[Dusty]

Well you should be happy if you live in Philadelphia and are a hardcore Phillies fan like you seem to be. As for teams that matter I only meant teams that would draw a huge World Series rating. Now keep in mind, the MLB playoffs including divisional and LCS drew good ratings but the World Series flopped as it has been the past almost 20 years with a few exceptions. Perhaps with such a long season people are tired of so much post season baseball. Maybe interleague play is taking away from the magic of the World Series having two teams that never saw each other before hooking up to be called the champs. It used to go straight to the LCS and then World Series and then the Series would draw huge numbers. Now with the Wild Card and divisional play I honestly think people are just tired when it comes to the World Series and don't watch unless it's a team that is a huge media grabber like the Red Sox and Dodgers. The October classic has now become the November classic most of the time. Maybe it is like you say and baseball is in a downcycle right now and people just need to adjust to the "new" playoff format. I like baseball too but the 2008 NBA Finals dusted the Rays-Phlis series (I read but could be wrong) and that's a reason to worry a tad about baseball's future if you live in cities like KC, Colorado, Cincinatti, and small markets. I mean look at this particular board. While NASCAR and the NFL are jumping, hardly anyone ever talks about baseball here as was alluded to in this thread. Hardly even Bostonians or New Yorkers. It makes a person think ya know? Still congrats on your World Series Championship. It is indeed a true achievement and you haven't had one since 1980 when Mike Schmidt played.