The Mets and Royals opened the World Series on Tuesday night the way Fox would like to script every Game 1: a 14-inning epic that should build the audience for subsequent games. As with any serial, whether Gene Autry’s westerns or the podcast “Serial,” people look forward to the next chapter if the first one engages them. Game 1 gave baseball a good name and raised hopes for the quality of the following ones.
It had a star like the Mets’ Matt Harvey laboring beyond his famous innings limit. It had the rarity of Alcides Escobar’s inside-the-park home run that started Kansas City’s scoring in the first inning (and permitted us to reflect upon similar feats by Mule Haas and Patsy Dougherty).