So I’ve had this nagging feeling the past few days. A sort of unfinished vibe about me. I absolutely hate games decided in under eight and a half innings. It’s un-American. We need nine innings just like we need nine players on the field, the same nine in the batting order (the DH is also un-American but that’s another topic for another post) I hated it last year when we took a loss to the Phillies, and I hate it now when we get over a win over Tony La-RuSmug. I really wish major league baseball would change that rule, it just isn’t fair. Every team has the God given right to at least 27 at bats before they are charged with a loss and every team should be required by law to record 27 defensive outs to earn a win; no exceptions.

I realize that more rainouts or games postponed due to rain make scheduling and travel hectic. I also have heard the argument that 162 games, two playoff rounds and the World series every year make them necessary evils. I am not suggesting we follow the Baseball Satan’s plan to hold a nine game World Series in warm weather towns like the Superbowl. I reject his ideas on principal alone, but that is a terrible idea. Make the World Series like the Oscars? I hate the Oscars and have NEVER watched it. “Did you see what Oil-Can Boyd was wearing last night?” “Don Baylor’s coaching shorts were to die for!“ Please.

Have you ever wondered why there aren’t any scheduled double-headers anymore? I know it’s a stretch to even dream of a scheduled double header in this century where baseball is much a business as it is a game and owners want the extra gate. Make it a Platinum package ticket, hold double headers on Memorial Day, The Fourth of July, Fathers Day, Mother’s Day Labor Day, and maybe a Sunday with some lackluster interleague match up . (It is a travesty that the Mets didn’t play on Memorial Day.) There, the money aspect is solved, the schedule has made room for six makeup days, and I never have to spend an entire night feeling like I just turned off the game after the top of the sixth.

In seemingly unrelated news, I finally picked up this months issue of Playboy featuring Olympic swimmer Amanda Beard on the cover, and what a cover! I couldn’t wait to how hot she was looked in the pictorial sure to be ever better right?

Wrong, it was terrible, I’ve never been so under whelmed, just terrible. I haven’t felt so cheated since I watched A Beautiful Mind beat out Moulin Rouge at the Academy Awards. I haven’t felt so cheated since the time my favorite baseball team only played a five and a half inning game. It would have been so much better to leave it to the imagination.

Not to sound like either some kind of feminist or a sexist male all at the same time, nor suggest Ms. Beard is not a stunning woman. I just think this was a terrible move. I have been hearing the complaints from many that female athletes aren’t compensated enough by their respective teams or advertisers. Well, if you can tell me with a straight face that David Wright would ever pose nude then I would sympathize. (Boy, I hope David’s agent doesn’t read my site and have an epiphany about how to get David on the cover of more mags.) She could have gotten the same exposure posing for Cosmo or Vogue. Playboy, is just off-putting for a female athlete competing in a sport where both genders are on an equal footing when the women have to do it better to gain the real fan’s respect.

I know, its only swimming, I should relax but what else am I going to think about on a night without baseball?

There is your preachy, grumpy, young-old man Thursday night post.

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