I realize baseball pays the bills in this nation of simpletons, but the New York periodicals' saturating MLB coverage is really starting to get on my nerves. Is the biggest sports story in New York today really the 3-and-4 Yankees? With six pages of Bomber coverage, the Post seems to think so.
But wait. Didn't the Rangers just clinch their first playoff berth in nine years? Didn't most pre-season polls news have them finishing dead last in the NHL? Aren't they, with three games remaining in the regular season, in a wild, three-legged race with two arch-rivals to finish first in the Atlantic Division?* And didn't one of their Czech players -- a league MVP shoe-in -- just set all kinds of Rangers scoring records? With the scant amount of Rangers (hell, NHL) press in this city, you may not know any of that.
But arguing about the hockey coverage in this city is about as useful as a pretty face on a fat chick. Some things will just never change; and maybe shouldn't. After all, the league did shoot itself in the foot with the lockout, and we shouldn't be surprised if it takes more than one season -- albeit an exciting one -- to win back the hearts of the casual fans and propel the sport back toward the front pages of NYC's sports sections.
That said, whether you're a devout hockey fan or a Latino, you can't not be intrigued by the storybook season that has been the Blueshirts' 2005-06 campaign. One would think the city's sports editors would want to leverage that a little more. I guess the true test will come once the Rangers face off against their cross-Hudson rivals in the first round of the playoffs. If that doesn't boost coverage, the sport may be doomed, after all.
I hope the Yankees miss the playoffs. In fact, I hope a mid-season MLB strike cancels the playoffs outright.
As far as I'm concerned, this here might be the only cool thing anyone has ever done with baseball. Ever. Check out this dude's video-game rendition of the Mets' 1986 World Series victory.
* So they lost to the shitty Islanders last night. They still don't deserve this kind of neglect.
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