World Series Takes a Classic Fall

On a day when every Orange County loyalist should be lamenting the announced sale of Knott’s Berry Farm and asking, “What about the chicken dinners??!!” I’m clucking about the future of another venerable institution: the World Series.

I never go to Knott’s, but I always watch the Series. I’ve been watching since at least ’56 when my uncle made me cry because the Dodgers, then my favorite team, lost to the Yankees. Yes, I was 37 years old at the time, but the point is, I cared and so did lots of other people.

I’ve always cared. I can’t think of a Series since then that I missed much of. Somehow, baseball fans find a way to catch the games. It doesn’t matter who’s playing--the Series is nothing less than the final act of a top-flight drama that has played out all summer. Missing the Series would be like watching “Psycho” and walking out with 10 minutes left. The Series is a definite whowunit.

At this minute, though, as I’m pecking on the keyboard, Game 3 is a couple hours away. In another year, another time, I’d be typing feverishly, trying to get out of here. Instead, I’m trying to decide: Should I go home and watch the game or make a 7 p.m. appointment to have my nails painted, with a complimentary tongue-piercing?

Each holds roughly equal interest for me.

Normally, I’d blame this kind of malaise on myself, but the fault lies elsewhere. I’m still the same old fan; it’s baseball that’s changed.

In case you missed it: A team with a fish on their caps is in the World Series this year. One of its colors is teal. The team is a wild card. But it gets worse: The team is an expansion wild card.

An expansion wild card with a fish logo. And teal, to boot.

We are verging on sports profanity here. Why not just match the winner of this year’s Series against the Silver Bullets women’s team, and then baseball fans everywhere can just jump off a bridge together and be done with it.

Baseball and TV moguls have only themselves to blame. I won’t repeat in detail the now-annual rap on baseball--how the expanded postseason runs too long, and how the Series games air too late at night in much of the country, etc.

But another reason I have little interest in tonight’s game is that the Cleveland weather forecast calls for highs in the 30s, with rain and howling winds. Lousy weather enhances a football telecast; it kills a baseball game. I’m no meteorologist, but chances are it would have been warmer had they played the game when the sun was shining.

How I prattle, you say. How I protest too much. Who cares if one little sap in Orange County has lost interest in the World Series?

Ha, I’m no sap, I’m a bellwether. If I’m not watching the World Series--a sports fan with no real life outside of televised sports--who is?

I’ll go you one better--NBC is televising the Series, and even the network wants it to end.

A top-ranking executive said last weekend he hoped the Series would end in four games (he would have said “three” but format changes are always difficult), so the network’s prime-time schedule Thursday night wouldn’t be preempted. He didn’t get his wish, and there will be a Game 5 on Thursday, meaning “Seinfeld” and “ER” will be laying down sacrifice bunts and giving themselves up to millions of viewers.

You get some idea of the depth of NBC’s current disdain for this particular World Series when you remember that the network paid $400 million in 1995 to get television rights. Presumably, that means NBC once liked baseball too.

The irony is that networks used to fight for the World Series because it came at a great time in the year: right around the start-up of their new fall season. They could use the high viewership of the Series to tout their shows. This year, NBC is discovering that the Series is touting the shows on ABC, CBS and Fox.

Everything is in place for a Series no one cares about. Ratings are down, down, down, and if this drags on to Game 7, NBC may bump it for a rerun of a Johnny Carson anniversary special.

I know my troubles don’t amount to a hill of beans, but losing interest in a World Series is serious business. I can only hope it’s temporary, and that some form of baseball order is restored next year.

An October without a World Series just isn’t the same.

Dana Parsons’ column appears Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Readers may reach Parsons by calling (714) 966-7821 or by writing to him at the Times Orange County Edition, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, CA 92626, or by e-mail to dana.parsons@latimes.com