NOTES

After Game 5 of the American League division series between the Yankees and Oakland Athletics failed to garner better ratings than a weak “Monday Night Football” matchup, baseball will hit another television snag this weekend.

Game 4 of the AL championship series and Game 5 of the NL series are both scheduled for 4:45 p.m. PDT Sunday, with one televised by Fox (Channel 11) and the other by Fox Sports Net, so the remote-control skills of fans interested in both games will be put to a severe test.

Baseball has always had separate TV time slots for league championship games played on the same day. But because Game 2 of the World Series was originally scheduled for Sunday until the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks pushed the season back by a week, Fox only had one baseball slot for Sunday night.

Fox, which holds postseason television rights, did not want to disrupt its Sunday NFL doubleheader or farm out one of its football games to CBS, so it left baseball little choice but to start both baseball games at the same time.

“Had these games been played a week before, like they were scheduled, this wouldn’t have happened,” said Patrick Courtney, baseball’s director of media relations. “Is it an ideal situation? No. But in light of everything that happened, we’re pretty understanding of the situation.”