Rant #360: In Mourning

My beloved Yankees' season is over. They lost to the Texas Rangers on Friday in the League Championship Series, and the Rangers will be going to the World Series for the first time and play the San Francisco Giants, a team that hasn't been World Champions since 1954 when they were based in New York.

Although I am not really rooting for them, I would like the Rangers to win. They beat the Yankees, so they get my vote to win the World Series.

Some say that this might be the lowest-rated World Series in history for a variety of factors. First, Texas and San Francisco aren't necessarily huge draws. They really aren't well known to people outside of real baseball fans. They don't have the marquee value that the Yankees and the Philadelphia Phillies--the team that the Giants beat--have, and that doesn't bring in the non-baseball fan or casual baseball fan to watch the games.

In addition, there is an infernal standoff between Cablevision and Fox in this part of the country that is preventing many New York metropolitan area people from getting Channel 5, the Fox affiliate, and Channel 9, its sister station. Nobody watches Channel 9 anyway, except for its Yankees games, which won't be on until April, so few miss that channel. But Fox is broadcasting the World Series, and if you knock out the baseball-mad New York market, your ratings will be awful.

But as far as the game itself, it should be an excellent series. Both teams have terrific pitching, so the games should be low-scoring affairs. This might put the casual fan to sleep, but for real baseball fans, this is what it is all about: great pitching and defense, timely hitting, and unlikely heroes.

I pick the Rangers to win in seven games. It should be an exciting seven games, but, like the rest of the Yankees Universe, I won't have the rabid interest in this series as I would if the Yankees made it.

But the Rangers are the better team, just like the Giants are a better team than the Philllies, and both teams deserve to be where they are.

It should be fun.

(As for me, I move on to the NBA season. My son and I are going to three games this season, the first being the Knicks' home opener vs. the Portland Trailblazers on Saturday.

There isn't as much pressure on the Knicks as there was on the Yankees, because the Yankees are expected to win, the Knicks rarely do, or at least rarely do lately. They should improve on their 29-53 record of last year, but maybe by about six games or so.

Maybe I am wrong. I truly hope I am. Let's see what happens.)