Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Foreign Spotlight

I got an interesting insight into what it's like viewing the coverage abroad of a sport that isn't big in your country. It's a nice counterbalancer to the 'Beckham ties his shoes exclusive' that I'm sure they get in the US.

This was because last week, in The Guardian, there was a short snippet about baseball. Amazing, I thought. Something happened worthy to be mentioned from the baseball season?

So what was the big story? Well, Mussina had pitched his 15th win of the season in a 3-0 Yankees victory over the Rangers.

That was the big story?

The Yankees, perennial big club but third in the AL East behind the Devil Rays and the Red Sox, and looking iffy for a post-season berth. The Rangers, twelve games behind the Angels in the AL West and seemingly long gone.

It's hysterical that this is the one mention we get. The Angels are running away with the AL West, and have just completed a tough East-coast trip with a 7-3 record, including sweeping Boston at Fenway. The Rays are the surprise leaders of the AL East. So what do we get? A spotlight on none of these big stories of the season.

The story that went on from there was that the Yankees then went to get swept at the Angels, then lost the fourth in a row against the Twins. The Rangers then lost consecutive series and are now fifteen games back of the Angels - with a lower elimination number than the bottom team in every other AL series.

In short, it's a story on nothing much. But it'll be the only baseball coverage I'll see in the paper all month.

1 comment:

Lorelei said...

Luckily for you, you have a baseball loving girlfriend who you now have surpassed in baseball knowledge! However, if you're really really nice to this baseball loving girlfriend (and you can get the time off) she may let you have one of her world series tickets (assuming the Angels don't get swept in the playoffs like they did last year, which is entirely possible).