Local Rules in Baseball Broadcasting

Baseball is at its best when brought to you by local broadcasters — a fact that always seems to elude MLB's "brain trust."

My parents separated when I was very young. I had few memories of my father until I went and found him in my early twenties. I was not close to my grandfather, either. In fact, I had no male role model in my life at all. It was left to me to decide which sports teams I would root for, although the limitations of broadcast television played a significant role. In those days, entertainment still came into houses over an antenna.

Time to Start Winning

A reasonable goal for the New York Mets this season is to win 90+ games and make the playoffs. It certainly seems achievable with the current roster, even if it's not something the Mets have done all that often. They've managed 90 or more wins only 11 times in 59 seasons leading up to this year. The first time was the Miracle Mets 1969 season. They didn't do it again until 1984, which was the beginning of the most successful era in Mets history. They were over 90 wins for the next 5 years, missed it in 1989, then did it again in 1990, the final year of Frank Cashen's tenure as GM. Manager Davey Johnson also departed 42 games into that fateful season.