Life is all about timing. Start a business at the right before your product is in demand, walk into a store and be the one millionth customer, don't walk into a building just before it collapses and you will consider yourself a pretty lucky fellow. Some other forms of timing are a little bit more predictable. Such as the NFL engulfing any American sports fan when it begins the first week of September. Somehow, Major League Baseball didn't get the memo. Here is a picture for you:
The picture above isn't from a regular season game of some team that is out of contention. It is from the most profitable sports franchise in the world, the New York Yankees. When was this picture taken? Oh, only in game three of probably the most important playoff series other than the World Series, the American League Championship.
Unfortunately for the Yankees, this game was scheduled on a Sunday. Normally that wouldn't be a bad thing, but when the NFL is on it is a totally different story. Major League Baseball can simply no longer compete with the NFL for ratings. It's time to reexamine that 162 game regular season and have the baseball playoffs played in August when no other sports leagues are being played except for baseball.
If this picture, and the pitiful TV ratings aren't enough to convince you baseball is to long, here is another story. My girlfriend asked me the other day when the World Series was. She asked the question the day after the San Francisco Giants had swept the Detroit Tigers....
