Rich: Why the Brewers-Rays World Series Will be AWESOME

Baseball is going to crown a first-time World Series champion. For Rich, that alone is reason to watch. He has several more.

The first is the quality of the baseball. Brewers versus Rays is, in Rich's words, damn near two 100-win teams "that play the game right. They hit the ball, they pitch the ball, they catch the ball, they have productive outs, they come up with big hits, and they are good."

Then there's the schedule quirk. The series goes two games in Milwaukee, three in Tampa, then two in Milwaukee, and the off days line up with Packers games: Green Bay in Detroit, then the Thursday night game kicking off Week 8 right between Games 5 and 6. "Brewers fans, go get your Brewskis," Rich said. It reminded him of the Subway Series, when the off day before Game 3 was the famed Dolphins-Jets Monday nighter where Jumbo Elliott scored a touchdown. Rich caught himself. He was trying not to make it about New York. "Although I'll make it about New York any split second," he admitted.

The Brewers, Rich said, are "100% a team to root for." And the Rays have Junior Caminero, who Rich described as uniquely himself. Caminero took a 38-second trip around the bases on one home run. Before he reached first, he was turning to his dugout, screaming and showing love, and he stopped short of home plate, a tip of the cap to Randy Arozarena, who was at the game. When Yandy Díaz homered in the eighth inning to give the Rays extra run support, Caminero jumped out of the dugout and dapped him up before Díaz even reached first.

Rich's warning to Brewers fans: Caminero backs it up at the plate, and he's going to do it. "If you don't want to see it, don't let him do it," Rich said.

He also made a broader pitch. A lot of people don't know the Brewers or the Rays, Rich acknowledged, but they are stars of the game all over the place. "I do hope I'm not shilling for Fox," he said. "I'm shilling for the sport." Somebody is going to win it for the first time, which Rich called the perfect follow-up to a team winning back-to-back titles while everybody thinks the whole thing is rigged toward the rich Dodgers.

Then Rich found the Mets angle, because of course he did. Congratulations went to Freddy Peralta, the ALCS MVP, who won two games in the series. Rich pulled up a post pointing out that only the Mets could acquire a guy from the eventual NL pennant winner and trade him to the eventual AL pennant winner, and in between, finish last in the National League East. "Meet the Mets, baby," came the cheer from the studio. "Meet the Mets and greet them and beat them."

Rich's own team didn't escape. The Yankees got swept, and the word on the streets in New York, Rich said, is that Hal Steinbrenner is so upset he's running it back. Rich's take on Aaron Boone, though, may surprise Yankees fans. "Boone did a, I think he did a really good job this year," Rich said, noting that Boone got the team to the second-best record in the American League. He knows that is like "running like a salmon up pinstripe stream here in New York."

The real problem, to Rich, is the way the Yankees build their team. Look at the two clubs in the World Series. Yes, they hit the ball out of the park, but they also get people on base, strike out very little, and have guys who throw "a gajillion miles an hour coming out of the pen." That, Rich said, is how baseball is being played successfully.

And maybe the best part: this is a matchup between two franchises that have never won it, and neither is in the top half of the sport's salary structure. Rich will be watching. He thinks you should too.