What a TIME for baseball

Well as many of my friends that even care to read this blog probably already know, I’m an Oakland Athletics fan. No, I’m not from California, no I haven’t been to Oakland before and no I’m not a band wagon fan. As a kid I loved the A’s mainly because of Mark McGwire, Jose Canseco, Rickey Henderson, Dennis Eckersley etc. I was never a big fan of their color scheme but hey I care more about the team than some color scheme. So since those earlier times in my life as a kid I stuck with the A’s and I still support them to this day.

So to get more into my point since this is the opening week for yet another baseball season I have to do a little bit of complaining here. Last night ESPN did something they almost never do. They broadcast an Oakland A’s game. Not only that but they started the game at 9:00 pm eastern time. Yes, indeed a 9:00 start time for a west coast game. Now before you say wow that’s late, keep this in mind. For the rest of the season all west coast games come on at 10:05 eastern every night! So as you can imagine I was more than excited that I had somewhat of a watchable game that didn’t go off after 1:00 a.m.

Before you think I’m done with this whole baseball time slot issue think again. I have to get my beef in while the beef is good. Baseball does the worst scheduling of games you could ever imagine. How the heck Bud Selig has not figured this mystery out is beyond me. Who the heck starts a baseball game at 7:00 west coast time which is 10:00 east coast? Heck I’ll go a step further who starts a game on the east coast at 7:00 which ends sometime around 10:00? No one on the entire east coast can stay awake for a 10:00 start time of baseball games and even remotely expect to make it to work/school the next day and actually function. Look I’m sorry west coast homers, but what the heck is the problem with starting a game at like 6:00 or 6:30 your time? Not only can you watch it but we east coasters can at least have a chance to watch your games too. Monday night football figured it out, 8:30 start times are not a bad thing!

Baseball playoff time scheduling dilemma is at its best. OK so how many people have watched baseball playoffs? Probably not many if you’ve seen how good old Bud handles this one. First round games are a best of five series, ok good I agree (NBA take the hint, this is a good thing). However first round playoff games are played (and I don’t make this stuff up) at 1:00/2:00 in the afternoon on like Tuesday and Wednesdays! Yeah WTF I have no clue. I remember watching Oakland and the Twins a few years ago play first round games while I’m sitting at work trying not to see the score so I could go home and watch it on the DVR. The best however is the World Series. Take a guess at what time these games start… Yep try like 9:27 p.m. EST on like a Monday night! Who the heck is going to stay up for that crap? And to top all this off teams play a 162 game season, 8 teams total make the playoffs (which I really like, again hint, hint NBA and NHL) but then your lucky if you see one playoff game given the whacky time schedules. Bud, you’re doing a train wreck of a job at this stuff, you are killing me.

Lastly here are my (very few) suggestions to improve baseball scheduling. Start games no later than 9:30 p.m. EST. Never start playoff games before 5:00 p.m. EST on a weekday (weekends do whatever). Broadcast more than just Yankees vs. Red Sox games or Yankees against anyone games. Oh and before you continue to take advantage of the loop whole, not broadcasting Yankees games includes not broadcasting them on Fox on weekends, ESPN (anytime), Comcast, MLB channel just to include a few. They have the YES network, use it. Oh wait they do it’s just ESPN, FOX and Comcast think it’s a good ideas to simulcast the Yankees on all their networks in case one of them forgets to put the Yankees on. That way they are covered. Just get some fair and balance. Finally cut the season short so that it ends on July 31st and by August 1st the playoffs can begin. This gives you an entire month to wrap up the playoffs and gear up for football. Honestly who cares about baseball after college football and NFL start? I’ve got no interest. I mean really if you have USC vs. Ohio State as an example and they are on at 8:00 primetime, who the heck is tuning into to some Saturday night baseball game? Oh and of course first pitch is at like 9:37 p.m. or something like that. I mean really? Am I totally off on this?