i have a hilarious joke- would you like to hear it?

It doesn't matter that the Rockies swept the Yankees, or took 2 of 3 at Fenway. We NL West fans just can't escape the fact that they're better teams. It sucks, but it's true.

Wait a second... they're no longer playing baseball in New York, Philly, or Chicago?? You can't be serious...

And it helps to recognize how it ties into how media is made in the first place. It's all about following the money and influence. America's primary financial (Wall Street) and political (Washington) centers are where most of the media attention for the country will be drawn, and anything that media covers -including leisure pursuits and diversions- will be centered around those areas and targeted to the people who live there. This is why the advertising industry, which funds the media is also centered in New York. Boston, Baltimore and Philadelphia enjoy the benefits of proximity, but the mountains of Western Pennsylvania and New York seem to be the dividing line as Cleveland, Pittsburgh and Cincinnati get less exposure despite being in the Eastern time zone.

Detroit still pulls a little media clout for being the home of our automobile trade and along with Chicago and St. Louis forms a secondary big media market group. That's where they get the "Second City" nickname for Chi-town, as a sort of poor-man's New York. Atlanta used to be a sort of red-headed stepchild before cable television and the rise of the New South, the bias would exclude them before and during the 1980's from what I understand, but thanks to TBS, CNN, a lot of money, a successful team and the right time zone, the Braves have joined the establishment. You'll note that nobody cares about the Florida teams, and that's pretty much because Madison Avenue feels that everybody in Florida has stronger ties to the Northeast. Texas is all by itself, but energy and oil money have made it a lucrative independent market for advertising, most of the trade there comes out of Houston, meaning the Astros will likely get more coverage than the Rangers until that shifts.

Colorado/Denver's kind of an odd duck in the industry, honestly. The money is there, and the people eat up advertising -obviously they get passionate about their sports too- there just aren't enough of them yet and there really isn't a supplementary market in the Mountain West to allow Denver to become a regional center like Atlanta or Houston to develop a strong independent ad/media center. Phoenix is out, similarly to Florida with the East, its population -from an ad standpoint- is tied completely to the West Coast and not the Mountain West. Silicon Valley and Hollywood rule out there, and that's why Los Angeles/San Fran will get all the exposure while the D-backs, Padres and Mariners are left wanting.

Simmons is usually an enjoyable guy, although always a prick.

His reasoning for following the NL NEXT SEASON is that he's going to join an NL-only fantasy league.

Well, be still, my beating heart.

Hopefully the NL winner (and even more hopefully, the Rockies) will wafflestomp the AL winner. Like I said earlier, I think the only way to be taken seriously is for the NL to become like the NFC during the 80s-90s. Win it all. Every single year.

I have a Red Sox fan who has been enjoying the Rockies games with me until he realized we might actually be a threat, and suddenly his arrogance about "96 wins and playoff experience...and you're the Rockies" starts to come to the surface.