Eye Opener 8/24/09

by James Brown on August 24, 2009 at 6:00 am
10 Comments (Including 2 Conversation)Comments


What you missed while dreading the fact you’re working for a livin’

The footy news.

American sports news.

That’s all I got, folks. Have as good of a Monday as you can. We’ll be putting up some pieces today, so stay tuned.

Put the Glass Down

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Categories: Eye Openers

This entry was posted on Monday, August 24th, 2009 at 6:00 am and is filed under Eye Openers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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  • lowercase
    August 24, 2009 at 7:44 am

    Anyone see this baseball realignment proposal? http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/notebook?page=bbtn It’s more absurd and less plausible than my football playoff from last week. But he has the right idea- the rest of the world hates the Yankees and the Red Sox because they play every damn weekend and it has to be the national game on Saturday and Sunday.

    I’m also wondering if Aston Villa might manage their first goal of the season this afternoon. That’d be nice.


    • James Brown
      August 24, 2009 at 7:49 am

      And you know the fans are going to completely hate it, including the Sox and Yanks fans. And yes, here’s hoping Villa does score at least once.


    • mekalek
      August 24, 2009 at 9:27 am

      Thats is bat shit insane. But I kinda like it. Not just because of the Yankees/Sawx games. I have always been of the opinion that they need to make a decision about the DH. It’s like the powers that be feel like they can put it off forever and that isn’t right. I’m an AL guy and I believe the DH is good for the game. But even if you are of the other opinion, it’s high time to make a decision about it. The fact that the basic rules of the game change during the WORLD SERIES depending on which park you are in is freaking insane. What other sport does this? None that I can think of.


    • Sculptor?!?
      August 24, 2009 at 10:29 am

      I love it. But I’m insane, so I might not be the best one to ask. But it addresses so many problems, and balances the inequities (swing teams/travel, over/under scheduling, etc). Biggest fight, I think, would be the DH question.


      • lowercase
        August 24, 2009 at 11:34 am

        The other problem with it is the contraction. His plan in particular axes both Florida teams, which will never happen. Even with the attendance problems, they’re not bailing on Florida. Too much money and potential down here for that.

        What they really ought to do is expand- to Puerto Rico and Havana (if diplomatic relations ever improve blah blah politics getting in the way of good sports ideas blah). Then you have 32 teams, slice and dice from there into 8 great divisions.

        I do like the idea of dumping the whole “inter-league” nonsense. It’s the MLB. American/National leagues have no more meaning than AFC and NFC. Play everybody.


    • RonArtestTableLeg
      August 24, 2009 at 12:23 pm

      Bert and Buck are right, something needs to be done to realign. You could just go with the 6 five teams divisions and go from there. You could have the Braves, Marlins, Rays, Astros, and Rangers in one division. The Mets, Yankees, Phillies, Pirates and Nationals in another division. Then you have the Dodgers, A’s, Giants, Angels and Mariners and so on. I agree that 6 games or similar vs each team is cool. If you’re a fan of a certain team and live in a different city, then chances are you’re going to go to all three games that are played.


  • The Notorious MOB
    August 24, 2009 at 11:34 am

    The biggest fight would be the DH question? I have to disagree. No debate would be more spirited then which two teams to contract. There are Marlins and Rays fans out there believe it or not, and I’m sure they were foaming at the mouth. Yeah, they have only been around for 15 years or 11, but they have combined for 3 World Series appearances and two victories in those years. And how about having NO baseball teams in the country’s fourth most populated state. Kind of absurd. Why not get rid of the Pirates and Royals? Teams that have had no legitimate runs since the early 90’s. Well Pittsburgh is a great sports city with history as is Kansas City. Why not contract my Mets, you’de expand the lifespan of a decent percent of the NY population by about 15 years….It’s a discussion which would be intense, passionate, and would blow up blogs like nobody’s business.


    • Sculptor?!?
      August 24, 2009 at 1:22 pm

      I didn’t even take that bit seriously, he mentioned removing those two teams (arbitrarily) for the sake of discussion. Be easier to add 2 teams in currently non-represented markets.


  • Martin
    August 24, 2009 at 2:21 pm

    I like the idea, but they miss part of the idea that makes the Sox-Yankees so big, because the games are so important. Chop it down to 6 games, and they lose their meaning to everybody who isn’t a Yanks or Sox fan. Sox-Giants or Yanks- Reds become just as important, which is great for fair and balanced, not so great for creating rivalry games.

    Aside from money, and that’s a gigantic aside, the other issue is scheduling. If MLB really wanted to solve some of it’s problems, it needs to become much more creative in it’s scheduling, almost NFL like. The aritcle just barely touched on this, in an off hand way, but, why are the Reds and Pirates playing each other now? MLB, we here, and all of Heaven’s little angels know who the bad teams are going to be by spring training. Spring training of the previous year. (Yes, a team on occasion has “come from nowhere” like the Rays last year, but I’d submit that the Rays were actually a year late in their blossoming, and thus skipped the “they were pretty good last year, I think they make the leap” phase). Why not schedule these teams against each other a lot early in the year? If one of them gets on a roll, they’ll be in contention come August, maybe be in the Wild Card hunt in September. It’s not that teams lose, it’s the fact there is no hope for them from the beginning, that kills a fan base.

    Schedule Pirates vs Reds early in the year, toss in the Nats, Padres, and maybe one of them can get it done. Couple this with some re-alingment and things might really improve for some of these teams. Then again, the Pirates, Royals and Orioles all seem to have front offices that get paid not to succeed, so they might not like that.