Month: October 2006 (Page 6 of 32)

With the Tigers and Cardinals heading into Game 4 of the World Series Wednesday night, I’ve got to wonder if anybody really cares? Forget the television ratings for a second (which are some of the lowest ever for a World Series by the way) and check out the cover of the new Sports Illustrated.

Is that a naked Dennis Rodman impersonator wearing a tiger sleeve? Oh no, okay – it’s Chad Johnson of the Cincinnati Bengals. And at the top of the cover page? A thin, black and white read out that says: World Series Report. Wow SI, don’t go all out for what is supposed to be the highlight of the Major League Baseball season.

I can’t say that I blame SI, however. They know what sells: football.

Tigers and Cardinals? Yeah, they deserve to be there and they have great fans that have come out in full support of their teams. But look at what Major League Baseball has succumbed too. During Game 3 last night, Taco Bell ran a promotion were if a player hit a home run to left field during selected innings, everybody in the United States would get a free taco. Come on MLB, you expect the causal fan to tune into the game for one free taco?

I may be going out on a limb saying this, but I don’t think the ratings would be that different even if it were Yankees-Mets. Sure, there would be a bigger audience because New York is a larger market. But I get the feeling that the national sports audience just doesn’t care about baseball when there is football to be thought about 24:7.

And a half naked Chad Johnson gracing the cover of Sports Illustrated instead of a photo promoting the World Series proves it.

This was a steady game thanks in large part to a gem by St. Louis-ace Chris Carpenter. Carpenter gave up just three hits and pitched eight shutout innings to give the Cardinals a 2-1 series lead. And how about this: Carpenter threw the beauty without the aid of mysterious-reappearing “dirt” on his pitching hand (at least FOX’s cameras didn’t catch him if he did use the magic “dirt”).

On a night where Carpenter was virtually un-hittable, the Tigers wasted a decent outing by Nate Robertson with absolutely no offensive production. Robertson tempered the Cardinals bats for the first three innings while not giving up a hit until the bottom of the fourth. Preston Wilson singled to left to give St. Louis its first hit of the night and then Albert Pujols hit a ground-rule double down the first base line to advance Wilson to third. Scott Rolen then walked and after Ronnie Belliard grounded into a fielder’s choice to third basemen Brandon Inge (who threw home to get Wilson out), Jim Edmonds doubled to right to score Pujols and Rolen. Give Robertson credit though, he got the final two outs of the inning to keep the Cards at bay, 2-0.

All of the other runs by St. Louis came off of Detroit relievers (including an off night by Joel Zumaya). No matter though, Carpenter was phenomenal and it was only a matter of time before the Cardinals got some timely hitting to give the ace a cushion to work with.

Wednesday night’s match up is interesting, as Jeremy Bonderman will go to the hill to face Jeff Suppan. Suppan is 1-1 so far in the postseason, but has an ERA of 1.86. Bonderman should be fine – it’s just the Tigers sudden lack of offensive production that should have Motown concerned. Suppan is tough as nails and has already pitched and won a big game (Game 7 of the NLCS).

Another nice outing by Suppan and Detroit will be facing elimination and a 3-1 hill before the stroke of midnight on Thursday.