Ole' 45 Calling It Like I See It

The full fledged football season has begun and baseball can now rest in peace. Every year during it's stretch run baseball fades into a afterthought to both casual sports fans and those diehards. Unless your affiliated with the game or your Ken Burns the passion that fuels your engine in April has reached the E and your engine for Football is reeving on all cylinders. I happen to consider myself a avid baseball fan. During the season I watch at least 3 games in their entirety and at least parts of 5-6 more. If I am not watching the game I am following via online material for upwards of 15 HRs a week perhaps more. Once the calender flips September I become football obsessed and baseball quickly fades. I still monitor the game and in fact am watching as I type this post but keep in mind it's the middle of the week and oh yeah, no football is on. As I stated I would consider myself in the upper 10 percentile in terms of passion for baseball and even I turn my back when football comes. Imagine all the casual fans who may attend a game now and then and watch parts of a couple each week. How many of these fans has the sport retained, unless their team is in the playoff hunt, I would say very few.

So what can be done to alleviate the issues facing baseball? Perhaps the best suggestion I have heard regarding baseball scheduling was presented by Colin Cowherd. Cowherd is a ESPN Radio personality (M-F 10AM-1PM) and host of The Herd. Cowherd suggested shortening the regular season by around 12-15 games and cut out some off days during the regular season. This would allow baseball to finish up at the end of August. His claim is that MLB would own the month of August in terms of media exposure with pennant races dominating the airwaves. This momentum would then carry over into the playoffs which could compete to some degree with the start of football. In today's format baseball is forgotten from the first of September until the middle of October by that point the casual fan has little to nothing invested and their interest is minimal.

Baseball realizes that changes are needed to stay relevant. This season they are having day games in the World Series. The start time to World Series games has been moved up. Both of these are great things but perhaps lagging ratings has more to do with lack of interest than it does the time slot. Baseball has been built by it's history. Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron and other past greats are as relevant today as they were 30 years ago but it is the past and history that prevents baseball from growing. A shortened season may require new pages in the history book of baseball but it also may produce more people watching while the history is written.


College Football Quick Hits

- What a bad week for the ACC. Virginia Tech losses to a FCS school in James Madison at home in the home opener. Georgia Tech losses to Kansas who had lost to FCS school North Dakota State. Miami gets slapped around by the Buckeyes(don't let the score fool you) and Florida State once again doesn't show up in a big game. You know things are bad when your best team thus far has a 0-1 record with 15 or so players suspended.

- As bad as it was for the ACC it was worse in Boise. Hard to believe the loss to James Madison hurts the Broncos more than the Hokies. Given their weak schedule that got weaker the Broncos only hope is a two loss season by both the SEC Champion and the Big 10 Champion and everyone else must lose at least once.

- Don't mention the name Denard Robinson to yours truly this week. What a performance and a cool non-intentional Heisman pose to boot. It was a painful game for the Irish but I still like this years squad. You lose your QB for nearly all of the first half and lose the TO battle 3-0 yet lose only by 4 on a late TD run. For Michigan I wouldn't quite Hail To the Victors just yet. Robinson is no doubt a stud and they will be much better than last year but the offense is too dependent on the big play and too many drives will fail to produce points or eat clock.

- WVU escapes with a Overtime win at Marshall. Though I am not a Marshall fan I was pulling for the win which would have brought joy to the France household. The final three minutes was filled with horrible officiating and poor decision making by the coaching staff. Looking to put the game away with only a FG Holiday brings in a RB who had 0 carries up to that point in the contest. On cue RB fumbles the football and allows the Neers to hang on. As for the officiating the PI on the game tying drive was a terrible call. Yes the CB was over top of the WR but the ball was thrown low and both players were after the ball no flag should have been thrown. Finally while in the Red Zone a Neer player pulled a Marshall defender from the pile and slammed him to the ground WWE style video showed two officials looking right at the play no flag was thrown.


NFL Week 1

In a rare event I watched little NFL action this week due to some family obligations but here are some things I took from the results.

- The Chargers will not run away with the AFC West this season.

- Huge week for injuries. Grant, Sanders, Jenkins all big time players who change the look of their respective teams.

- McCluster will be a big playmaker in this league at some point once he finds his niche.

- Vick at QB would set this franchise back two more seasons.

- The Patriots apppear to have a pulse.

- No win was more shocking to me then the Seahawks domination of the 49ers. yes it's the 49ers but it's also the Seahawks. The NFC West is certainly up for grabs this season.

- My personal opinion on the Calvin Johnson catch/no catch I say no catch.