They should go back to 156 game schedule. A northern team could make a farce out of a game in November. Want to play in Detroit then? They may have to go to a neutral site. It could be a serious mess.
Just to be picky, they’re only late starts if you live in the Eastern time zone. For weekday World Series games, starting earlier would be convenient if you live in New York but would make it tougher to see the game if you live in LA; a 7 PM start in Boston is 4 PM in LA, at which time most people are at work.
That said, I see no reason that weekend World Series games couldn’t start earlier.
True enough, but I think it more important that ET fans are able to stay up and watch the end of the game that PT fans get home in time to watch the beginning. Look at the NFL- the Super Bowl starts much earlier and is an annual family party, done by 10:00 ET. Kids learn to become fans that way. It’s just too much to ask of morning workers and school kids to stay up till midnight most nights during the postseason.
Effective with the 2007 season, baseball determined to move the World Series from a weekend-heavy schedule to a weeknight-heavy schedule. Under the weekend-heavy schedule, the Series began on Saturday night, and if it went the full seven games, ended on Sunday. Four of seven games were scheduled on weekends. This was undesirable because fewer people watch TV on weekends, and there is more competition for sports viewership from football.
To accomplish the shift, the earlier rounds of the playoffs were stretched out (fewer day games and more days off). The shift moved the end of a 7-game World Series from 28 days after the end of the regular season to 32 days. This will move it into November any year in which the regular season ends on or after September 30, as it will approximately five times out of seven.
In addition, the regular season this year started on April 6. In the past, when March 31 and April 6 were Mondays, the season started on March 31 (excluding the Sunday night opener and any games played overseas.) I don’t know whether the shift was because of the WBC, or just out of recognition that a 3/31 start would prevent this year from running into November, but not other years, so why bother?
If none of the Divisional or League series go 5 or 7 games will they move up the start times for the subsequent rounds? I don’t think they will and I think that in the past they didn’t hammer the dates for the WS into stone the way they do now. Seems like every date for playoff games was conditional on the games before. I’m guessing the Networks prefer having predictable schedules and that probably dictates more off days and more layoffs when teams finish up early.
No.
Baseball has pre-established the dates of the World Series for as long as they’ve been having multi-tiered playoffs. The first year of league playoffs was 1969. When both series that year went the minimum three games, there was dead time between Monday and Saturday.
Sure, nobody’s going to watch all of them, but for any given pair of games, there are going to be some fans who want to watch both of them. And it also means that you can put all of the games on ESPN, instead of ESPN2 or 3 or whatever.
The Super Bowl always taks place on a Sunday, so fans getting home from work isn’t much of a problem.
Baseball playoff games usually take place on a weekday. Like I said, I’d agree weekend games should start earlier. Weekday games, however, are tough on a lot of fans when they start early.
I’ve never really grasped that at all. The NBA seems to have no problem rearranging things-heck the next round in one conference may start before the previous round in the other is completed! That may be taking it too far, but unless the schedules have to be written in stone way ahead of time I don’t get it. Note that nobody will know who is playing where this week until after the Tigers/Twins playoff game, when the Yankees will get an hour to make their choice of schedule, one mere 24 hour period before they could be playing game one.
The NHL goes on as soon as both teams are available. If you play 2 short series while your opponent goes 7 ,there can be a long wait between games. Who knows who has the advantage. The team that waits often gets whipped even though they are rested and healed.
Have to correct you on that point. The NBA does not schedule those games at the same time. I know because I did watch almost every series (and the NBA has twice as many teams in the postseason than MLB), sometimes 4 games in one day from 9am to 10pm. I do remember that on occasion, some of the games were not shown on national TV like TNT, ESPN, or ABC. Can’t remember if those games were scheduled at the same time or not
There are overlaps though. Games are usually broadcasted about 2.5 to 3 hours after the other, so if a game runs long it might lead into the next game.
Not really true-there was a 3 day break between the conference semifinals and the conference finals last year.
I love games that start early - today’s Minnesota game was awesome. We all were talking about it for the last half hour or so of work, I listened to a couple of innings on the way home, and then I watched the rest of it once I got home. I missed the first 3-4 innings on TV because of the start time, but I was able to see the finish. With a dramatic game like that, it’s as good an advertisement for the game of baseball as there could ever possibly be. It makes me want to move to Denver just so that 5pm starts are a regular thing.
As opposed to the two Red Sox games this week that are going to start at 9:37, that will go until 1am at the earliest with the extra commercials, and that I (one of the most rabid sports fans you’ll ever meet) will absolutely NOT be staying up to watch, advertising-watching eyes and all. I’ll catch you on Sportscenter and in Game 3, thanks.
Watch, no, but what’s wrong with your radio (other that Chris Berman trying to say 40 words in three seconds)?
It is snowing right now in the Denver area. Saturday is forecast to have a high of 35° F and the game is at night. It will be below freezing the entire game. It is supposed to be back in the 60’s by Tuesday, though.
Anything can happen in October, let alone November.
Eventually they will have a horrible weather disaster that will make them rethink the playoff system. Denver ,Detroit, Boston and other northern cities can get a streak of bad weather. Playing baseball in cold weather can be dangerous to the arm. It can snow like crazy. I still think going back to 156 games is a good start.
You’re right. I was wrong. Allow me to amend my statement.
No one in the real world has enough time to watch or to listen to every inning of the opening round of the major league baseball playoffs.
As for my radio, it works great. Cleveland sports radio on the other hand, is rather hit or miss about broadcasting the playoff games, mostly miss. Link to Cleveland’s 850AM & 1540AM
Note that today, Friday 10/9/09, the only game broadcast has occurred already, from Midnight to 1 AM. Tomorrow the only broadcast will be the Rockies/Phils game joined in progress at 1030 PM after the Lake Erie Monsters (AHL) game.
:shrug: I don’t think it’s that difficult if one really cares. Radios, TV, and the iPhone cover a good portion of the audience. I listen to the radio at work from 11-4:30, and I’m home watching TV by 5, and if I had an iPhone (or drove to work) I’d be covered on the trip home.
That said, they could probably stand to start the games at 3e/12p, 5e/2p, and 7:30e/4:30p. It is insane that the east coast teams play til midnight eastern routinely, and with TNT providing backup, you could easily flip between games while they overlap.
Now that sucks. Maybe I’m just spoiled because all the games are broadcast on the radio.
Now that you’ve said “going back to 156 games” twice, I’d like to simply say, “154”. I was barely alive when the season was 154 games, what’s your excuse?
That rant over, let’s assume the AL expands by two teams, and we have four divisions of four teams each.
With interleague play, 24 games against the other league, 3 home and 3 away against one division, cycling through through the divisions. Forget the “natural” rivalries every year. If Card fans want to see the Royals play, it’s only three hours to K.C., or they can just wait for every fourth year. 72 games, 3 home and 3 away against the other twelve non-division teams in the league. 60 games, 10 home and 10 away against division opponents.
I’d prefer to eliminate interleague play and slap those 24 game into division play.
Either way, it comes out to a . . . wait, umm . . . a 156 game season. What the hell?
Why do I need an excuse? I suggest shortening the season. It was shorter. The owners will fight it. If you ever played in cold weather ,you know how miserable it can be. The games are worse. Baseball is not a cold weather game. If they don’t shorten the schedule they need an option for a neutral warm site. I can see a freak weather occurrence in a northern city stopping the World Series in its tracks.