Three Cheers for Greedy Corporate Executives

We’re not even going to acknowledge last week’s poll because it’s become pretty clear to us that you’re all a pack of cheaters. Since the poll was “who is staging a comeback,” regarding the holes the Yankees and Phillies had dug themselves into during the Championship Series, the outcome was going to be determined rather quickly. Well ahead of today’s blog posting. No one, repeat NO ONE, voted before Game 6 of either series was played. Conveniently, everyone voted the day after both teams were eliminated from playoff contention. You do understand that these are opinion polls, right? You get nothing for guessing right. You baffle us. How do you sleep at night? Since you’re so gung-ho about being rule breakers, this week’s poll is going to be something you CAN’T cheat on. Enjoy it.
Serena made a bet with The Favorite’s brother that the Giants would win the World Series this year. So far, the Bay Area Boys are doing right by her and making The Favorite’s brother feel like a NTAC…because he IS a NTAC for choosing the Rangers. This is nothing personal. It’s business.

The series moves to Arlington for the next 3 games. The schedule for this weekend is as follows:

Game 3 – Saturday at 6:30 pm
Jonathan Sanchez vs. Colby Lewis

Game 4 – Sunday at 8:00 pm
Madison Baumgarner vs. Tommy Hunter

Sadly, the ratings for this year’s World Series have been pretty bleak. The Giants 11-7 win over the Rangers on Wednesday that featured a Tim Lincecum/Cliff Lee billing had an 8.9 rating and 15 share, which is down 25% from last year’s Yankees/Phillies World Series opener. This could be chocked up to the fact that there are a lot of New York transplants all over the country who may have had a vested interest in that particular series. However, this number is also down 3% from the Rays-Phillies’ Game 1 in 2008, a series that had scored a record low-rating. FOX stated that Thursday’s Game 2 peaked at 10.4/16 at about 9:30 pm before dropping steadily following a 6-run 5th inning, which is somewhat understandable. Personally, when the Yankees were losing Game 6 by 6 runs, we stopped watching too and we actually gave a crap about the outcome of that game.

Here’s the deal. The Giants have a great young pitching staff that deserves to be watched by the world. Cliff Lee is an amazing pitcher who deserves to be in this type of atmosphere. We all know Josh Hamilton’s story and it’s fantastic that he has this opportunity. All that being said, FOX has lost 3 million viewers in the New York area because they’re Cablevision customers and unable to watch the World Series. Granted, 3 million people do not equal the country’s population, but it’s a staggering number nevertheless. With two “non-local” teams in the World Series, people are not going to take the time to travel to the nearest sports bar to watch these games. They’re going to reserve those trips for football Sunday in order to watch the Jets and Giants. That lost consumer base might not equal the 25% decrease in ratings from last year’s Game 1, but it certainly would’ve contributed to a higher rating than the 2008 Game 1. So well done, greedy network executives. Here’s to you! Way to lose all that money and steal the limelight from players who deserve it. Don’t worry. No one thinks you’re selfish or anything.

Despite the low ratings of the World Series, this past week still managed to produce a few interesting baseball notes. Brian Cashman, GM for the Yankees, announced on Monday that pitching coach, Dave Eiland, has been fired for reasons that Cashman refuses to disclose. This should be good. Apparently, AJ Burnett has an umbilical cord attached to Eiland, so we can’t wait to see AJ’s performance come 2011. Just when you think it couldn’t get worse, AJ loses his lifeline. FAN-friggin’-tastic. Furthermore, “reasons he can’t disclose?” What’s that about? Is Eiland KGB? MI6? Bank robber?

The head of the Players’ Union says that his members are open to adding more Wild Card teams for the 2012 season and possibly extending the Division Series to a best-of-seven series. Exactly how full of their own BS is the MLB? Adding more Wild Card teams gets you what? The whole excitement of the Wild Card race is that only one team from each league gets to be the Wild Card. OF COURSE, they’re willing to consider this. It’s just another way to earn money via an additional round of playoffs. Money is also clearly the only motive for extending the Division Series. The MLB doesn’t need another dime in its coffer. It’s revolting. Remove head from ass, please.

In case anyone was worried, Joe Girardi signed a 3-year contract with the Yankees worth $9 million with bonuses that could total $500,000/year based on the team’s performance. So $9 million isn’t enough for an individual hired by a professional baseball team? We need bonuses? It’s not cool enough to be paid a crap-ton of money to work for a baseball team? Incentives are needed? Meanwhile, we can’t even get a $1.00 raise. Awesome. No. The TBB isn’t bitter. We totally love hearing numbers associated with the word “million” tossed around like they’re Frisbees.

3 weeks after Omar Minaya got the boot, the Mets have decided to hire Sammy Alderson as the new GM. Contract details are still pending, but we’re pretty confident that it’s a good chunk of change. Probably more than the $1.00/hour extra that we’re asking for this year. Alderson is best known for an A’s team that didn’t have Zrad Biegler and actually won shit over the course of 15 seasons: 4 Division Titles, 3 Pennants, and 1 World Series from 1983-1997.

Carly Simon understood our frame of mind when she serenaded us with, “but you took away the channels we love and one of them was FOX 5. We had some dreams, they were clouds in our beer. Clouds in our beer and…you’re so vain. You probably think this song is about you. You’re so vain. I’ll bet you think this song is about you. Don’t you? Don’t you? Don’t you? Well, it is!”

Have a delicious, drunk, and safe Halloween, you Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

Bienvenido a World Series

In our last week’s poll, we asked who you felt should do the on field interviews for the World Series. Of the ten votes, the TBB barely won with 5 votes. Apparently half of you felt that one of us (okay…Serena) telling off Johnny Damon was worth putting us on camera with a microphone. Horrifyingly enough, Jessica Simpson came in close second with 4 votes! This is not funny. At all. You’re telling us that dating Tony Romo (another idiot, mind you) is enough to qualify her as a sports interviewer. Is she going to ask Derek Jeter where chicken of the sea came from? Or perhaps that’s the kind of stuff you’re banking on? Tim Gunn from Project Runway earned the last vote. The fact that Jane Heller garnered no attention is a bit perplexing to us. Technically, she has more business conducting pre-game (or post-game) interviews than we do and definitely way more class and knowledge than Jessica Simpson. Our guess is that most of you felt that Jane was the most obvious choice, but since you think that you’re a real pack of jokesters, you decided to vote for the asinine options instead. If that was your motivation, why didn’t anyone vote for Gerard Butler in his 300 attire? At least we would have had a work of art to look at before and after the game!

Clearly, it’s all about the World Series this week. Despite’s CC’s excellent on Tuesday in Game 1, the Yankees still managed to screw it up. Note the Phillies had no issues capitalizing on Cliff Lee’s stellar performance. Thankfully, last night, AJ Burnett manned up and bounced back from his wretched ALCS start last week.

The most alarming part of the World Series thus far has been Jayson Werth’s facial hair. It’s creepy! For those of you unfamiliar with Werth (or shall we call him FurryWerth?) or may not have noticed the growth on his chin (though we can’t figure out how you’d miss it), we’ve enclosed a picture below:
What the hell is that? Earlier in the season, he at least manicured the lawn! Don’t get us wrong. It was still pretty gross, but it at least wasn’t frightening. Now he looks like a level 5. We’re afraid that it may have swallowed a few small children on their way to the game! Where is Mrs. Werth in all of this? She cannot possibly enjoy rubbing her face against that. If your wife can’t tell you when your facial hair has run amuck, who can? Gentlemen, this doesn’t just apply to Werth. It is vital that you groom yourselves on a regular basis.

With the series tied at one a piece, the Yankees head into the inner circle of Hell, a place where special traitors go to spend their days…oops, we meant Philadelphia. A wonderfully delightful city where children throw ice cubes at you and grown men pee on other people’s bumpers or call your hats ugly. We hope that the Yankees can handle, not the Phillies per say, but their unruly fans. For the likes of Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada, Andy Pettitte, and Mariano Rivera, who are seasoned World Series veterans and accustomed to the rough New York attitude, the Phillies fans shouldn’t be too difficult to tune out. Newbies like Phil Hughes, Mark Teixeira, Robinson Cano, and Alex Rodriguez may become a bit rattled, though again, the rough New York attitude may have sufficiently prepared them. Of course, when it comes to infield pop flies, Alex Rodriguez must be mindful of not becoming distracted by the giant green furry display that is known as the Phillie Phanatic. For any of you Yankees fans heading down to enemy territory this weekend, be careful. Remember, if someone gets in your face and says your hat is ugly, we found that the following comeback worked wonders: “Well, your face ugly, but we didn’t complain.”

Even though Halloween festivities will be rampant on Saturday, don’t forget to tune into Game 3 of the World Series. Andy Pettitte will take the mound against Cole Hamels (who Lisa is frightened at her level of attraction for. Amazing what a Philly player in a suit will do to her…watch out TOWSNBN) on FOX at 7:57 pm. We are confident that if Andy can hold the Phillies’ down, the series can swing in the Yankees favor, especially with CC taking the ball in Game 4.

Onto this week’s baseball notes! The Astros announced that they’ve hired Brad Ziegler as their new manager. Just kidding! We meant Brad Mills. LOL. Oh, we just crack ourselves up. Previously, Mills served under Terry Francona as the Red Sox bench coach for six seasons. On Wednesday, the sale of the Chicago Cubs and other assets was completed. Sadly, TBB was unable to make an adequate offer. Apparently, we were outbid by the Ricketts family. Also on Wednesday, Chase Utley set the post season record by reaching base in 26 straight games. The record had been held by Baltimore’s Boog Powell. Mmmm…Boog’s Barbecue. Apologies. The thought of smoked BBQ always makes us digress. Prior to Yankees triumph in Game 2 over the Phillies, Derek Jeter received the 2009 Roberto Clemente Award from Commissioner, Bud Selig for his work with his Turn 2 Foundation. Congrats to Derek. Alyssa Milano must be so pleased. Props to Janney, who sent us those awesome Premio coupons. Let’s face it, the TBB are two girls that will definitely put those to good use.

Finally, we wish all of you a safe and fun HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
The Fresh Prince kicks off the weekend in Cititzen’s Bank Park with, “In West Philadelphia born and raised, in the playground is where the Yanks will spend most of their days. Chillin’ out, maxin’, relaxin’ all cool and having catch outside of school when a couple of Phillies, they were up to no good! Starting making trouble in the neighborhood. CC got in one little fight and the Phillies ran scared!”

LET’S GO YANKEES!