MIKE BURKE

Allegany Communications Sports

You thought baseball was dead? In the immortal words of Jacob McCandles, “Not hardly.”

To conclude what was certainly one of the best World Series most of us have seen, Game 7 on Saturday night – a come-from-behind 5-4 Los Angeles Dodgers victory in 11 innings over the Toronto Blue Jays – averaged 25.984 million viewers across FOX, FOX Deportes and FOX Sports streaming platforms, based on Nielsen’s initial national reporting (the final numbers, which are higher, were due on Tuesday).

It was the most-watched World Series game since Game 7 of the 2017 World Series (Houston Astros-Dodgers, 28.2 million viewers) and peaked at 31.543 million viewers from 11:30 to 11:45 p.m. Eastern time.

FOX said Game 7 averaged 25.45 million viewers on the FOX Network alone compared to last year’s Game 5 between the Dodgers and New York Yankees, the No. 1 and No. 2 media markets in the country, which averaged 18.2 million viewers.

Memo to baseball: This is what happens when the game is played the way it’s supposed to be played, meaning no baserunners to start extra innings, dominant and fearless starting pitchers, great defense and managers managing with their wits instead of a geek’s analytics.

This Game 7 had everything, from momentum-swinging home runs to spectacular defensive plays to a one-for-the ages performance from Dodgers pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto, to a crushing end for the Toronto Blue Jays. It also gave baseball its first repeat champion in 25 years.

The entire postseason was a blast – pure fall theatre, which is far more than the clucks who run Major League Baseball deserve.

As former owner Bill Veeck once said, “Baseball must be a great game, because the owners haven’t been able to kill it.”

Just 24 hours later on another national television platform, WASHINGTON COMMANDERS fans came to grips on just how fleeting great expectations can be, as the Seattle Seahawks crushed the Commanders, 38-14 to make what fleeting playoff chances Washington had become even more fleeting.

Worst of all, the Commanders’ brilliant second-year quarterback Jayden Daniels suffered a gruesome injury to his left elbow late in the fourth quarter with the Commanders trailing by 31 points at the time, and will surely miss more time after having missed previous games to two injuries.

After reaching the NFC Championship Game last season, the Commanders were expected to make a run at the Super Bowl this season and fans were bullish on their chances. But injuries have skinned the roster and the play on both sides of the ball has come nowhere near the level of performance the team delighted the D.C. Beltway area with a year ago.

The Commanders have lost four in a row and stand at 3-6 entering the upcoming game with the Detroit Lions, and now fans and talking heads are on head coach Dan Quinn like quicksand for having Daniels in the game during the fourth quarter of a 31-point blowout.

Quinn took the fall like a trooper, saying it was something he missed and that the blame was 100 percent on him.

It’s certainly fair to point the finger at Quinn, and while it is admirable he accepted the blame for Daniels still being in the game, it’s difficult to fathom how he could have “missed it,” as Jayden Daniels is the franchise player – the meal ticket! – who one day may still take the Commanders to the promised land, provided they don’t go full RG3 on his person.

Let’s put it this way, if it’s not going to be Daniels, who is it going to be? Nobody, which is why Jayden Daniels cannot be the player who just slips into the game while nobody is looking, as the Commanders have erred on the side of caution with him, seemingly sitting him out longer with his previous injuries than they likely would have anyone else.

That said, the point can be made that players play and injuries happen, and that it was the type of freak injury that could have happened just as easily in the first quarter as the fourth. But it didn’t happen in the first quarter, it happened in the fourth quarter. And why would you not have Jayden Daniels in the game during the first quarter anyway?

I know, I know. Hypotheticals rule all – if dog rabbit …

So while we all can agree to agree that Quinn must bear the responsibility for the Daniels injury, the injury itself only compounds the burden that everyone in the organization, beginning with general manager Adam Peters, must bear for the direction this Commanders season has taken after owning so many intoxicating and grand expectations.

Which, of course, is something the folks up the Parkway in Baltimore understand all too well.

In two sports.

Mike Burke writes about sports and other stuff for Allegany Communications. He began covering sports for the Prince George’s Sentinel in 1981 and joined the Cumberland Times-News sports staff in 1984, serving as sports editor for over 30 years. Contact him at [email protected]. Follow him on X @MikeBurkeMDT