After their first World Series title in 108 years, the built-to-last Cubs appeared on the brink of a dynasty. This year it’s been back to black in WrigleyvilleThe Cubs are back. After flipping 107 years of history a season ago by winning the organization’s first World Series title since 1908, disappointment and losing have returned to the North Side of Chicago. Entering this season, the reigning champs had 4-to-1 odds to repeat as champs according to Las Vegas sports books and were consensus favorites to take the National League’s Central Division. They were the reigning champs, young and had their entire core returning. While anything can happen in the postseason – just ask the Nationals – and it may be...
David Lengel puts MLB’s 30 local telecasts to the test as he takes a tour round baseball’s broadcast boothsWith baseball’s lengthy regular season stretching from April to October, it’s not uncommon for fans to have the game on every night. Naturally, with 162 games, the broadcasters themselves become an enormous part of the fan experience.The hyper-local model which defines Major League Baseball also means that most fans have little idea what other local broadcasts are like outside their baseball bubble. Luckily MLB Advanced Media are the owners of what is probably the most comprehensive live streaming service on the planet, and I took a tour of all 30 commentary teams. Related: What's wrong with the Cubs? A backslide to mediocrity...
Baseball scored a rare ratings victory over the NFL boosted by a thrilling World Series. Could it mean a challenge to football’s TV dominance? Don’t bet on itEarly last Thursday morning, as the champagne flew in the Chicago Cubs clubhouse, Fox put to bed a rollicking World Series that smashed all expectations of what modern baseball can do on television with a 25.2 rating for Game 7. Later that night, on the NFL Network, the Atlanta Falcons clobbered the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and drew a once-unfathomable 3.2 rating, a 35% drop from the same Thursday night game last year. While in other years, the Falcons and Bucs game might have been written off as an anomaly, it was yet another...
On Wednesday night, for the Cubs at least, the World Series ended in that rarest of things: an authentic, earned happy endingThere was a baseball game last night.There are three stories to tell about it, and they’re stacked on top of each other, tottering, each bigger than the last and relying on the one below it to make sense. The first story: the Cubs took a 6-3 lead into the eighth inning of Game 7 of the World Series, and Aroldis Chapman blew it. Then he won the game. Related: Chicago Cubs end most storied title drought in American sporting folklore | Bryan Armen Graham Related: Bill Murray basks in 'beautiful' victory as Obama invites Cubs to White House Continue...
No team has failed better over the last century but this extraordinary victory suggests the next World Series will not be far away for history’s glorious losers Baseball is a game of failures. A hitter with a .300 batting average, the traditional benchmark of a star player, fails seven times out of 10. Errors are given equal billing alongside runs and hits, a naked public accounting of imperfection consistent on scoreboards from Little League diamonds to major league stadiums. The game is a turn-based series of individual conflicts where mistakes are amplified. The difference between good and great, between winning and losing, exists in the management of the inevitable, incremental defeats that unlike other sports are not mere hazards of...