It would have been inauspicious if it were 3 hours earlier
Well, it's official. Somewhere in there, the World Series ended and I think Philadelphia won it in 5 games.
Philadelphia won Game 5 in Philly on the night that was supposed to feature Game 6 in Tampa. Game 5 in Philadelphia was the messiest, most awkward baseball game I've seen since the T-ball game where we played at the field with the really cool slide. That was a fun game (the T-ball one I mean), but none of us there, or even our older siblings, would have been able to watch this year's World Series. One of the biggest problems with this year's playoffs was extremely late start times in games that saw longer and longer commercial breaks. I remember being brought back downstairs, just as I had gone to bed in 1993, to see the bottom of the 9th for the Blue Jays. I'd gotten to stay up until almost 9:45, but with the Blue Jays down 6-5 going into the 9th, I had to go upstairs. After the Jays won the game shortly after 10 pm, I went to sleep for real, going over and over in my head the amazing finish.
Had I have been 15 years younger, I would have gone to bed wondering what was going to happen in the next 6 innings.
Some nights I wouldn't have gotten to see anything at all. This past Saturday night, where the game didn't start until after 10 pm, I managed to go out for a friend's birthday, come home, watch the 4th quarter of a football game in Vancouver, and then tune in to baseball for their last 2 innings. Around 1:45 am, the game ended. In the EASTERN time zone! No one wants to stay up that late to watch anything, and if they don't really enjoy it, they won't stay up at all.
In order for baseball to be more accessible to the youth, which is who every sport should market towards, games need to start earlier. And what's the big problem with having an afternoon game here or there? The second playoff game I went to (the first being a snoozefest against Minnesota in 1991) was Game 2 against the Oakland A's for the ALCS back in 1992. This one was easier for my dad to take me to as it was in the middle of the day (and I got to miss school!) and saw the Jays beat Oakland 3-1 to tie the series. I'm not so sure that my dad would've taken me to many baseball games that began at 8:30 and ended at midnight, on a school night or any other night. Even the old 8 pm Saturday night Leaf games were far better than that. Would it really kill Major League Baseball to play an afternoon game? It might...well, at least kill their confidence.
You see, MLB's key reasons for doing so are because of ratings, firstly, because night games usually draw a better crowd, and secondly, they are afraid to go up against either College Football on Saturday or the NFL on Sunday. They managed to get the NFL not to play this past Sunday night b/c they knew what a hit it would be for baseball's ratings if they did. In the end, it might have been the only game (save for Game 5, Act 2) that people were able to watch until they knew how it was going to end because Philly built up a huge lead and went on to destroy Tampa. And that's not what will make a memorable game.
In my opinion, the only truly memorable game in this series was on Monday/Wednesday for Game 5, and that was memorable for all of the wrong reasons. Playing in a torrential downpour, in generally unsafe conditions. Everyone figuring that each inning was going to be the last. And somehow, Bud Selig coming to the decision without informing anyone that he'd stop the game, 5½ innings in, for a 46-hour rain delay. If Tampa hadn't scored in the top of the 6th, my belief is that they would have kept on going until they did. The rulebook states that if they'd have had to stop the game at that juncture, Philadelphia would have won the game and been declared the winner of the World Series in a shortened game that had no business beginning in the first place. And you can bet Bud Selig would need a pretty good hiding place if he denied the Philly fans in Philadelphia their first major championship in 25 years. Instead, they won the game 2 days later in a 3-inning game that had more of a surreal feel to it rather than that of a championship.
Too bad it wasn't past everybody's bedtimes this time.
Philadelphia won Game 5 in Philly on the night that was supposed to feature Game 6 in Tampa. Game 5 in Philadelphia was the messiest, most awkward baseball game I've seen since the T-ball game where we played at the field with the really cool slide. That was a fun game (the T-ball one I mean), but none of us there, or even our older siblings, would have been able to watch this year's World Series. One of the biggest problems with this year's playoffs was extremely late start times in games that saw longer and longer commercial breaks. I remember being brought back downstairs, just as I had gone to bed in 1993, to see the bottom of the 9th for the Blue Jays. I'd gotten to stay up until almost 9:45, but with the Blue Jays down 6-5 going into the 9th, I had to go upstairs. After the Jays won the game shortly after 10 pm, I went to sleep for real, going over and over in my head the amazing finish.
Had I have been 15 years younger, I would have gone to bed wondering what was going to happen in the next 6 innings.
Some nights I wouldn't have gotten to see anything at all. This past Saturday night, where the game didn't start until after 10 pm, I managed to go out for a friend's birthday, come home, watch the 4th quarter of a football game in Vancouver, and then tune in to baseball for their last 2 innings. Around 1:45 am, the game ended. In the EASTERN time zone! No one wants to stay up that late to watch anything, and if they don't really enjoy it, they won't stay up at all.
In order for baseball to be more accessible to the youth, which is who every sport should market towards, games need to start earlier. And what's the big problem with having an afternoon game here or there? The second playoff game I went to (the first being a snoozefest against Minnesota in 1991) was Game 2 against the Oakland A's for the ALCS back in 1992. This one was easier for my dad to take me to as it was in the middle of the day (and I got to miss school!) and saw the Jays beat Oakland 3-1 to tie the series. I'm not so sure that my dad would've taken me to many baseball games that began at 8:30 and ended at midnight, on a school night or any other night. Even the old 8 pm Saturday night Leaf games were far better than that. Would it really kill Major League Baseball to play an afternoon game? It might...well, at least kill their confidence.
You see, MLB's key reasons for doing so are because of ratings, firstly, because night games usually draw a better crowd, and secondly, they are afraid to go up against either College Football on Saturday or the NFL on Sunday. They managed to get the NFL not to play this past Sunday night b/c they knew what a hit it would be for baseball's ratings if they did. In the end, it might have been the only game (save for Game 5, Act 2) that people were able to watch until they knew how it was going to end because Philly built up a huge lead and went on to destroy Tampa. And that's not what will make a memorable game.
In my opinion, the only truly memorable game in this series was on Monday/Wednesday for Game 5, and that was memorable for all of the wrong reasons. Playing in a torrential downpour, in generally unsafe conditions. Everyone figuring that each inning was going to be the last. And somehow, Bud Selig coming to the decision without informing anyone that he'd stop the game, 5½ innings in, for a 46-hour rain delay. If Tampa hadn't scored in the top of the 6th, my belief is that they would have kept on going until they did. The rulebook states that if they'd have had to stop the game at that juncture, Philadelphia would have won the game and been declared the winner of the World Series in a shortened game that had no business beginning in the first place. And you can bet Bud Selig would need a pretty good hiding place if he denied the Philly fans in Philadelphia their first major championship in 25 years. Instead, they won the game 2 days later in a 3-inning game that had more of a surreal feel to it rather than that of a championship.
Too bad it wasn't past everybody's bedtimes this time.