The Change Mariner

World Series on TV for Russia

Moscow Times:

When State Sports Committee head Vyacheslav Fetisov announced last month during President Vladimir Putin's visit to the United States that the World Series would be shown in Russia for the first time ever this year, the U.S. sports media immediately let loose with some potshots.

ESPN columnist Jim Caple wrote a fictitious dialogue between Russian baseball commentators bashing shallow American capitalists and complaining about failed Russian wheat crops. Scott Ostler on MSNBC.com wrote that six out of every 10 televisions in Russia will be tuned into the series, meaning a total of six televisions will be tuned in.

But Russian baseball fans, an admittedly small circle, are serious about the Grand Old Game, and about 50 of them turned out at the Boar House on Sunday afternoon to watch the replay of Game 1 of the series, in which the Florida Marlins beat the New York Yankees 3-2.

"Basically everybody knows everybody else," said Yevgeny Kirushin, 40, who was a shortstop for the Soviet Union's first national team in 1986.