Game 6. I would wake up to go to school and watch SportsCenter in the morning to see what happened in the game that previous night.

I'm far from a purist. I think more teams should be in the playoffs and want a 7-game divisional series. I do think some games/days should be shaved off the schedule and the playoffs started in September. Why can't we have a World Series day game on Saturday? Oh yeah, college football fans won't watch.

Well, many fans aren't watching right now anyway. It's like catching Saturday Night Live, Letterman or Leno: you see the first third of the show to see if anything interesting is happening, then shut it down and ask someone tomorrow if anything cool happened later on.