I don’t know about you, but I found it ridiculous when Game 2 of the NLCS ended at 1:45 a.m. (Central) on Sunday, and when Game 2 of the ALCS ended at 12:37 a.m. the next morning. How does this sport expect to generate new fans, especially young fans, when these showcase games are ended long after they’re supposed to be asleep?

Well, I had some good discussions with MLB officials today, and while it didn’t completely change my mind, it made me understand things better. Yes, most of this is driven by the almighty television dollar. FOX and TBS have paid their millions for these rights and cleared their prime time schedules. And all of their research indicates that these are the times when they will have the most eyeballs on their product. As one official put it to me today, if they knew they’d have the biggest audience at 11 in the morning, they’d want it at 11 in the morning.

I thought surely they were losing young viewers, but the biggest segment of the audience they lose with the late games is the 55-and-over crowd. Kids from age 6-17, by and large, stick with these games a lot longer than I thought. And the research that goes into that is extensive. Again, the time slots are meant to give them the highest ratings possible.

Every home team strives to have games start as close to 7 p.m., locally as possible, and in the NLCS, that is being achieved. Even tonight, when Game 4 of the NLCS goes off at 9:21 (Central), it will be 8:21 in Denver, and 7:21 on the West Coast. I think it would be great if they would play at least one afternoon game during the World Series, just to show the country how great the game looks during daylight. But the MLB folks are certain that they’d lose millions of viewers with a 1 p.m. (Eastern) start, as opposed to 8 p.m. I don’t expect you to agree. I’m not sure I do. But I’d be interested to hear your thoughts as you watch these games.

Red Sox

1. Dustin Pedroia 2B (.190 playoff batting average)
2. Kevin Youkilis 1B (.300)
3. David Ortiz DH (.615)
4. Manny Ramirez LF (.429)
5. Mike Lowell 3B (.353)
6. J.D. Drew RF (.222.)
7. Jason Varitek C (.143)
8. Coco Crisp CF (.263)
9. Julio Lugo SS (.222)
RHP Daisuke Matsuzaka

Indians

1. Grady Sizemore CF (.346)
2. Asdrubal Cabrera 2B (.200)
3. Travis Hafner DH (.292)
4. Victor Martinez C (.360)
5. Ryan Garko 1B (.368)
6. Jhonny Peralta SS (.458)
7. Kenny Lofton LF (.346)
8. Trot Nixon RF (.600)
9. Casey Blake 3B (.154)
RHP Jake Westbrook

Jacobs Field. Scheduled first pitch: 6:10 p.m. (Central)

This entry was posted on Monday, October 15th, 2007 at 5:59 pm and is filed under Around MLB. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.