Major League Baseball announced a new TV package today. Amid all the details -- Fox buying a major chunk, TBS buying much of the rest -- one tiny detail caught my eye. The World Series -- which has begun on a Saturday for many years now -- is being moved. Game One will now begin on a Tuesday. What does this mean?
1. Little kids are screwed over and ignored again - the World Series starts so late in the day (often 8:20 p.m.) and filled with so many commercials and baseball takes so long anyway that a lot of ADULTS are exhausted with games that stretch to midnight or one in the morning as a matter of course. Many people have spoken about the fact that little kids -- the fans of the future -- can barely watch any of it, much less an entire game. People had suggested at least one or two games -- perhaps the opener on a Saturday -- actually be a DAY game. To, you know, reach out to young fans and make it possible for them to actually WATCH the World Series. Not a chance. At least a Saturday night game was on the weekend when kids didn't have to go to school the next morning -- meaning it was more likely kids on the bubble -- like 10 or 12 year olds -- might be allowed to stay up. Now, with Game One beginning on a Tuesday, a school night, no way.
2. A Tuesday start instead of a Saturday start -- I'm guessing that means the World Series begins three days later rather than four days early. They need to explain how this affects the calendar. With baseball padding the regular season and adding extra rounds to the post season, the World Series starts later and later all the time. One game of the October Classic was even played in November. So baseball can now begin in the snows of April and end in November, stretching out an already interminable season.
Once again, Bud Selig and MLB could care less about the fans. They're letting TV dictate all the rules and to hell with the kids or thinking about baseball's future. Soon, an entire generation will grow up without ever even considering watching the World Series on TV. Can that be in the best interests of the game?
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1 comment:
"One game of the October Classic was even played in November."
Nice. I agree that the 2001 World Series ended after Brosius' homer and didn't return to Arizona out of respect for the victims of 9/11.
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