Go Bochy and the WS champs!

[z28jd]

Originally Posted by Fred

I actually watched the WS this year. I was pulling for Texas because of the GM (Chris Young), manager (Bruce Bochy) and bench coach (Will Venable). There were a few Ranger players I like, but the management staff all had tie to the Pudres... Hoping the Puds get a new GM sometime. They have an owner that's willing to spend $$, but got a GM that's somewhat clueless. I hope he proves me wrong this year. Link to a really cool Venable catch from a few years back. I was watching that game on TV and thought it was one of the cooler catches I've seen.

What? Nobody cared about the WS this year?

I didn't watch a second of the World Series this year, first time ever, but it was due to the two teams. Both were wild card teams, who had the worst combined record for two World Series opponents in the 119 series. Diamondbacks crawled into the playoffs, going 55-58 in their last 113 games of the year. Didn't feel like a real World Series matchup to me, just a product of expanded playoffs, which I was against. Eight teams should be the limit.

Manfred rules have also killed a lot of my love for modern baseball, plus these kids are all being taught to swing hard and hope for the best. They are obsessed with launch angle and exit velocity, while velocity has become the most important thing for pitchers. I watched a lot of Low-A games over the last 15 years as my job and these last two years have been garbage as far as the quality of play. Almost all of the players are raw tools and not much else. Low-A games before 2020 were much higher quality of play (though still not good in comparison to the majors). That goes back to Manfred though, lowering minor league roster limits and getting rid of short-season leagues. These tools-only kids are getting pushed to Low-A years ahead of when they would be ready (or never be ready). Basically the upcoming group of players is going to make the quality of play much worse in the near future...ending the Manfred rant now to get to the real point.

Anyway, I still found it funny when people say no one watched the series. It is true that it is the least watched World Series by far, no matter how you look at it. Worst ratings, easily lowest per game, lowest for an entire series, worst game-by-game for all four of the first four games (game five might be second worst game five ever, but if it beat out the 2020 low, it got a push from being an elimination game) and game three was the lowest viewed World Series game ever...yet around 9,000,000 people still watched it every night on average. In World Series terms, that definitely qualifies as "no one", but getting 9,000,000 people to watch something is also impressive, no matter what previous years showed. That's a lot of people viewing!

[John1941]

I live in the DFW area so this was the first WS I've seen where my (high-schooler) friends were actually following the World Series and excited about it. I was very happy to see the Rangers succeed for the first time in my time as a sports fan, and I hope they can keep it up. I think they can - they have some good young players, and they're willing to spend money - and they're smart about it.

[darwinbulldog]

I'll watch any World Series that gives me a chance to watch a team win it for the first time. Congratulations to the Rangers! Now what are the odds I can live long enough to see the Rays, Rockies, Mariners, Brewers, and Padres win it all? (Please don't actually tell me.)

[JollyElm]

It's sad, but I had no idea which teams were even in The World Series (I just assumed the Astros were), and only found out when my girlfriend asked, "Who are the Texas Rangers??" (because of Twitter). If asked to name a single player on either club, I would fail miserably and throw out a guess of Max Scherzer, because I think my Mets maybe unloaded him there during the season???

The weirdest part is, all of my friends undoubtedly didn't know either.

[Casey2296]

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Nice plane ride home.
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[BobbyStrawberry]

Originally Posted by Casey2296

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Nice plane ride home.
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Get a seat belt on that thing!

[Fred]

I think Bochy is headed for the Hall, especially after this championship.

The Pudres have an owner willing to shovel out the dough, but a GM that doesn't seem to understand that he needs to let a good manager do what they have to do. It was good to see Bob Melvin leave so that he can get his chance to show it wasn't him that was totally responsible for this years mess.

To me, it doesn't matter what teams are playing, I still like to watch. This year was nice because of the non-player personnel involved in this WS. It was good to see Texas grab the title.

It was nice to not have to watch the ghost runner's in game 1. At least there was that!

[UKCardGuy]

Having grow up in Dallas with the Rangers teams of the late 70s and early 80s....it's great to see the Rangers finally get the trophy. It's a far cry from the days of Jim Sunberg, Bump Wills and Pat Putnam.