Posted 2:17 PM by Gene

Okay, why did this year's Series earn a well-deserved record-low TV audience? Possibly because the game is dull, for starters. Who wants to watch three hours of pitchers spitting and grabbing their crotches and fondling rosin bags and mopping their brows and catchers crouching and fiddling with their signs and coaches fiddling with their signs and runners trying not to be picked off and umpires dusting home plate and outfielders just standing there? And sure Bill, maybe Bud's the best thing to happen to baseball, but he also invented the SeligSign™, and who wants to watch a three-hour infomercial behind the batter's box on top of all the boredom?

Most to the point, like other institutions that became TV-crazed, baseball has lost its soul. Miss America is the classic example, having gone from a certain kitschy larger-than-life melodrama to robotics. America's Former Pastime may be, as Zelig's always telling us, healthier than ever; but much of its health comes from RUPERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and the rest comes from Brian Robber and the cable conspiracy, not to mention the hack pols giving our tax dollars away. Take away that health and you've got a ghostly creature living in the past.

There might be one other reason: most people just don't care.

Note too the heading, and the URL. They say it all.