World Series

Gawd, I hate Fox Sports almost as much as I despise Bill O'Reilly and that nitwit Glenn Beck. Fox Sports is jingoistic, never fails to hype the American military and our "brave men and women" in uniform, sent to fight and die in pointless wars in faraway lands. Of course they never say that on Fox -- it's just the flag and the National Anthem and God Bless America (usually sung by a military man or woman) and some palaver about prayers from a grateful nation.

Sure, and horse shit smells like roses.

The other thing Fox Sports does that makes my blood boil is wring every drop of advertising blood that can be wrung from a sports telecast. "This half-inning brought to you by Chevrolet. This pitch brought to you by the good folks at Budweiser. This thirty-second segment of the Chevrolet pre-game show is brought to you by Taco Bell. Try our new Black Jack Taco! while driving the new and improved Chevrolet Malibu."

It's an orgy of advertising words and images and slogans. Mastercard and Windows 7 and Nikon. All this from the country that shipped its manufacturing base to China and will be in debt for generations to come, the country that cannot figure out an equitable way to provide health care for its citizens, a country that invades and occupies other sovereign countries based on lies and pretext, and a country that is poisoning the environment, like a beagle that defecates in its own bed.

Fox Sports and Major League Baseball conspired to tweak the game schedule of these playoffs in order to reap maximize advertising revenue. This explains why we are playing Game 4 of the World Series on November 1st, in wet, 50 degree weather in Philadelphia. This accounts for the odd intermissions between the games and the series, numerous days off for athletes accustomed to suiting up and playing every day.

Money again -- the American God -- a deity that can be bought, sold, traded, shorted, hedged, insured and transformed into a derivative whose ultimate value nobody can explain.

Anyway, this Game 4 has all the earmarks of a wild affair, probably high scoring, even with C.C. Sabathia on the mound for New York. The Phillies are a good, gritty club and they won't quit.

But hell, who cares about the game. It's the commercials we really care about!