The 2008 Baseball Thread

garystooge · **Reply #425 on:** October 26, 2008, 04:36:56 PM

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Glad you got to see that game in person Gary! I wish your Phillies luck tonight

Thanks. I've been to a lot of sporting events in Philly over the past 5 decades, but last night's crowd was the most electric one I've ever been in, despite the 90-minute delay and the crappy weather. I'm taking a night off and will be going to game 5 tomorrow if we win tonight.

JazzBill · **Reply #426 on:** October 26, 2008, 04:55:47 PM

Quote from: Justin T on October 26, 2008, 12:18:58 PM

That was one hell of a game last night, Phillies pulled it off and now have the momentum going into Game 4 tonight.

Its been reported that Game 2 was one of the lowest rated WS games ever but thats kinda sad, because even though my
team isn't in it, I'm still finding this World Series to be very entertaining.

Glad you got to see that game in person Gary! I wish your Phillies luck tonight.

The World Series that the White Sox were in few years ago was a ratings bust. But we sure loved it in Chicago. Go Phillies !

shemps#1 · **Reply #427 on:** October 26, 2008, 09:37:27 PM

I saw that coming from a mile away and most of the "blame" should go to Tampa, a small market, newer team with no solid fanbase. The only was this Series pulls in decent to good ratings is if it goes 7, and with the Phillies having a nice lead in game 4 and Hamels due in game 5 that's not looking likely to happen. I've been pleasantly suprised by the Phillies showing in this Series (and would like to think some credit goes to the Red Sox for stretching out what should have been a 5 game series to 7) and most importantly the Philadelphia fans are much better sports fans and deserve the championship a lot more so although I am a fan of the AL go Phils.

Any chance a World Series win would get Philadelphians to quit whining about losing all the time?

Edit by metaldams: Post restored.

shemps#1 · **Reply #428 on:** October 26, 2008, 09:52:47 PM

Quote from: metaldams wearing the shemps#1 Halloween Costume on October 26, 2008, 09:37:27 PM

I'm being serious when I ask this. Who drove in more runs this post season, Philadelphia pitching or the 7-8-9 spots for Boston? Sheesh! Blanton goes yard, Meyers = Babe Ruth......crazy.

EDIT: Jim, I accidentally modified your post, thsi is metaldams speaking above. My bad.

ROFL! Here's an ESPN.com article about the World Series ratings for game 3.

Quote from: http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3665791

NEW YORK -- With a 91-minute rain delay pushing the first pitch until after 10 p.m. on the East Coast, Game 3 of the World Series drew a record-low television rating.

The Philadelphia Phillies' 5-4 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays, which ended at 1:47 a.m. Sunday, earned a 6.1 fast national rating and 13 share on Fox, the network said.

The previous low was an 8.0 in 2006 for Game 1 of the Cardinals-Tigers series.

The game averaged a 6.5/13 from 11 p.m.-midnight EDT, slid to 6.0/14 for the next hour, then rose to a 6.3/17 after 1 a.m.

The game drew a 28.2/49 in Philadelphia and a 21.6/44 in Tampa. With most of the game in prime time on the West Coast, some of the best ratings outside the home markets came there, including a 9.7/19 in Seattle and a 9.2/20 in San Francisco.

Through three games, the World Series is averaging a 7.7/14, down 23 percent from last year's 10.0/17 for Red Sox-Rockies.

The rating is the percentage watching a program among homes with televisions, and the share is the percentage tuned into the broadcast among those households with TVs on at the time.

garystooge · **Reply #429 on:** October 28, 2008, 11:48:10 AM

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Any chance a World Series win would get Philadelphians to quit whining about losing all the time?

No way..... in fact, last night's debacle is just another event we can add to the list of things we can bitch & moan about! Do we really whine that much? But more importantly, does having a sound basis for whining make said whining excusable?

shemps#1 · **Reply #430 on:** October 28, 2008, 11:59:05 AM

Quote from: garystooge on October 28, 2008, 11:48:10 AM

No way..... in fact, last night's debacle is just another event we can add to the list of things we can bitch & moan about! Do we really whine that much? But more importantly, does having a sound basis for whining make said whining excusable?

From my personal experience, yes you guys do whine

. When the Eagles lost to the Pats in the Super Bowl it was a constant barrage of "we never win" from Eagles fans. At least we New Englanders quit whining after 2004.

More importantly Gary, you said earlier that you'd go to game 5 if the Phillies won game 4. Did you go, and if you did are you going to go back to see the finish? It was pathetic the way Selig and Co. were trying to get that game in in that mess.

garystooge · **Reply #431 on:** October 28, 2008, 02:06:44 PM

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From my personal experience, yes you guys do whine . When the Eagles lost to the Pats in the Super Bowl it was a constant barrage of "we never win" from Eagles fans. At least we New Englanders quit whining after 2004.

Fair enough

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More importantly Gary, you said earlier that you'd go to game 5 if the Phillies won game 4. Did you go, and if you did are you going to go back to see the finish? It was pathetic the way Selig and Co. were trying to get that game in in that mess.

Yep. My son flew home from college in Michigan so that we could go to Game 5 together and have a
once-in-a-lifetime, father-son moment when they won it all. Of course it didn't work out that way. I've never seen baseball played in conditions like that before. This was no tropical thunderstorm, this was a cold, driving nor'easter type storm. If they didn't realize that conditions were miserable at the outset, you'd think that when Jimmy Rollins (all-time leading NL fielding % leader) dropped a "routine" pop up, it would have become obvious that conditions were clearly affecting play.

Anyway, because the game won't be continued until tomorrow my son had to fly back because he'd miss too much class. So now I'm faced with the prospect of going to the conclusion with my wife. Don't get me wrong, I love my wife. But I'll be going with someone who thinks that the team that gets the most "points" wins. That's a waste of a ticket. After spending 2 nights in the cold and damp already, I may just give them away to a friend or relative and hopefully enjoy the post-game celebration at home by the fireplace. Am I getting old, or what? Besides, we'll probably lose anyway ( sorry, had to get in one last whine).

Lefty · **Reply #432 on:** October 28, 2008, 02:30:31 PM

Writing this as rain and snow fall and make the roads in worse shape than Johnny Gomes' hair, I guarantee that if last night's game had been in any other city with weather like that, the game would never have even started. Fox is to blame for this, with their hatred of the Phillies. It didn't help that the local forecasters said that the rain would become bad at midnight. They should have said midnight, Greenwich Mean Time. Then of course, because the Phillies were winning, the game had to continue. But once the Rays tied it, "OK, let's call it off and resume it later." Well, tomorrow night is supposed to be dry, but cold. It should be interesting, as the 76ers open their season down the block at 7:00.

Since the baseball game is picking up with the bottom of the 6th inning, shouldn't Fox have them wait until about 10:30 to restart? As Gregory Helms says, "I'm just sayin'."

shemps#1 · **Reply #433 on:** October 28, 2008, 03:00:55 PM

Quote from: Lefty on October 28, 2008, 02:30:31 PM

Writing this as rain and snow fall and make the roads in worse shape than Johnny Gomes' hair, I guarantee that if last night's game had been in any other city with weather like that, the game would never have even started. Fox is to blame for this, with their hatred of the Phillies. It didn't help that the local forecasters said that the rain would become bad at midnight. They should have said midnight, Greenwich Mean Time. Then of course, because the Phillies were winning, the game had to continue. But once the Rays tied it, "OK, let's call it off and resume it later." Well, tomorrow night is supposed to be dry, but cold. It should be interesting, as the 76ers open their season down the block at 7:00.

Since the baseball game is picking up with the bottom of the 6th inning, shouldn't Fox have them wait until about 10:30 to restart? As Gregory Helms says, "I'm just sayin'."

As much as I too hate FOX, that my friend is just silly. The reason they tried so hard to play the game through is ratings. This World Series has been a huge bust ratings wise. FOX doesn't "hate" the Phillies and probably doesn't care one way or the other if they win or lose. With the Rays in the Series instead of the Red Sox and the rain delay in game 3 hurting ratings even more (this year's Series is down 25-30% from last year's Red Sox/Rockies Series and game 3 garnered the worst ratings in World Series history) they are trying to salvage anything they can get, plain and simple.

Leave the conspiracy theories to Alex Jones.

JazzBill · **Reply #434 on:** October 28, 2008, 06:50:11 PM

Quote from: shemps#1 on October 28, 2008, 03:00:55 PM

As much as I too hate FOX, that my friend is just silly. The reason they tried so hard to play the game through is ratings. This World Series has been a huge bust ratings wise. FOX doesn't "hate" the Phillies and probably doesn't care one way or the other if they win or lose. With the Rays in the Series instead of the Red Sox and the rain delay in game 3 hurting ratings even more (this year's Series is down 25-30% from last year's Red Sox/Rockies Series and game 3 garnered the worst ratings in World Series history) they are trying to salvage anything they can get, plain and simple.

Leave the conspiracy theories to Alex Jones.

If your saying that Fox wants to get Series over as fast as possible because they are taking a Ratings ass kicking, I would have to totally agree with you.

metaldams · **Reply #435 on:** October 28, 2008, 06:56:46 PM

Well Philly fans, the Rays are staying in a hotel pretty close to where I live if you want me to throw mustard packets at them or anything like that.

shemps#1 · **Reply #436 on:** October 28, 2008, 07:27:43 PM

Quote from: JazzBill on October 28, 2008, 06:50:11 PM

If your saying that Fox wants to get Series over as fast as possible because they are taking a Ratings ass kicking, I would have to totally agree with you.

Exactly: at this point they want to cut their loses and hope for a more appealing match up next season. Look at it this way, the Tampa Bay market is ranked #28 in the country. While that may sound impressive, the only teams in smaller tv markets are the Rockies, Diamondbacks and Padres. Philadelphia is ranked #4 in the country; the only markets that are larger have two teams. With that in mind, it would make sense to say that it should be easier to get a bigger share in the Tampa market because it is a much smaller market, yet the Series is getting a higher share in the Philly market. So if the Rays aren't a success in their market, especially a team that is appearing in their first World Series ever, you can only imagine what it's doing for the neutral markets. On top of that FOX now has to interrupt regularly scheduled programming for a partial game of a World Series that has been a catastrophe ratings wise because they are contractually obligated to do so. I'm pretty sure that if FOX is rooting for anyone to win it would be the Phillies so the Series ends sooner.

garystooge · **Reply #437 on:** October 29, 2008, 01:39:48 PM

If all the ratings stuff is true, you'd think they'd make this a day game. It would be 10-15 degrees warmer, young kids could watch, they wouldn't have to interrupt their regular programming,etc. I guess that would be too logical a solution.

JazzBill · **Reply #438 on:** October 29, 2008, 03:08:25 PM

Quote from: garystooge on October 29, 2008, 01:39:48 PM

If all the ratings stuff is true, you'd think they'd make this a day game. It would be 10-15 degrees warmer, young kids could watch, they wouldn't have to interrupt their regular programming,etc. I guess that would be too logical a solution.

The ratings are low, but enjoy it. You don't know when it will happen again. I was shocked to find out the ratings were low when Chicago made it a couple of years ago. Chicago was so alive you just figured it was like that everywhere. Who cares about ratings anyway ? ( Besides MLB and Fox ) I'm pulling for you , I hope Philly goes all the way.

shemps#1 · **Reply #439 on:** October 29, 2008, 05:58:03 PM

Quote from: JazzBill on October 29, 2008, 03:08:25 PM

The ratings are low, but enjoy it. You don't know when it will happen again. I was shocked to find out the ratings were low when Chicago made it a couple of years ago. Chicago was so alive you just figured it was like that everywhere. Who cares about ratings anyway ? ( Besides MLB and Fox ) I'm pulling for you , I hope Philly goes all the way.

Every baseball fan should care about the ratings because if the ratings are high for the World Series then all of baseball prospers. Perhaps if Tampa is able to keep their team intact and become a regular force then more people would be interested the next time, but Tampa is a notoriously bad sports town anyway. That's why I'm rooting for the Phillies, because their fans are more deserving and appreciative than Rays "fans" who didn't even start showing up at the stadium until the playoffs and have not been very supportive of their team as a whole.

The White Sox/Astros Series faced a couple of problems. First off it was not at all competitive as Chicago not only obliterated Houston, but destroyed Boston and the Angels on their way to the Series as well. Secondly that Series had to follow the previous year when the Red Sox came back from 0-3 down in the ALCS against the Yankees and ended their drought...that was a hard act to follow. Even though the White Sox ended their own drought there was no drama whatsoever, and the Red Sox are quite frankly a larger draw. A neutral person watching both of those Series' would have said "I'm watching history" in '04 while in '05 would have said "I saw this last year". Really just bad timing.

metaldams · **Reply #440 on:** October 29, 2008, 08:06:50 PM

Say what you will about the Rays, but what a great moment for Rocco Baldelli.

......and OUT at the plate.

Great game so far.

JazzBill · **Reply #441 on:** October 29, 2008, 08:22:01 PM

Quote from: metaldams on October 29, 2008, 08:06:50 PM

Say what you will about the Rays, but what a great moment for Rocco Baldelli.

......and OUT at the plate.

Great game so far.

Small Ball, bunt him over , hit him in. Your right, good game.

metaldams · **Reply #442 on:** October 29, 2008, 08:38:03 PM

That Bartett baserunning mishap was huge. A youthful error in judgement.

I'm going to be very interested to see if Lidge can hold this. If the Rays were smart, they'd all wear Pujols masks when they're in the batter box. If Lidge does do this, let's just hope none of his offspring produce lame country music.

metaldams · **Reply #443 on:** October 29, 2008, 08:45:45 PM

Get Gary's heart medication ready, we're going to the 9th.

metaldams · **Reply #444 on:** October 29, 2008, 08:53:31 PM

Ben Zobrist up, 1 man on, 1 out. Put in Papelbon!!!

metaldams · **Reply #445 on:** October 29, 2008, 08:56:53 PM

Yikes, thought that was going to drop. One out away. C'mon Lidge, do this, or the bitching at work tomorrow will be unbearable.

metaldams · **Reply #446 on:** October 29, 2008, 08:58:36 PM

Congratulations Philadelphia!

Gary, Lefty, sleep well this winter.

shemps#1 · **Reply #447 on:** October 29, 2008, 08:58:46 PM

Congrats to the new champions, the Philadelphia Phillies and their fans. I do wish my prediction about the ratings was innaccurate, because despite being a five game series it was for the most part competitive. Ben Zobrist for Baldelli was a retarded move and goes to show Maddon isn't as great as the press has led us to believe. The Rays really shit the bed here.

metaldams · **Reply #448 on:** October 29, 2008, 09:02:30 PM

Foulke was more fist pump straight edged, Paps elevates, and Lidge is a down boy...sounds like he's orgasming in this interview, I would be too.

Justin T · **Reply #449 on:** October 29, 2008, 09:05:53 PM

Quote from: shemps#1 on October 29, 2008, 08:58:46 PM

Congrats to the new champions, the Philadelphia Phillies and their fans. I do wish my prediction about the ratings was innaccurate, because despite being a five game series it was for the most part competitive. Ben Zobrist for Baldelli was a retarded move and goes to show Maddon isn't as great as the press has led us to believe. The Rays really shit the bed here.

Well said Shemps, The games were very competitive and entertaining. Too bad the ratings were so low.
Rays had the potential to win this but they just got outplayed and out-managed IMO.

Congrats to you Gary and all Phillies fans, your team earned this one, enjoy it.