World Series

A couple of thoughts:

• Boston fans, and there are plenty of them around here, are going to be insufferable for a while. In Massachusetts, they were using the big overhead traffic information signs to flash the scores of the games. I can understand their excitement, and applaud their inventiveness, although it presumes a driving population that is both a) interested and b) unable to spring for that extraordinarily expensive “AM radio option” in their cars. This is less necessary in regions that are accustomed to having their teams win more often than every 86 years or so.
• Watching St. Louis fans actually cry gave me a little frisson of pleasure, because the one time I had to visit St. Louis, I also wanted to cry. It is not my city, though it would be a hell of a lot more interesting if they laid that damn arch on its side and let skateboarders grind on it. The rental car I was given had no gasoline in the tank. The hotel I stayed in had an “art gallery” that sold clown paintings by comedian Red Skelton as if they were Warhols. All meals contained some level of beef, and at a dinner when a colleague requested a vegetarian entree, they took her plate back to the kitchen, scraped off the slab of beef, and returned it to her, a plate of limp green beans accompanied by beef juice.
• The Cardinals must have been under the impression this was one of the new “wild card golf” years, when the lowest score wins. That’s next year.
• Thank god for the mute button, because I really couldn’t take any more of the incredibly stupid commentary. I think “That was a real big-league play” was the straw that broke the camel’s back. You might say that at a Little League game, Babe Ruth, maybe even the low minors. During the World Series? Yes, I think this would be the big leagues, wouldn’t it? Is cycling the only sport that has even halfway intelligent commentary? (I’m blocking out the whole Al Trautwig experience.)