Praise for small things

So last night, after the Steelers put the Jaguars to bed in their season of seeing just how much they can put on the QB...

I switched over to wallow in Red Soxery, as the most spoiled fans in sports congregated for their annual progression to the ALCS.

Amazingly, it didn't happen -- despite a shaky appearance from Bobby Thigpen II (aka K-Rod, who is going to make his next contract signer very, very unhappy), and a ton of men left on base all night. In the 12th, the Angels finally broke through with a hit from the previously series-less Erick Aybar, plating the beer truckian Mike Napoli, and hey presto... the Angels' 9-game post-season losing streak to the Bahstans was over. At only ten minutes to one. Who said sports blogging was something you could do outside of your day job?

I'd like to note, just because I constantly rag on crap announcing, that TBS Doesn't Suck. Sure, the nonstop Frank TV spots are enough to make you want to kill not just the "comedian" in question, but also each and every person who watches the show. Buck Martiniez's faux hick accent is also not something you really want to encourage. But here's what you don't see, or at least, not so much of that I've noticed quite yet.

> Pointless animations

> Nostril-cam views of the principals as they deal with The Pressure, Oh, The Pressure

> Celebrity Diversions

> Announcers telling you about how it was when they were playing

> Braying jackassery in the pre and post-game

Instead, you get Ernie Johnson (always good, and less than full of himself), various recent Hall of Fame players who seem to actually know something (Tony Gwynn, Cal Ripken, Dennis Eckersley), and a post-game interviewer who actually asks questions (Craig Sager, who one presumes most get a lot of road tail to dress like that in public).

The games are still way too damned long, and I defy anyone who doesn't have a personal stake in the laundry to watch without having something else to do during the dead zones -- I was writing for a while, then making some headway in a novel, having already folded the laundry. But for everything that sports telecasts gets wrong nowadays, TBS is surprisingly suck-free. Not that the Foxian Overlords, of course, will pay any attention to that...