Hooray for the fault-line series

This year's Major League Baseball playoffs, after being saved from extinction by wily negotiators, may go down in history as one of the best playoffs ever. Commissioner of Major League Baseball Bud Selig has been embarrassed beyond recovery because of his attempted contraction of eventual American League Central Division winners the Minnesota Twins. The big budget mainstays of past baseball post seasons (see Yankees, Diamondbacks and Braves) have been eliminated by teams that use foreign concepts like coaching, teamwork and building up promising minor leaguers. St. Louis honored the spirit of former Cardinal pitcher Daryl Kile, by advancing to the division series, and the Milwaukee Brewers (Selig's team) showed why they are the most deserving candidate to be voted off the baseball island.\nNow, on to the World Series. Remember the series between the New York Yankees and the New York Mets? The "Subway Series." Magic was in the air as the series pitted brother against brother, boss against employee. Some people wore two tone jerseys with both Piazza's and Jeter's names on them.\nNow, we have the "Fault Line Series." Four hours up the San Andreas Fault from the Disney-owned Angels of Anaheim lie the San Francisco Giants, another California dreamin' team that has been a long time removed from a pennant, much less a World Championship.\nDisney couldn't have paid Major League Baseball to rig them a better feel-good story, no matter who wins the championship. Barry Bonds, the future hall of famer could finally win a championship to accompany his many personal accolades, or the farm team-bred Angels could win their first League crown. Though with the cities being a plane trip rather than a subway ride apart, the whole brother against brother thing is less likely to happen and the "Fault Line Series" is still good for baseball marketing. Much like the "Subway Series" t-shirts from New York, there could be "Fault Line Series", t-shirts depicting an earthquake rocking the stadiums, this picture superimposed over an image of the interstate connecting the two new American baseball meccas.\nThe t-shirt's slogan: "Baseball -- the only thing that rocks these towns more than the earthquakes!"\nAnd to think, this wonderful post season escapade almost never happened. Baseball almost went on strike over who was getting more money, and whether or not players would be confronted with drug testing. Major League Baseball obviously has a monopoly on professional major league baseball. The logic would suggest that everyone involved, from team owners to players to concessions contractors stop being greedy and do what is right to keep the product viable. It will always be much more profitable in the long run to reduce the emphasis on profit in the short term and keep the product publicly accessible. While baseball exists at a reasonable price, fans will continue to come, and baseball survives. If baseball gouges its consumer base with high prices, striking players and greedy owners, the fans will stop coming, baseball will die, and everyone will lose.\nAn inexpensive product that sells for a long time will always be more profitable than an expensive product that a few can buy now, but get tired of later and throw to the wayside.