John Feinstein Chimes in

In an article dated November 22, 2010 from Sporting News magazine, John Feinstein had this to say about major league baseball.

The World Series was a disaster. The TV ratings were horrific, as low as any in history. But it had to be. After all, no Yankees. No Red Sox. Certainly no Cubs. Not even any Phillies.

Heck, if you paid attention to the New York media, baseball would have been smart to call off the Series. Why bother? No one cared-just look at the ratings, down 28% from 2009, when the Yankees beat the Phillies.

Seriously, how much did most fans see this summer of Josh Hamilton? Or Tim Lincecum? Most people know a lot more about Yankees backup catcher, Francisco Cervelli, than they do about Giants rookie phenom Buster Posey.

It is the more casual fan, the younger fan, the potential fan who tunes into ESPN or on Saturday afternoon to watch the Fox game of the week. Those are fans getting the message that the Padres and Tigers don't actually exist-unless they happen to be playing the Yankees.

One of the measures Bud Selig pushed for early in his tenure as commissioner was the wild card. It has been wildly successful, not only because wild card teams have been extremely strong in the postseason-the Marlins have the unique distinction of having won two (2) World Series without ever having won a division title-but because it keeps so many more teams in contention deep into September.

...The Rangers in the World Series and the Giants winning the World Series is very healthy for the sport. Now, if the TV networks and their partners on Park Avenue would turn the spotlight on that more often, the game would be much better for it.

(Kudos to John Feinstein. That's what I was looking for, a little positive the Giants' way while educating the people on why it was good the San Francisco Giants were the Twenty Ten World Series champions.)

Kevin J. Marquez