September Baseball

Televising September baseball can be very difficult.
The rosters are expanded and a great percentage of the teams are out of the running.
The St. Louis Cardinals television crew has been very spoiled. The team has had a great run and has been in contention in September almost every season during the past 15 years.
Tonight's game/telecast featured the Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium. This is one of sports' biggest rivalries and the games are generally exciting and fun to televise. In fact, the last time the Cardinals and the Cubs both did not make the post-season was 1999.
The Cubs have been eliminated and the Cardinal are on life support. The Redbirds are 7 games out of 1st place with 20 games to play.
During the game tonight, I noticed that some of the Cubs were just "going through the motions". The Cardinals were battling hard but seemed to be missing that intensity necessary to compete at the Major League level.
During the game/telecast, I kept thinking about my peers whose teams are out of contention and have been for a while.
Televising baseball can be great fun when your team is winning.
Televising baseball can be very difficult when your team is losing.
I admire those peers who continually deliver a good product as they televise their games despite covering a losing team.
Baseball is the most difficult game to televise.
If the team being covered is a losing team, the task is all the more difficult.
If the team being covered is a winning team, the task is a blast and although the game is the same, the task seems easy.
When your team is winning, September is the greatest month of the season for the television crew.
There is no month more agonizing than September if you are covering a team out of contention.