A World Series for a Serious World
By Terry Lyons @terrylyons
Eureka!
Something’s actually gone right in 2020. The two Major League Baseball clubs with the best records in their respective leagues have advanced to the 2020 World Series.
The Los Angeles Dodgers, 43-17 (.717) in the National League during this abbreviated 60-game season, will meet the Tampa Bay Rays, 40-20 (.667), the winners of the American League regular season.
The Dodgers finished their summer fling with 349 runs scored and 213 runs allowed for an impressive and major league-leading (+136) in run differential. The Rays went 289-229 (+60) in run differential and tied the Atlanta Braves of the NL as second place finishers league-wide in that category.
Sans the COVID-19 virus, MLB would’ve enjoyed an all great weather late October although the antiseptic Tropicana Field in Tampa-St. Pete would’ve tainted the beauty of the left coast’s Dodgers Stadium and Chavez Ravine. Instead, starting tonight we’ll see an all neutral site Series at spanking new Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas. Like the NBA and NHL, it’ll be a non-jet lag series.
If you’ve played the Russian roulette on your TV remote trying to find the MLB playoff games on the likes of TBS or FS-1, you’ll also be happy to note the World Series will be on “real” TV and the FOX Network. All game times will be 8:09pm ET.
Want some more good news?
On the mound in Game 1, it’s scheduled to be Tampa’s Tyler Glasnow against LA’s Clayton Kershaw in a potential pitcher’s duel of duels. Glasnow went 5-1 with a 4.08 ERA in the so-called regular season but is 2-1 with a 4.66 ERA in his four postseason starts.
The legit match-up might assist MLB in the TV ratings game, as the sport - like all other sports properties - has experienced dramatic ratings drop-offs. MLB was down some 40 percent vs last year’s divisional championships. With the Dodgers advancing, the huge LA market will boost ratings, although no one really cares what other household TVs are tuned into unless a favorite drama or sitcom series is in danger of being cancelled.
While the glut of sports programming being crammed into July-August-September accounted for some of the drop-off, the off-season and out-of-place aspects of fan-less NBA and NHL programming in summer might’ve spooked some viewers.
Coincidentally, it’s been an LA - Tampa 2020 season for sports championships thus far. In those other TV ratings-challenged events, the Tampa Bay Lightning won the NHL’s Stanley Cup while the Los Angeles Lakers took home the NBA’s Larry O’Brien Trophy, each winning their respective titles after being confined in a “bubble” atmosphere to minimize the spread of the terrible Coronavirus.
With Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Bucs along with the NFL’s LA Rams and Chargers, who knows what might happen as the NFL Super Bowl is played this February in Tampa.
That seems to be light years away as the annual Fall Classic is upon us at the right time of year and being played by the best two teams in baseball.