An entertaining World Series (if you turn the volume off)

Nick Punto's on-base percentage in
this World Series is .467. This is not a typo.
He has three hits and four walks in 15
trips to the plate. 

This Texas-St. Louis World Series isn't anything resembling my dream matchup. Of the postseason field of  eight, it probably pits teams five and six or seven of my rooting interest. But it's easily the best series of the past decade — easily because we've had so many four- and five-game World Series.

Monday's bullpen phone controversy just added to the fun. From a pure karma sense, it's fitting that control freak Tony LaRussa, the manager who popularized specialty relievers, got burned on the biggest stage by not having pitchers ready for their matchups.

We've seen Albert Pujols have probably the biggest offensive game in World Series history — 14 total bases — and two days later put on a hit-and-run on his own, down two runs in the ninth inning, a move that suggests that he felt overmatched against Neftali Feliz.

We've seen dominant pitching from Derek Holland and plenty of pitching that was ... less than that. We've seen the mighty Nick Punto try (and fail) to break a bat over his knee after hauling the lumber all the way to first base (at least he didn't dive into the base). We've seen Allan Craig get two big pinch hits, seen Adrian Beltre hit a homer from his knees, seen Elvis Andrus flash his spectacular range at shortstop.

I've enjoyed this Series tremendously, in no small part because I've learned to just turn the volume down so as not to be distracted by the nonsense spewed by Tim McCarver. (I spent the regular season practicing with Dick-n-Bert.)

I merely read about Timmy Mac's lunacies on the Internet afterwards. The best take on McCarver — as is generally the case — comes from Joe Posnanski.

Joe Buck doesn't like doing baseball. McCarver's stale and out of touch. The challenge for we the fans is not to let Fox ruin a good game.

Sympathy for the Devil

I gripe a lot — more than I should — about baseball broadcasters. 

Today I contemplated the utter silliness of the sponsorship of the keys of the game segment early in Fox' broadcast, and, for the first time, felt sorry for Joe Buck.

How much did he have to rehearse to say "the Ninja Assassin keys to the game" with a straight face?