(above, anonymous NLCS MVP, and quite possibly the regular season MVP, too)
“Most of the team™s players couldn™t be more anonymous if they were in a witness protection program,” says MSNBC’s Mike Celizic of the 2007 National League Champion Colorado Rockies (former link lifted from Repoz and Baseball Think Factory), which is surely bad news for that “Frank TV” fella. Apparently, two weeks of prime time coverage from TBS isn’t much for raising the profile.
Brad Hawpe? Is that a right fielder or a typo? Tulowitzki ” that™s a tropical disease, right? Josh Fogg? Is he any relation to Phileas? Then there™s Yorvit Torrealba. I know Torrealba ” that™s a resort in the Yucatan, or maybe Majorca, right? But Yorvit? Sounds like one of those designer Scandinavian vodkas that comes in a frosted bottle and costs $12 a shot. Even their manager, Clint Hurdle, is named after a piece of track equipment.
It is a shame, because the Rockies are on an amazing winning streak, a roll like nothing baseball has ever seen. And that™s part of their problem: until the last couple of weeks of the season, they weren™t even in the playoff picture.
By the time they went on their almighty tear down the stretch, winning 13 of their last 14 games to force a playoff for the NL wild card with the Padres, sports fans around the country had already moved on to football.
Which would account for the near-empty stadiums in Philadelphia, Chicago, Boston, New York and Cleveland during this post-season, I suppose. Celizic can’t have it both ways. If the Rockies are anonymous because of an alleged Eastern media bias, so be it. But it would be crazy to conclude that “sports fans had already moved on to football”, particularly when that barometer of public tastes, “SportsCenter”, still led off the late edition Monday night with NLCS coverage rather than the Giants/Falcons game.
Jesus, he sounds like that douchebag Cowherd. If it doesn’t fall within that bubble of “this is what I like and screw everything else”, then it’s not worth their time. And, btw, who the hell is Mike Celizic? His last name sounds like one of the four cholesterol meds I take. Baseball fans know who these guys are, and that’s all that really mattters.
It seems as if the focus has shifted from winning the game to earning respect and recognition. It doesn’t matter if the Rockies are well-known or even well-respected. It’s not an interesting analysis of what is happening on the baseball field. “Part of their problem is that they were out of the playoff picture …” What problem is that, exactly?
agreed, Darren, and I’m confused about all the yack radio moaning about the poor NLCS ratings. Unless these guys work at TBS or bought ads, why do they give a shit?
that’s the funny thing about 30 teams in the major leagues — every now and then, you might have a winner from somewhere besides New York, Boston, LA or Chicago. Pretty often, actually.