Bad Decision by the NFL

For Boston sports fans, things are good.

The Red Sox are in the World Series, having disposed of the dreaded New York Yankees.

And on Sunday the Super Bowl champion New England Patriots go for their 21st consecutive victory against another New York team, the 5-0 Jets.

But for transplanted Bostonians living in Southern California, life is not perfect. CBS is not showing the Patriots’ game here, which is not a good thing for most NFL fans in general.

Instead, L.A. gets San Diego at Carolina because the NFL regards L.A. as the Chargers’ secondary market. So CBS is required by the NFL to give L.A. the Chargers when they are on the road.

If it were CBS’ turn to show a doubleheader Sunday, the network could televise the Chargers and Panthers at 10 a.m. and the Patriots and Jets at 1 p.m. But it is Fox’s turn to show an NFL doubleheader.

So the only way to get the NFL’s best game so far this season is through DirecTV’s Sunday Ticket, or on radio. Larry Kahn’s Sports USA radio network is carrying the game on KLSX-FM (97.1).

The Chargers have a following in L.A. -- there are numerous complaints when home games that do not sell out are blacked out on Sunday Ticket -- but a vast majority would probably prefer seeing the undefeated Patriots and Jets instead of the 3-3 Chargers and 1-4 Panthers.

The Jets and Patriots will be televised in 45% of the country, the Chargers and Panthers in 12%.

Hot Streak

Baseball has been very good to Fox. There was a seven-game World Series in 2001 and another in 2002. This year and last year both league championship series went seven games.

Game 7 of the Boston-New York series Wednesday night drew a 19.4 national Nielsen rating, with a 30% share of the audience. That’s the highest baseball rating for Fox since Game 7 of the 2001 World Series between the Yankees and the Arizona Diamondbacks got a 23.5/34.

In Boston, Wednesday night’s Game 7 drew a 56.6 rating. And the audience share was a 76, which raises the question: What were the other 24% of the viewers in Boston watching?

In L.A., the game got an impressive 19.3/29. The highest Laker rating last season was a 30.5/50 for Game 4 of the NBA Finals, and the highest L.A. baseball rating in recent years was a 42.1/61 for Game 7 of the 2002 World Series between the Angels and San Francisco Giants.

Hyperactive Coverage

One thing bothersome about Fox’s baseball coverage is the excessive jumping around from close-up to close-up, from crowd shot to crowd shot, from live action to replays. There are so many replays it is sometimes hard to tell what is live and what is tape.

Another complaint is that Fox clutters up the screen with an excessive number of graphics, some of which explode.

But the top two executives at Fox Sports, chairman David Hill and president Ed Goren, defend the coverage.

Hill called it “world class,” and Goren said what Fox is attempting to do is transmit the tension felt throughout the ballpark.

Baseball Notes

Although Fox used three-man announcing teams on both league championship series, it will be only Joe Buck and Tim McCarver on the World Series. Chris Myers will handle the reporting chores. ... One question reporter Kenny Albert should have asked Red Sox Manager Terry Francona after Wednesday night’s game was why he brought in Pedro Martinez to pitch the seventh inning. McCarver had speculated that maybe Martinez had requested to come in and observed that the move brought the Yankee Stadium crowd back to life.

Short Waves

NBC will air a feature on Ara Parshegian at halftime of Saturday’s Boston College-Notre Dame football game. The feature focuses on the former Irish coach’s work in trying to find a cure for Niemann Pick-C, a terminal neurological degenerative disorder that has claimed the lives of two of his grandchildren and is threatening a third.... Ross Porter, subbing for Joe McDonnell, will join Dave Stone, subbing for Doug Krikorian, on the “McDonnell Douglas” show on KSPN (710) today. Porter said there is nothing new with his situation with the Dodgers and he would steer callers away from the topic. However, decisions regarding the Dodger broadcasting team are expected soon.

It’s not very often a hole in one is captured on camera. But Jim Cartoni, a former assistant golf pro at Torrey Pines in San Diego, had one on the 198-yard third hole on the Torrey Pines’ South course while filming a segment for “The Wandering Golfer,” which makes its debut on the Fine Living Network Sunday at 10 p.m. ... Former Laker coach Phil Jackson says he’s taking the year off and is not interested in a broadcasting job. But he told ESPN’s Andrea Kremer he might eventually return to the NBA as a general manger so he can be “one of those guys who can hire and fire coaches.”