Must-See TV?

Your daily dose of postseason baseball—plus an early look at the Hall of Fame voting.

Today we have a little baseball ratings talk, a Tigers thought (featuring pal Jason Benetti!), a movie suggestion, and it’s never too early to start thinking about what this year’s Hall of Fame class will look like.

First, a couple quick promotional things—saw something really cool the other day: WHY WE LOVE FOOTBALL is in Target! Like, it’s in the actual store! I’m obviously an independent bookstore zealot, but I’m also aware that not every town has an independent bookstore, and not every reader goes to independent bookstores, and it’s super-hard, bordering on impossible, to get a non-fiction book like mine into Target. But it’s there, with the gift-giving season approaching (or is the gift-giving season already upon us?)!

Do me a favor if you can—if you’re visiting Target, pop over to the bookstore, take a quick photo of WHY WE LOVE FOOTBALL and gmail it to me, along with the town you’re in. I’ll even pick out a few of you to get a prize.

And hey, if you want to pick up a copy as a gift at Target or anywhere else, like Amazon or Barnes & Noble or your local bookstore, you have my eternal gratitude.

Also, I guess the special JoeBlogs sale didn’t expire like I thought it would—technology is not my strong suit—so today will be the last day for new subscribers to take advantage of the lefty hit machine, Brett/Ichiro sale price.

Baseball and the Ratings

Baseball fans, in general, care more about television ratings than fans of any other sport, and I don’t think it’s even close. Maybe there’s a group of hockey fans out there who obsess over Stanley Cup Final viewership, but I’ve never heard of them, and I tend to imagine that any “Stanley Cup Finals Ratings Club” would feature a bunch of people who look like Shoresy and say, in delightful Canadian accents, “Who gives a $&#^(ing !#@%^ about how many people watch the game?”

Baseball fans, a lot of us, do care, and I think the big reason why is this: