2018 World Series -- Boston Red Sox vs Los Angeles Dodgers

I swear when teams with a strong fanbase across the continent do well, like the Red Sox or Cards or Dodgers or Yankees, journalists yearn for the end of big teams and ugh always the same franchises and ugh payroll is so unfair. Once the Royals win the World Series however, the same journalists will cry for 'national teams' and wish baseball was more like the NFL where every american citizen cares for the Packers or something.

baseball is one of the most complainy sports out there

well actually i think it's its main strength, baseball allows a self-criticism I would love to see in other sports.

Gonna be real funny in 20 years when the european and american football have to deal with PED the way baseball had to.

i don't mind it most of the time, but it grates when certain television broadcasters make the saaaaame complaints about stuff, year after year after year. the mound visits take too long, the batters step out of the box too much, the pitchers take too long, there are too many strikeouts, not enough sacrifice bunts, pitchers aren't tough any more, pitchers are only asked to throw 6 innings and that's lame, small ball is gone, not enough hit and run, wah wah wah

i could make a bingo card with all that shit and the st louis broadcast team will give me a nightly BINGO winning percentage of at least .500

agreed, some broadcasters are dragging the sport down.

put Jason Benetti in charge of the World Series commenting imo.

the FG piece by Craig Edwards that graph came from

For the most part, the World Series has followed general viewing trends. As more options for consumers have emerged, it has become more difficult for any kind of programming to attract a large audience. There have been exceptions: the 1991 World Series between Atlanta and Minnesota, a dramatic post-9/11 Yankees-D-backs event, and the Cubs curse-breaking spectacle. But the relationship between the TV’s No. 1 show and the World Series has been strong, producing an r-squared of .83 during this time period....

I think the disappointing ratings for the series are based primarily on two factors: overrating Boston’s impact on viewership and the games themselves....

https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/those-disastrous-world-series-tv-ratings/

(the impact of '89 on the Bay Area is obvious; it wouldn't account for the dip in the national audience)

The Bash Brothers A's weren't really big nationally -- they were a huge deal within baseball, but didn't transcend the sport in a way that would draw big national ratings. Plus there wasn't much interest in watching the games because everybody also viewed the '89 WS as a huge mismatch (which it was).

they were also the same market

yes it def seemed like a sweep even after Game 1

the batters step out of the box too much, the pitchers take too long

this is true tho

I can withstand the constant complaining about 5-6 of these issues at any given time. But I cannot withstand 10+

I draw the line at 10+