Fox Sports is Livin’ On a Prayer
This is an entertainment blogsite, and as such it is not in our charter or interest to speculate on spiritual or theological matters. For instance, questions such as the existence of absolute good and evil, evidence of the spark of the divine and predetermination versus freewill are only indirectly expressed here, as the philosophical underpinnings of articles (i.e. How the existence of Martin Scorsese requires the existence of Pauly Shore; the inevitability of a Transformers sequel, etc.). Discussions on such matters generally take place on Dan’s other site, and be prepared for the definitions of ultimate Good and Evil to be of the more earthbound, Limbaugh-versus-Clinton variety. However, Dan has on this site uncovered some rather convincing evidence that absolute evil does indeed exist, walks among us, and does book tours on occasion.
But I can report here on the efficacy of prayers– specifically, the thorny theological issue that if the petitioning of the Communion of Saints will aid the petitioner in matters worldly. The Execs over at Fox Sports got on bended knee and asked St. Claire of Assisi, the Patron Saint of television, for a favor. And apparently they got it.
The Boston Red Sox, who were at one point three games behind the Cleveland Indians and facing imminent elimination in the American League playoffs, roared up and took the series in the seventh game. They will face the Colorado Rockies Wednesday in the World Series.
That’s right, Red Sox Nation– that wide-scattered diaspora of New Englanders, wanna-be New Englanders, New York Yankee-haters, and just plain rowdy baseball fans– are going to be tuning in to the series. Fox Sports is saved– and by that I mean they can justify their commercial spot rates for their telecasts to Rupert Murdoch and their advertisers.
(And when I call Red Sox Nation “Rowdy,” that’s in the best possible way: High-spirited, hard-drinking, boisterous, vaguely Irish. Yeah, it’s true when I went to a Red Sox-Giants Interleague game a few years ago I saw cops pull fightin’ mad drunks wearing Boston jerseys out of every section of the ballpark, but it was always amusing. The only times I seriously thought I’d get my ass kicked by somebody at a sporting event was in the silver-and-black clutches of [Oakland] Raider Nation. Those guys are just aggro– American versions of English Football hooligans. Not fun at all.)
And bonus– the World Series even promises to be entertaining, a dramatic clash of opposites. The Rox versus the Sox. East against West. A 100-year old team with millions of fans versus a 15-year-old expansion team that was becoming an embarrassment in it’s own home town. Boston, a team with a $143 million payroll of super-star athletes versus Colorado, a team of nurtured farm-team rookies and young players with a payroll only a third of their opponents.
And, as I said, it will be watched in key markets. Best of all, with the playoffs decided Fox Sports doesn’t have to care who wins anymore. They won. Now, if the Rox and Sox can politely end their games on time so the local newscasts can go on before midnight they would achieve Nirvana. But that’s theology, isn’t it?
–Skot C.