Playoffs

No. Not the Jim Mora version. Possibly the best thing about Fall is that college football teams are starting to separate themselves into contenders, not pre-anointed media darlings (cough, cough, USC, cough cough). But the MLB playoffs started this afternoon.

It wasn't until the 1970s that any baseball playoff game was played at night - I want to say 1979 in Pittsburgh. It's either 1971 or 1979, because it was definitely in Pittsburgh. I'm sitting here in my chair. Dog is out from under the armoire (see Kami's blog for an explanation) and at my feet. It's 10:23pm and it's the bottom of the 1st inning. That's right. If I want to watch the entire Red Sox-Angels game, I will have to stay up until about 1am (the Red Sox are patient hitters, to a fault). Do you know how many kids will get to watch ANY of this game? 1%. Sure, their parents might let them stay up as long as they can, but they'll be asleep on the couch by the third inning.

How is this a good idea and good for baseball? Apparently day games would hamper ticket sales. That's apparently not the case in Philadelphia, as they sold over 45,000 tickets (105% capacity) to a game that started at 3pm. You're shutting out an entire generation of fans, for no real good reason. You're telling me that I'm watching this game now at 11:11pm and it's the top of the 4th inning. You're telling me that Angels fans, having shelled out $X00 for tickets to their game would not then be willing to take a few hours of vacation time to make it to the game.

Alienating an entire generation of fans - who never have a chance to be a fan of whatever team is winning (they are still kids) - because you're not willing to lose that "prime time" spot. What are we missing out on? One Tree Hill reruns? Reno 911? If the idea is to keep your existing fans, making it to where it takes a gallon of coffee to function the morning after games is not the way to do it. If the idea is to draw new fans who only watch the playoffs, making it to where they can only watch the first six innings isn't the way to do it, either. And if you're making sure that the ones who will be watching the games in 20 years never see a World Series game now, that's pretty stupid, too.