Joe Morgan Hatefest: Continued!

...I finally got around to watching Cubs Forever: Celebrating 60 Years of WGN-TV and the Chicago Cubs in its entirety last night. I’d seen parts of it previously but never the whole thing all the way though, and it had been sitting on my DVR for several weeks.

In any case, every time I watched Ernie Banks hit a home run (and I believe there are at least three different ones shown), I couldn’t help but think of the ridiculous statements Morgan made during a recent Cubs broadcast regarding Banks, the basket and a certain fictitious boulevard. None of the home runs depicted in the documentary in question came anywhere near the basket – in fact, one even left the ballpark.

Obviously that’s a small sample, but I couldn’t help getting pissed off all over again anyway. I’d still love to see a Cubs fan – or even someone within the organization – confront Morgan about this issue to his face. Imagine if Lou interrupted an in-game interview to make the point. Yeah, it’ll probably never happen, but it was at least a little soothing to play out “revenge fantasies” like this in my head.

and I don’t agree with his assessment for why the game’s ratings are down-you have your facts wrong here-there has always been a bench full of reserve players for the all-star game.

enough said

The players used to take the ASG more seriously. When you look to see how deep into the game starters stayed in the game, that seems very apparent. There was a fair amount of stars changing leagues during Morgan’s time. Think about Frank Robinson, Gaylord Perry, Ferguson Jenkins, and Rollie Fingers. Players took pride in their league, no matter which one is was at the time. Pete Rose certainly took the game seriously bowling over Ray Fosse.

I don’t agree with Morgan about why the ratings are down for the game. The ASG before cable TV and long before Extra Innings was the only opportunity a lot of fans got a chance to see many of the All-Stars play. That’s why fans made a special point to watch the game. That’s why the ratings used to be better.

The ASG and World Series used to be the only chance to see AL players take on NL players. As such, they were unique events, and quite interesting. Now, thanks to a decade plus of interleague play, the exotic nature of seeing the leagues square off has completely vanished.

Interleague play has turned the World Series into just another round of playoffs, and has turned the All-Star Game into a Pro-Bowl level annoyance for everyone involved, both fans and spectators.