It's Just The Way It Is

I'm bradley, and it's my job to keep you from being the sucker at the table.

Well, football is back. And that means one thing - baseball will do a slow fade into the west.

As the baseball season begins its turn for home, it's not all bad. There are some interesting pennant races. For instance, the American League is loaded with  them, with all three divisions up for grabs. The National League? Not so much. More like fighting for Miss Congeniality after Miss America is a stone cold lock. 

But it's just the way it is. The Northeast still loves its baseball and the Midwest, up through St Louis, keeps an eye on the standings if it doesn't follow every box score every day. But once you leave the St Louis city limits - well, nice talking to ya. Have a nice day. Send an email with the World Series winner or let us know if the World Series goes to a Game Seven and if it's on network, we'll watch - unless there's a good football game on.

Whether by dumb luck or the effects of television on the Boomer generation, football has become the great sports obsession in the U.S. of A. We Boomers fell in love with John Facenda, NFL Films, the Game of the Week and the stars that drove the game into our water cooler conversation every week.  Then add the hype and brilliance of those who created the playoff system, draft mania and OTA's and football basically never leaves us. 

Baseball? Come on - unless you live in the Northeast or Midwest, baseball draws a big fat 'who cares?' after football training camps begin. In fact, if all the leagues weren't making so much money and pro football weren't so magnanimous, baseball could never compete for fall attention, even with a Dodgers Yankees World Series.

Between the NFL dominating three days and nights of the week from September through the next year, to college football flexing its muscles with a playoff championship system now fully integrated and growing,  there's pretty much scraps for baseball to pick up. I don't even mention hockey or basketball because it takes them time to ramp up and no one pays attention until after January first anyway.

We're a football nation - not the European version that packs 90 seconds of excitement into 90 minutes of a game. Football is beautiful, violent and a part of the American fabric. George Will once described football as the worst of America - intense violence punctuated by committee meetings. While funny, it's just not true. Though violent, football offers much more. Boxing is violent, hockey is violent - neither has penetrated the American consciousness like football. The reason is the beauty, the drama and the unpredictability of what unfolds on a gridiron, every time the players line up.

The other reason is gambling. No other sport is designed so perfectly for playing the odds, every play, every game. I've lost track of the numbers, but billions are spent every year on legal and not-so-legal gambling. And that doesn't even begin to cover office pools and fantasy leagues. It's a self-perpetuating dynasty that can only be destroyed if the powers that be get too greedy for their own good. And even then, it will take a monumental effort to kill it.

Look, I love baseball - it's in my DNA. I've already told you my first game was June 21, 1964 at She Stadium, a Fathers Day doubleheader where I saw Jim Bunning of the Phillies pitch a perfect game. So I'm down with baseball. I'll never walk away totally. But - once football season starts, as they say in Brooklyn, 'faggettaboutit already'. I'll take a quick look at who won the World Series and then get back to Thursday night football. It's just the way it is.

I'm bradley and it's my job to keep you from being the sucker at the table.