Keeping Score

Let’s be honest here. This was an embarrassing World Series and is just another part of commissioner Bud Selig’s amazingly abysmal legacy, a legacy that now includes baseball caps with earflaps. . . . Mike Vaccaro, in the New York Post: “The fact is, baseball has been begging for this from the moment it fell into bed with its television partners, a fact that has pushed the World Series back further and further every year. You want to know something crazy? Next year, the World Series will start on Oct. 27. Barring weather, Game 7 would be played on Nov. 4.” . . . Jeff Schultz, in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “I know. It’s not baseball’s fault it’s raining in Philadelphia. But it is the owners’ fault for so completely selling out to television for the short-term bucks that it starts World Series games at 8:30 p.m. in the East. It is baseball’s fault for starting Game 3 after a 90-minute rain delay, which caused a 1:45 a.m. finish — and won’t that be great for ratings. Baseball has lost a generation. When this deal with Fox is over, it’ll be a wonder if any major network touches this product.”
There are baseball officials, including Selig, who would love to see at least one World Series game played during daylight hours. But, believe it or not, it isn’t baseball’s call. “We pay the money for the rights to televise baseball,” Ed Goren, the president of Fox Sports, said. “Nobody is giving us a rebate to change that scenario.” . . . Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times points out: “Fox pays $250 million per year for rights that include World Series games in prime time, when ratings are the highest and advertisers pay the most.” . . . As Janice Hough, the Left Coast Sports Babe, puts it: “It’s all part of Major League Baseball’s ‘No child left awake’ policy.” . . . Prior to the start of Game 5 on Monday, a feature on the 1964 Fall Classic was shown as part of the pregame show. There was nothing but sunshine and blue skies as the St. Louis Cardinals beat the New York Yankees in seven games, and that’s the way it should be.
Congrats to Kelly Moore, the former radio voice of the Kamloops Blazers. Now the program director at Country 103, he was named the 250 area code on-air personality of the year at the BCCMA awards gala last weekend. In case you weren’t there, Ol’ Kel-Bob handled public address duties at Friday’s Blazers game, filling in for an ailing Bill O’Donovan. Word is that Odie has been bothered by the fact his Blackhawks still are carrying two high-priced goaltenders. . . . Jose Canseco has said he now wishes he hadn’t written Juiced, his steroid-related book that rattled baseball. To which Mike Finger of the San Antonio Express-News responded: “This works as a perfect parallel to the upcoming sequel to Erin Brockovich, in which the sassy whistle-blower has a change of heart and helps the gas company recontaminate the drinking water.” . . . Greg Cote, in the Miami Herald: “The NFL sent the Chargers and Saints to London for this year’s overseas game. Both 3-4. Both disappointing. I think it’s payback for Great Britain giving us their cuisine.” . . . One more from Cote: “Heard about some big event going on called the Breeders’ Cup. Not sure what it is, but shouldn’t somebody be there handing out condoms or something?”
Joe the Plumber has hired three managers, and just when you thought his 15 minutes were over. Hey, is America a great country, or what? . . . Charles Barkley now says he will run for governor of Alabama in 2014. To which CNN’s Campbell Brown responded: “You are serious.” . . . “I am,” Barkley said. “I can’t screw up Alabama. . . . We are No. 48 in everything — and Arkansas and Mississippi aren’t going anywhere.” . . . Tracy Watson, who has penned stories from this office for a dozen years, has left us for glossier pages. She worked her last night here Friday and now it’s on to the world of magazines. . . . Mike Lupica, in the New York Daily News: “If Martin Brodeur had been a New York Ranger all these years, they’d have named one of the streets around the Garden after him by now.” . . . One more from Lupica: “Don’t you get the idea sometimes that trying to build a championship team around Vince Carter is the same as building one around A-Rod?” . . . “Two housekeepers at David and Victoria Beckham’s English mansion have been arrested for allegedly stealing personal items from the couple and selling them on eBay,” notes NBC’s Jay Leno. “The thieves took hundreds of dollars of cosmetics and beauty products, and they stole some of Victoria’s stuff, too.”
As you no doubt are aware, Dallas Cowboys cornerback Adam Jones has been suspended by the NFL after getting into an altercation with one of his bodyguards. “Adam Jones? Pacman Jones? What’s the best name to use when addressing the suspended Dallas Cowboys cornerback?” wrote Elliott Harris of the Chicago Sun-Times. “OK, other than ‘the defendant.’ ”. . . “On the strength of recent performances by Dallas’ Adam (Pacman) Jones and Jerry Jones, not to mention Dow Jones, keeping up with the Joneses isn’t what it used to be,” writes Bob Molinaro of the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot. . . . “He’s been hurt again,” Tampa Bay Bucs’ head coach Jon Gruden said the other day, referring to wide receiver Joey Galloway. “I’ve nicknamed him the ‘White Tiger.’ He’s rare. He only comes out at Busch Gardens once every six months. Now it’s kind of like he’s the saber-toothed tiger. He’s been extinct.”
As the New York Giants were playing the Steelers in Pittsburgh on Sunday, Peter King of si.com heard a radio weenie note that “the Giants had won five of the previous seven meetings in Pittsburgh.” Talk about a useless statistic. As King points out, this was the Giants’ second visit to Pittsburgh since 1972. “The Giants played at Pittsburgh 33 times in the 36 seasons between 1936 and 1971. In the next 36 seasons — between 1972 and 2007 — New York played at Pittsburgh once,” King wrote. . . . And who do the Ottawa Senators blame now that goaltender Ray Emery is in Russia? . . . Scott Ostler, in the San Francisco Chronicle: “Kimbo Slice’s fighting group, EliteXC, went out of business. By doing so, EliteXC avoids explaining why Seth Petruzelli, after slicing and dicing Slice, said on radio that promoters paid him to keep Kimbo upright. Here’s today’s lesson: If you have an important secret, never trust it with a guy who gets kicked in the head for a living.” . . . Cory Wolfe of the Saskatoon StarPhoenix asked Blades defenceman Jyri Niemi: “If you could have a 2-on-2 shinny game with anyone, who would be your partner?” . . . Niemi: “My partner would be Carrie Underwood.” . . . Wolfe: “Carrie Underwood? Do you think she plays hockey?” . . . Niemi: “I don’t care.”

Gregg Drinnan is sports editor
of The Daily News. He is at
gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca.
Keeping Score appears Saturdays.