# Why are the MLB playoff games all starting 19 minutes after the hour?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-mlb-playoff-games-all-starting-19-minutes-after-the-hour/325187>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 7, 2005, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-mlb-playoff-games-all-starting-19-minutes-after-the-hour/325187 "2005-10-07T14:21:43Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de053/32.png) [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackknifed_Juggernaut)\
**Post date:** [October 7, 2005, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-mlb-playoff-games-all-starting-19-minutes-after-the-hour/325187/1 "2005-10-07T14:21:43Z")

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Why 19, and not 20?

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**Author:** ![Philster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/13edae/32.png) [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)\
**Post date:** [October 7, 2005, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-mlb-playoff-games-all-starting-19-minutes-after-the-hour/325187/2 "2005-10-07T14:57:03Z")

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The factor in the pre-game time that is planned and the number of commercials they’ve sold, and it comes out to 19 minutes.