TV money is drawing baseball further off base

The spread-out schedule for television forces the baseball season deeper and deeper into the late fall, where the summer game turns into a crapshoot of rain and cold.

By Bill Dwyre

October 25, 2009

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From New York

It is Saturday night and rain has washed out the Yankees-Angels game. That gives us yet another reason to hate television and hate how baseball clicks its heels and salutes its every demand.

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FOR THE RECORD:
Bill Dwyre column: A column in Sunday's Sports section on how TV money is affecting baseball's postseason scheduling said, "From 1969 through 2006, World Series Game 1 was on a Saturday." From 1977 through 1984 and in 1990, the Series started midweek. (Also, the Series was canceled in 1994, and in 1996 rain delayed Game 1 from Saturday to Sunday.) —

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No, Fox didn't cause the rain. It's off the hook on that one. But it has caused a postseason format that has done, among other things, the following as Major League Baseball nodded and drooled:

* Given the Angels a schedule that will mean they will play their ninth postseason game in 18 days today, Game 6 of the American League Championship Series.

* Given the Yankees a schedule that has the same number of games in 17 days.

* Given the National League champion Phillies a situation, with the last day of the regular season Oct. 4 and the World Series not starting until Wednesday, where they will have played nine games in 24 days.

Manager Mike Scioscia of the Angels, secure enough in his employment and candid enough to call it like it is, is among those in baseball's high places who is publicly unhappy.

"The real test of baseball," he says, "is that you do it every day. You can't do that all season and then do it differently in the postseason."

So, Mike Scioscia, how do you really feel about nine games in 18 days?

"It's ridiculous," he says. "Can I say that any more clearly?"

Ah, no, Mike. We feel your pain.

So, how did this happen? Why did this happen?

Fox, your friendly network for both the ALCS and the World Series, saw that ratings were better for weeknight games than for weekend games. So they asked for, and got, more weeknight, prime-time games. From 1969 through 2006, World Series Game 1 was on a Saturday. In 2007 that changed in an effort to boost sagging ratings. So now it starts on a Wednesday.

A Saturday start means the likelihood of two weekends and a weekend finish. A midweek start means the likelihood of two midweek blocks of games and a midweek finish. It also means the likelihood of the highest ratings for the biggest finales, Games 6 and 7.

Good for business. Bad for baseball.

This will come as a shocker to many, but this is all about money. Better ratings, more ad sales, more profit. Major sports pay lip service to fans and community projects and feel-good stuff, but when the going gets tough, the tough sell their souls to TV.

We know it, we know we have to deal with it, we even know that most fans no longer care about it as they show up or tune in at weird times. But there are also times to remind people of why big-time sports, and its TV partners, has its hand in your wallet pocket and is so arrogant it seldom even says thank you.

This is one of those times.

A Times staffer had a telling conversation last year during the World Series with Fox President Ed Goren. The conversation was about the good old days when they played the World Series during the day, when kids could watch, when there was a sense of connection to baseball's vintage time.