Thoughts on MLB

Well, as I sat here and lazily watched the Phillies beat the Rays, I contemplated what the Major League Baseball playoffs have given to us the past few seasons. We have been tantalizingly close to having some AWESOME World Series matchups, that never quite came to pass. This year, it could have been Manny and Torre teaming up against Boston (that just doesn't seem right). Not quite. A few years back (before the Red Sox managed to break their curse), we almost had Cubs-Red Sox, but again, the Killer B's, Bartman and Boone, kept that from happening. The ALCS, ALDS, NLCS, and NLDS have continued to give us very memorable moments. In those series we get David vs. Goliath, or Goliath vs. Goliath. But somehow, in the World Series we end up this year with David out-slapping, or last year with Goliath manhandling, Cinderella.
This year, I watched a great back and forth World Series deciding game 5 over the span of 3 days, but it didn't have me hurrying home from work to find out if they actually re-started the game or not. In fact, when I turned on the tube I went to ESPN and ESPN2 first, to see if there was something good to watch on there. To me (and several others I talk to) there was no excitement, no on-the-edge-of-my-seat action, no one to root for and certainly not anyone to root against, because who really cares about either of these teams.
Perhaps the fact that no team was involved from west of the Appalachians put a damper on it, for me and many others. And it wasn't as if either of the two teams were east coast teams people actually care about. It was Tampa and Philly. Tampa Bay. And Philadelphia. The Rays, not to be confused with the Devil Rays. And the Fightin's. It was Matt Garza, and Jamie Moyer. It was Carl Crawford, and Chase Utley. Man would I have loved to watch Manny returning to Fenway in the World Series. I would love to see Torre coaching again against the Red Sox in the postseason. We got Maddon vs. Manuel. We got rookies vs. 45-year olds. We got robbed, is what we got. Perhaps it has become the new American way to "spread the wealth around" since, according to one Presidential candidate, it's better for everybody.
Major League baseball needs to find a way to move the exciting match-ups to the World Series, so we have something to watch after the pennants are decided. No more sweeps. And at least give us one team we either love or hate. David vs. Cinderella doesn't excite, it doesn't sell, it doesn't matter. I would have much rather watched the ever-entertaining, always a drag on his campaign, Democratic VP candidate Joe Biden manage to not wet himself as he rambles on and on like a drunken old, wrinkly version of Howard Dean at a glorified pep rally where he promises America that the one thing they can with certainty expect the first 6 months from an Obama administration is a "test of our mettle" from the rest of the world. At least I would have had a good laugh, until I realized that that guy might actually be the next Vice President of the United States, the first in line to be President if something were to happen to Lord Obama.