Cardinals, Rangers Deserve More Respect

Despite this being potentially one of the bes World Series in the history of MLB, viewer ratings are not up to par for this year's fall classic.  Reports are that television ratings are way down compared to just two years ago when the Phillies met the Yankees in the World Series.  It was estimated that about 22 million people tuned in to watch that year's series clinching game 6 while this year's game 6 garnered a little over 17 million viewers.  Much of this can be attributed to the markets each team plays in compared to the markets of the 2009 teams.  The St. Louis Cardinals and Texas Rangers operate under a much smaller market for baseball viewers than that of the New York Yankees and Philadelphia Phillies.  Still, with all the excitement of last game 6 and games prior, this World Series should be producing equal or better ratings that that of the 2009 Series.  It is disappointing to think that baseball has shrunk to the level that it has.

Carson Palmer: Answer To Radiers Struggles?

The Cincinatti Bengals finally shed their angry franchise player, Carson Palmer.  Palmer was retired and finally traded to the Oakland Radiers today for a first round pick in this year's draft and a conditional first round pick two years from now.  Is this the player the Radiers have been missing?  They haven't had a true quality quarterback since Rich Gannon took them to the super bowl almost a decade ago.  They had the widely publicized bust of quarterback JaMarcus Russell out of LSU (first overall pick).  I believe Palmer will undoubtedly help the team.  But is he what he used to be before the Steelers tore his ACL the first play of the game during the playoffs a few years back?  On that play he threw a 60 yard bomb for a huge opening play of the game by the way.  I don't view Palmer as the elite quarterback he once was, yet he is still dependable.  I'm just not sure he is two first round picks dependable.

Red Sox Dysfunction Just a Microcosm of Sports Today

Ever since the Boston Red Sox failed to make the playoffs this season, experts have been searching for reasons for their monumental September collapse.  A team once on pace for 100 wins and a trip to the playoffs stuttered big time, going 6-18 down the stretch and losing a nine game lead in the wild-card race as of September 3rd.  Reports have been coming out that arguably the team's top three starting pitchers (Josh Beckett, Jon Lester, and John Lackey) were drinking beer, eating fried chicken, and playing video games in the clubhouse during games instead of being on the bench.  To me, this is absolutely ridiculous.  It shows so much dissrespect to the game of baseball and to Americans in general.  It seems like athletes and sports in general these days are getting more and more dissrespectful and lazy every year.  Players are getting illegally recruited, using performance enhancing drugs, saying innapropriate things during interviews and social media, along with countless other examples that can be seen every day on ESPN.  Athletes don't care as much as they should and are just in it for the money.  They care more about themselves and their statistics rather than winning their game.  This specific Boston Red Sox incident is just a microcosm of sports today.