Major League Baseball’s World Series. The Fall Classic. The pinnacle of baseball excellence. What- ever you want to call it, you should care about the World Series.
Even if you are not an avid baseball fan, or you do not have a favorite team, or you do not watch games regularly, or you have not watched a single game all season, you should care about the World Series.
Super Bowl Sunday has become an unofficial national holiday, even among those who care little for the sport. The Olympics draw worldwide attention every other year while most of its sports go relatively unnoticed otherwise.
However, those who ignore baseball for the six months of the regular season continue to ignore the sport through its most intense level of competition: the playoffs. Average viewership for the 2019 edition of the World Series checked in at around 14 million viewers per game – the lowest number in five years.
This year’s Game Seven between the Washington Nationals and the Houston Astros drew just over 23 million viewers. The 2019 Super Bowl drew in 98.2 million viewers, even as February’s Super Bowl was one of the least-watched Super Bowls of the decade.
The 75 million people who thought the Super Bowl was “cannot miss” content, and the World Series was not, ended up being dead wrong.
While the New England Patriots out-defensed the Los Angeles Rams in a 13-3 snoozefest, the Nationals topped the Astros in a thrilling seven-game set.
The Fall Classic not only held plenty of in-game excitement, but it was complete with plenty of juicy storylines. The Washington Nationals had never won a World Series before 2019. The Nats turned their season around and came back to win a wild-card game before making a surprising run to the World Series.
Meanwhile, the Astros were one series away from winning their second World Series in three years. Despite not having their Dodgers in the Fall Classic, Riverside fans should have at least been intrigued by the presence of Riverside Poly product and Astros outfielder Jake Marisnick.
The end result was a special moment that never gets old: The celebration of the immortalization of athletes and their team as they claim their sport’s highest achievement.
It is hard to beat those moments. That is why you should watch every major sporting championship. Yes, even the World Series.
You do not have to watch every game of every season, but if the next generation asks “where were you when” and you have to say “studying in the library,” then you missed out on experiencing an iconic and historic sports moment.
