Brewers-Rays: World Series Nightmare?

The biggest reason seems to be the fact that so much of Florida's population is composed of transplants, yankees, or New England-based retirees (whatever you want to call them) who are beckoned to the Sunshine State for one reason or another. 

These fans often find it difficult to let go of their lifetime bonds with their Sox or appropriately-named Yanks and embrace a young, upstart team like the St. Petersburg-based Rays.

If you compare national radio markets, Tampa outranks Milwaukee 19th to 36th.  Milwaukee is nestled in between San Jose, California, and Columbus, Ohio—each of which has only one professional sports team.  In each case, that sport is the dramatically less popular niche sport of hockey.

To put some light on Tampa's rating, sitting 19th places the Rays behind 16 other current MLB markets, along with Puerto Rico.

Television markets fare a bit better in the case of the Rays, as they come in 13th overall, ahead of MLB cities like Minneapolis, Baltimore, St. Louis, Seattle, and Miami.  One has to wonder, though, if this isn't spurred somewhat by the elderly population's penchant for daytime soaps or the evening news after a long day of shuffleboard.

Milwaukee, on the other hand, ranks 35th behind non-baseball cities of Nashville, Portland, Fayetteville (North Carolina), Indianapolis, Hartford, and Salt Lake City—to name a few.  Did I mention that these cities all lie in entire states that are not on the professional baseball map?

Neither team has a premier, "legendary" manager that teams like the Cubs with Lou Piniella are able to claim, or the Dodgers with Joe Torre, or the eccentric Ozzie Guillen of the White Sox.  These managers bring additional attention to their teams simply with their personalities and the fact that all three are former MLB players, and good ones at that.

The Rays had Lou Piniella and let him go. Oh well.

Now, that's not to say that Joe Maddon won't get A.L. manager of the year.  He'd have my vote if I had one.  Ned Yost, formerly of the Brewers, was my preseason pick before he got the axe with two weeks to go.

All I am saying is this is one less avenue for the media to take when it comes to hyping up a team and series that will need all the help it can get if these are the final two competitors.

Imagine baseball's big whigs and yes-men required to travel to every game and every city in which a playoff game is being played.  I can already see Selig sending proxies down to Tampa or doing a mandatory celebratory conference call from his New York offices to fulfill his job obligations, should either team actually win this thing.

If he does show up to the tomb that is The Trop, or Miller Park with its lack of playoff history, will the cameras show him slouching in his chair with a look of disgust plastered on his face? Or will it be a look of horror or shock as he pines for usual stalwarts from either New York borough to get better sooner before later?

The players on each respective team lack household star power and name recognition that the Yankees, Red Sox, or even Dodgers enjoy on a nightly basis, thanks to media moguls like ESPN and Fox Sports.

However, the Rays and Brewers deserve to be in the World Series, at least in my mind, because they could boast the ever popular "best stars you've never heard of" in prime time.  And they'd have simply outlasted the other, more flashy teams.

The only question in this nightmare scenario is if Bud Selig, a past proponent of contraction (no matter how ridiculous that may sound now, not to mention the outrage it created among fans), would play the role of Satan since the "Devil" is gone.

After all, should the Brewers make it, they already have the role of Prince covered.

Check back in a few weeks to see if I prove to be prophetic.

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