by Joe Moag

Created on: August 25, 2009

Certain aspects of seasonal life are quite comforting; seeing the summer draw to an end and the nights grow cooler, watching the leaves turn and then fall, kids returning to school (and out of adults' hair). These are welcome signs of the ever cyclical nature of life.

Certain aspects of seasonal life are, shall we say, less than comforting. For instance, ESPN and late summer baseball. This is not a welcome sign - at least for a good many of us in the wider world of Major League Baseball. As the sun sits lower in the late August skies, we know that ESPN will be forcing us to suffer through yet another version of the Red Sox vs. the Yankees in a race towards a division title, regardless of the facts on the ground.

The two teams have only three games remaining with each other, and the Yankees have what I think is an insurmountable lead: 7.0 games as of August 25. However, these are facts, and when it comes to facts and how the baseball world covers the Red Sox/Yankees generally, and ESPN covers baseball specifically, facts are quite irrelevant.

ESPN is gearing up its standard September fare: "Yankees vs. Red Sox" all day, every day. The Red Sox get more mouth service on Baseball Tonight currently - despite being seven games out - than any other divisional race second place team, even those that are closer, and more than any Wild Card race, both of which are closer.

To those of you on the East Coast, or those of you across the country that actually think that Major League baseball begins and ends with Boston and New York, please excuse me for reminding you that there are a few other teams out there and that there are a few other - even better - races going on than Red Sox/Yankees. And let me ask that you open your hearts and minds not only to this fact, but to the notion that baseball - despite what ESPN seems incapable of believing - actually benefits all when other than Boston and NYC are discussed, showcased, followed, hyped, worshipped, etc...

There is constant consternation and much gnashing of teeth every October (from the networks, especially) that some "small market" teams will get into the World Series, and thus kill ratings. Well, this is actually true. But the reason it is true is because it is a self-fulfilling prophecy: when ESPN and every baseball blog site spends the previous six months promoting the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry as the sine qua non of Major League Baseball - to the virtual exclusion of all the other teams - is it a surprise, then, when teams like Colorado or the Rays or San Diego or anyone else gets into the World Series and the ratings crash? Spend the season telling us that these teams don't matter - spend the season not covering them, not discussing them, bouncing them off of Sunday night ball to show a Red Sox or Yankees game - and you can pretty much guarantee that by October the average fan will be dismayed to find that neither the Sox or the Yankees are in the Series.

Which, for those who live through the Red Sox/Yankees "Dome of Insulation", just proves that no other teams matter, I guess.

Ah, well, maybe I should just get used to it. After all, it is as traditional a part of the cycles of our seasons as is the Cubs falling apart.

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