Toeing the Rubber

I was going to rant about fans who plan on booing tomorrow at Fenway but, really, I feel like I’ve written that entry every year since 2006 and I’m sick of it.  Bottom line, if you boo tomorrow and you are near me, chances are you’ll get an earful from me and quite possibly a beer shower.  Fair warning.  (I’m only half-kidding. Opening Day is way too soon to start wasting beer.)

And now for something completely different:

My WTF question comes thanks to a blog entry I read this morning called “Ban the Wave and the DH” over at Full Spectrum Baseball.  There’s a lot in the piece that I both agree and disagree with and I don’t want to dissect the entry but there is one thing written there that boggles my mind:

Did you happen to catch on to how many people were panning the Tigers vs Red Sox game that ended in extra innings with both teams scoring double digits?  Maybe some of those people just enjoy pitching duels, but I am willing to bet that games like that happen a lot less often in the NL

Now, I will admit to missing out on the panning of Sunday’s game but I’ll give the writer the benefit of the doubt and agree that he probably read people complaining about the game going on too long.  He wrote the above as a rebuttal to those who say that DH’s increase interest in the game because more offense and more runs scored increase interest in the game.  So here’s where I ask “WTF?”  Are there people, genuine fans of the game not people like sports writers or broadcasters who would rather be doing something else than following a baseball game, who would complain about a game like Easter Sunday’s Tigers/Red Sox game?

The scoring started early (Detroit had four runs in the first inning) and went on fairly consistently (in the 11 inning game, the only innings where no runs scored were the 5th, 7th, 8th and 10th) and in none of the innings where runs scored did only one run come in.  So we got seven multiple scoring innings with a walk-off home run winning it in the 11th and there are not only people complaining about that but someone using that game as a reason high scoring games aren’t popular?  Up until the ending, which admittedly didn’t work out well for the Red Sox and we Red Sox fans, that game was fun, frustrating, nerve-wracking and exciting.  THAT IS WHAT I WANT BASEBALL TO BE!  Heck, the best part of having the MLB Extra Innings package is that I can watch more baseball and have access to games when someone tweets “Mariners game going into the 14th inning”.  I totally get people who don’t like baseball thinking the games go on too long, but actual fans complaining about too much scoring? Huh?

Bring me these fans who were “panning” that game so I can ask them to their faces why they would watch baseball if not for games exactly like that.