It is Baseball Season, Folks

As a big sports fan and blog publisher, I am a fan of sports in season. Baseball was not meant to be played in the late fall and winter. Football is not a summer sport. The National Hockey League plays its season way too long - well into June. The National Basketball Association is not far behind in the realm of playing too long. I totally get that money plays a role in everything and especially in professional sports. More games means more revenue. Even if the season runs long.

The only professional sport I comment on is Major League Baseball. Many sports fans are most passionate about NCAA and NFL football. Once the Super Bowl is played, it is truly "off season" for many people until late August when college football gets underway.

Bars in Nashville become watering holes and gathering places for fans of certain college and pro football teams, many of which play many miles away from our city. As a regular at Tin Roof Lower Broadway, I noticed this year that patrons were really into the Stanley Cup Playoffs on television - way after the Nashville Predators were eliminated in the first round.

I recently began requesting that bar televisions be switched to baseball from pro wrestling, preseason NFL games, and various other generic options available in July and August. I was pleasantly surprised on Thursday night, August 11 to see that the "Field of Dreams" Major League Baseball game between the Cubs and Reds on FOX was on at several honky tonks, taking priority over the preseason game between the Titans and Ravens. The NFL preseason has been reduced from four to three games in recent years, and this may be at least in part to understandable fan apathy over meaningless exhibition games where many front-line players stay on the sidelines.

I produced a baseball-themed photo shoot in 2020 with models Chrystal and Mia Rochelle. The apparel was Cincinnati Reds and St. Louis Cardinals. Realizing that the Atlanta Braves were world champions in 2021 and that they are having more success here in 2022, I have been advertising and recruiting models for another baseball-theme pictorial. 

As I write this blog post on Saturday, August 13, I anticipate that one of my recent gorgeous models Brittany will be posing in baseball apparel later in the day.

There are plenty of reasons to like baseball this year. The Braves are successful and locally popular. The Yankees (national fan base) have basically wrapped up the American League Eastern Division championship. The Braves are in great shape to be in the playoffs at least as a wild card team and may catch up the Mets in the NL East. The Cardinals (my favorite team and also locally popular) and Brewers are in a battle for the NL Central title.

The playoffs this year will involve three wild card teams and begin with four best two of three Wild Card series prior to the best of five Division Series.

While three of the six divisions have teams way ahead in the lead and are not competitive, two are very close. The Braves are not out of contention for a division title, though the Mets seem to be the favorite at this moment in time.

So let's enjoy the upcoming promotional model pictorials. And let's not forget to enjoy baseball, too. Don't forget about the Nashville Sounds, who will be playing games at First Horizon Park through the month of September.

James A. Rose

Publisher