There’s a fine line between promoting your product(s) and hyping garbage that passes for professional sports teams. In case you missed it, the two teams playing in this year’s World Series have a combined 174-150 regular season record.

The press and MLB have been focusing on the lack of 100-game winners and a pair of wildcard teams rather than two teams that mowed through the first two rounds of the playoffs. This is a classic battle between underdogs that defeated hated, division rivals.

Instead of focusing on what MLB doesn’t do well, I’d prefer to point out how the NFL sells us a bill of goods and the general public eats it up like a blooming onion. Outside of Chicago, I can’t see how any non-bettors could care less about tonight’s tilt between the Bears and (somewhere) Chargers. Two different national sources posited there will be more Bears fans in the stands today. That the folks in Los Angeles haven’t warmed up to the Bolts isn’t anyone else’s problem and a win over the Bears probably won’t make them the most popular kid on the block.

News flash: The Bears and Chargers are a combined 4-9 and I’m predicting neither team will be playing for the Lombardi trophy come February. Yet, the national media hypes this game as if it matters a whit. The national media has overhyped Chargers QB Justin Herbert even though he has never won a meaningful NFL game.

Do you think the NBC will mention Stan Humphries during the broadcast? He’s the quarterback that led the Bolts to their only Super Bowl appearance. I know we can’t equate quarterback excellence with Super Bowl rings, but aren’t we allowed to equate leadership with quarterbacking.

MLB and their broadcasting partners have done a fair job of celebrating relatively unknown Merrill Kelly’s status during his game 2 dominance. How often do you think the broadcasters will talk about the teams’ lousy records during tonight’s broadcast? I’m betting on the under.