Today’s Major League Baseball Schedule, courtesy of Yahoo! sports. Notice that the first two games in the National League today are St. Louis at Chicago, and Milwaukee at Cincinnati. Both start at 3:55 Eastern, and both will be carried nationally on Fox.
Since both games have great importance to the outcome of the National League Central division race, I’m assuming that Fox Sports arranged a schedule change with MLB so that they could broadcast both contests simultaneously.
My questions:
Did Fox, indeed, get Major League Baseball to change the schedule for today based on the importance of the two games, or is this just a remarkable coincidence? Does anyone have a pocket schedule for either team that has the original start times for the games?
If MLB did, indeed, change the schedule, are the ticketholders compensated in any way if they can’t make the game due to the schedule change? Say, for example, that I bought my ticket for today’s Cubs game at the beginning of the season, and made my plans for today based on the scheduled 1:20 start time. Because of the later start time, I can’t make the game (I’ll miss the last train home, I have reservations at Harry Caray’s, etc.). Do I get a refund?
Irrespective of today’s matches, is it just my imagination or have the Cubs played a significantly higher number of night games at Wrigley Field this season? ISTR that the agreement with the neighborhood back in 1988 was for only 16 night games per season (of course, that was 20 years ago).
Why would they want that? It seems to me that’s cutting the potential audience in half. I’d imagine that Fox would much prefer to have the games run back-to-back.
Every sports ticket I’ve ever seen mentions that game time is subject to change. Baseball probably has more time changes than most sports. So, you’re not compensated if you can’t get to the game. I do wonder what the Astros did for the two games that got played in Milwaukee.
Usually the scheduled is announced and then some times will be changed as the season gets closer and Fox decides which games they want to televise. Just like ESPN, Fox usually goes with Yankees, Red Sox, Mets, Cubs, and Dodgers.
Because if they have the rights to both games, they can show the Cubs game, but whenever anything interesting happens in the Milwaukee game, they can cut to that one.