Baseball—World Series-Open Thread

posted at 7:59 pm on October 19, 2011 by Rovin

Saint Louis Cardinals vs. Texas Rangers

The broadcast schedule for the 107th World Series has officially been set.

First pitch in all the games between the American League champion Texas Rangers and the National League champion St. Louis Cardinals will be at 8:05 p.m. ET on FOX. Game 1 of the World Series is on Wednesday.

Air time for each game will be at 7:30 p.m. ET, with Game 4 on Sunday as the one exception. Its air time will begin at 7:45 p.m.

FOX Sports will provide national coverage of the World Series, while ESPN Radio will have complete coverage of all World Series games.

Additional live coverage will also be on MLB.com, XM Radio and MLB International.

What does .175, .216, and .190 mean to baseball fans?  Those were the batting averages of the teams that the Giants disposed of on the way to their first World Series since 1954.

Atlanta, (.175) never had a lead in this series until game # 5, which they lost.

Then the Giants blew through the “other best team in baseball” by sending the Phillys home scratching their heads, and their fans wondering where all that powerful hitting went. (Phillys batted .216 in the series)

Likewise, Texas never had a chance in the WS. The Rangers had an overall batting average of .190 in the series and did not score for more than 18 consecutive innings before a lone home run in the seventh inning of their final game.

Baseball fans, (even Giant’s haters), witnessed some of the greatest pitching in playoff  and World Series history.

Fast forward to 2011.

Both the Cardinals and the Rangers have good pitching heading into this series—should be a good one.

Food for thought: Gene Wojciechowski at ESPN.com thinks “The World Series: It’s broken. Fix it!”

“And while we’re at it, let’s shrink the league championship series and World Series from best-of-seven series to best-of-five.

And nothing against LaRussa, the master of situational pitching changes, but let’s ixnay the roster rule that lets teams put 11, even 12 pitchers on their postseason 25-man roster. Instead, make it 10, tops.

This way, you speed up the middle to late innings of a game. Plus, you reward a team for having quality relievers who can get right- and left-handed hitters out. And if they can’t, then you have the added possibility of a late-inning rally and comeback. Nothing wrong with that.

While we’re at it, why not flip-flop the DH rule? From now on, use the DH in the National League ballpark and no DH in the American League park. The home fans would get to see a different style of baseball.”

Personally, I think Wojo’s full of beans…….

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