Baseball - and still asleep at a decent hour

Are you excited about tonight's three-and-a-half inning showdown with the World Series on the line tonight? I am. Exciting baseball that should end early enough to get to bed at a reasonable time.

Tom Verducci at Sports Illustrated sums it up nicely:

For all the criticism of the weather, TV ratings and this strange World Series -- we've played 4 1/2 games over seven days and still there hasn't been one lead change -- baseball wound up with one of the most exciting nights it ever has seen: a 3 1/2-inning game with the world championship on the line. It is baseball's version of overtime, the shootout or penalty kicks. It is baseball for people who don't have time for baseball. It is baseball for the attention-challenged.

Fox should be working overtime to promote this game. It is an unprecedented situation with the urgency you never get from baseball. It can guarantee viewers that the game, if not the entire World Series, will be decided in the late innings -- without asking anyone to invest the time of watching the first two-thirds of the game. And there's yet another bright side to what people thought was a mess: Kids can watch the end of the game on a school night (assuming no rain delays or extra innings). The first suspended game in World Series history is not bad at all for baseball.

Read his whole article. Lots of good thoughts, particularly the point at the end about new stadium construction (I'm sure there's a company or two that would be willing to sponsor the domes on stadiums - the AllState Retractable Dome putting fans in good hands, etc.).