I used to care a lot about baseball. Now, I’m just an casual observer of some of the playoffs, although I’ll generally make an effort to watch what might be the final game of the World Series, which is happening right now. The focus in the baseball world should be on the fact that the Red Sox are about to win the World Series…or at that Colorado Rockies are about to make a respectable comeback in Game 4 to avoid a sweep.

Instead, in the eighth inning, however many millions of fans still watch the World Series were subjected to the “breaking news” that Alex Rodriguez, “A-Rod,” would not be accepting the option on his contract to remain with the New York Yankees and would become a free agent. Yes, A-Rod is the best player in the major leagues today. But A-Rod is NOT in the World Series. The major league baseball season, I hope, should ultimately be more about the TEAM that wins the championship, not one player. But instead of commenting on the two teams vying for the championship, Joe Buck and Tim McCarver and their intrepid dugout reporter were talking about A-Rod.

I’d be disgusted with A-Rod, but it’s clear his super-agent Scott Boras made sure to leak this news while there were millions of people paying attention. The maneuver was a reminder individual athletes, not teams, dominate the headlines in professional sports. Of course, FOX didn’t need to go with the story.

And with that, congratulations to the Boston Red Sox for winning their second World Series in the past four years…