Concluding Unscientific Postscript

Two things I completely forgot about that last post, and now can't figure out where to fit them in.

1) Yes, it is sexist. Professional baseball - like most sports - is a huge business that almost exclusively targets men. And it is really encouraged in men to "have a team" and to be a "high IQ fan." Again, I think it's all about authenticity, i.e., are you a real fan, which is part of why I think Obama comes off better as a Bears fan than McCain does with his "off-hand" reference of the Arizona Cardinals.

So Clinton comes of as a poser when she gets caught wearing a Yankees hat here but a Cubs there. But she really isn't; she has grounds for both of them. She's the senator from New York and she was born in Chicago and raised in the North Suburbs. Plus, she knows that one is an A.L. team and the other is N.L. It would be a different kettle of fish if she were a Mets fan. I guess that my only problem is that the Yankees and the Cubs are the two easiest teams to be fan of.

Sarah Palin doesn't get a defense.

2) According to Sports Illustrated, "Major League Baseball has agreed to push back the start time of a potential World Series Game 6 by eight minutes to allow Democrat Barack Obama to purchase a half-hour of air time on the Fox network." What this says to me is that Obama has enough money to do whatever the Hell he feels like doing. And that it's all about revenue - at the moment it is likely that Fox will be getting a Rays-Phillies World Series, a viewer ratings nightmare for the networks. (Although you can't count out Boston.) Obama can probably outbid that match-up any day. But I wonder if Fox would have been as willing to sell him that premium timeslot if it meant pushing back Red Sox-Dodgers or Red Sox-Cubs. The ticket price for that buy would probably have been much higher.