Isn't It Ironic?

The Tribune is probably on its last legs, at least as a real newspaper. About a month ago, the Sunday auto section disappeared without a word. The sports’ section is usually an anemic six pages. Coverage of games from the night before? If it ain’t the Bears, forget it. So, there was nothing on the Braves beating the Astros 7-0 to win the World Series last night. But what perfect timing for the AP story the Trib ran, “Long nights grow tiresome,” on the length of Series games. The first five games clocked in at an average of 3:41. That’s closing in on three and three-quarters hours, folks. I guess that makes last night’s 3:22 seem quick in comparison, and fun, if you like pitching changes. The Astros went with seven as Houston’s Dusty Baker did everything he could think of to manage a championship team. Didn’t happen with Barry Bonds in SF, didn’t happen with the Cheat Squad (pardon any redundancies) at Minute Maid. According to the AP story, the average length of a game in the regular season this year was a numbing 3:10:07 vs. 2:49 in 1991 and 2:33 in 1981. Wow, 2-1/2 hours for a baseball game. That’s so fast the Tribune might even cover it. Supposedly, the powers that be are concerned about games growing ever longer and ratings getting ever smaller. So, expect to hear all sort of ideas on how to speed up the pace. Pitch clock, anyone? Just don’t expect the length of commercial time to change, unless it gets longer. More money is more revenue, and no owner or player wants to do with less. Too bad the owners and players refuse to dictate under what terms their game—their content, if you prefer—can be shown. Get baseball games back to 2:33, and watch the ratings grow.