How long will baseball fans have to wait to watch the end of game five of the World Series between the Phillies and the Rays? Well, it'll be at least another day. Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig has canceled tonight's resumption of the suspended game five. Oh, and you know that Barack Obama ad that is going to be shown from 8-8:30 on NBC and CBS (but not ABC)? It's also going to be on Fox, too. The World Series game will be pushed back to accommodate the Democratic Presidential candidate.
Don't flip out and cry foul! The TV gods anticipated that there might be a conflict when they sold the time slot to the Obama campaign. In fact, they had the opportunity to turn them down. But Fox was inclined to take the ad revenue.
When Fox made the deal for the time, the network agreed to delay the start time of the game to 8:35 p.m. should there be a game on October 29. They didn't know about the suspended game in advance, but there was a possible game on that night. MLB, which you figure might be upset, can't squawk.
Basically, baseball has allowed TV to dictate the way the postseason is presented. For years, World Series games were shown in the daytime -- under the sun -- and not on primetime TV. To make the most money for the games, which Fox pays a pretty penny to MLB to get the rights to broadcast, all World Series games are now under the lights.
Ironically, if yesterday's game had begun in the afternoon -- like 3 p.m. for instance -- it would have been completed before the rains came. If you were watching last night, you saw both teams struggle to play through a cold, nasty, unrelenting rainstorm. Finally, after Tampa Bay tied the game in the sixth inning, the game was suspended.
If the game had not been canceled today, the game would have began at 8:20 p.m. on Fox. The new plan -- tentatively -- is to resume game five on Wednesday night at 8:35, after the Obama show.
So now, the only problem for baseball fans is this: how do you wait when your stomach is in knots? Phillies' fans are on the brink of winning the series, just one more run over the next three innings -- and keeping the Rays from scoring -- and they'll be world champions.
By the way, baseball really never should have even started the game last night. The conditions were atrocious and instead of giving both teams a chance to play their best ball, they were slogging through mucky, muddy turf and fighting the elements. Bad weather makes football games fun. The same cannot be said of baseball.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
10-28-2008 @ 4:06PM
Joel Keller said...
Last night was bad, but I think a relatively recent WS game (in Cleveland in the nineties, maybe?) was played in the snow, so it wasn't the worst I've ever seen it.
Although those earflap baseball caps both teams were wearing were pretty atrocious.
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10-28-2008 @ 4:56PM
Adam said...
The next 20 comments will go a little something like this.
Thinly veiled racism, a comment that shows a poor understanding of systems of government, nonsensical outrage, attempting to tie something which has no relation to them personally to their moral sesibilites, and a closing statement which illustrates the commenter barely graduated high school.
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10-28-2008 @ 5:26PM
Colin said...
I love it when people make predictions about comments like this and then look stupid when they don't come true.
For what it's worth, as far as I can tell, you're nothing more than a pretentious asshole (does that make me racist, show a lack of understanding of our government, or shed light upon the level of education I've received?)
10-28-2008 @ 5:55PM
Modwild said...
I have no idea what you are trying to say about my "sesibilities", but I think its pure BS that any presidential candidate would buy a half hour of prime time advertising, as I think any advertising in the political arena is wrong.
Baseball IS America, as we have all learned. How dareth someone interrupteth the gameth that goes with apple pie??? ;-)
10-28-2008 @ 8:42PM
Adam said...
Colon,
Your comment does speak volumes about your socioeconomic background. First your useage of the word pretentious shows a lack of understanding of my comment. I made an observation based on the past comments posted on TV Squad and other websites. The most recent example being the post about Ron Howard endorsing Obama. How does pointing out a trend and predicting it would continue make me pretentious? For someone to reach that conclusion one must have incredibly low critical thinking abilities. Usually critical thinking abilites are paramount in succeeding on standardized tests. Since you lack those abilites, I'm gonna predict poor SAT scores, and that my GRE and LSAT scores would be virtually impossible for you to attain. Lastly I'll point out what your cursing indicates. I either hit a nerve by describing ythe comment you planned to make, or you just have such a poor vocabulary that the only biting comment you could muster is asshole. I'd go with the lack of vocabulary going by your past comments.
10-28-2008 @ 5:03PM
Elf said...
I can say I'm glad I live on the West Coast where even a late WS game starts right about the time I get home from work. I do feel sorry for children on the East Coast who are already tired before the game begins and can not stay up to see the whole game on school nights. While there is no simple solution, and showing the game on delay in the West as NBC did with the Olympics is out of the question, I would not have a problem if they were to move games on school nights up an hour or so. Easterners could see more of the game and us Westerners might miss a little bit at the start, but we'll still be awake for the end.
Saying that for years all WS games were played during the day is a bit meaningless because for years most stadiums didn't have lights. The real issue is that with the change in the 1960's from a 144-game season to the current 162-game season, then the addition of the League Championship series, the stretching of the LCS from a Best-of-5 to Best-of-7, then the addition of the Wild Card, the World Series ends later in the year than it ever has. Of course, the later it goes, the greater the chance of it being adversely affected by weather. And there is a greater chance of Barry Bonds coming out of retirement and hitting 73 home runs again then there is of the owners giving up the revenue from a shortened season or post-season, so we're stuck with it.
As for acepting Obama's ad, I think Fox should have declined. It's not as if fewer people would see Obama's ad if Fox did not air it along with the other networks. People who want to see it will find it very easily. Perhaps they did not want to be accused of bias because of their association with Fox News, which is a separately run entity from the Fox network. I recall a time when long-form ads for politicians like this one were far more frequent, even on networks, but I don't recall any instances where they interfered with a significant live event like the WS.
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10-28-2008 @ 5:42PM
Wii60 said...
I don't like this at all.
We all know Barack Obama is going to win this election. Since he got tons of campaign cash, he gets to run half hour ads in primetime which is just excessive. I don't need to see campaign propaganda since this election has run for at least 18 months now.
We all get it, we all know his positions, let me just watch the damn World Series. I was never going to vote for him in the first place, but I'd like to think that there are other people out there who'd be annoyed by what feels like an intrusion.
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10-28-2008 @ 5:48PM
Oneiroi said...
Really though, once every four years isn't that much of an intrusion. Besides as I'm sure others will say, change the channel, or complain to the networks.
10-28-2008 @ 6:06PM
JW said...
It's not like we don't see any regular campaign ads....
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10-28-2008 @ 6:32PM
scott said...
Presidential politics during an election year should trump primetime TV and baseball anytime. if you don't wanna watch you don't have to.
There is nothing more important than this in our day to day lives... and yeah, even if the red sox were in it again I'd say the same thing... ;-)
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10-28-2008 @ 6:41PM
Wii60 said...
I agree that the election is more important than politics, but this is just a glorified infomercial. There's no balance and nothing to be gained by this.
If you don't know enough about the candidates after the longest election season ever then watching a 30 minute ad about one candidate is not going to help make an informed decision.
10-28-2008 @ 6:42PM
Wii60 said...
Of course, I meant to say the election is more important than baseball.
Typo fairy strikes again.
10-28-2008 @ 8:31PM
JBCheese said...
Politico is reporting that Obama had no effect on the start time of the game.
http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/1008/Fox_exec_Obama_didnt_delay_baseball.html#comments
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10-29-2008 @ 7:13AM
Docc Occ said...
The Obama ad only would affect the pregame show.
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10-29-2008 @ 8:12AM
Thom said...
Adam, I agree with your claim that it would be impossible for anyone to obtain the LSAT or GRE scores you obtained, unless they walked out of the testing facility after putting only their ID information on the testing materials.
To act pretentious is to make unjustified claims. You did not say, "based on previous posts, the next 20 comments will go something like this."
Rather, in a pathetic and asinine manner, you made a declarative statement as if it were fact, before any evidence had accumulated. That is unjustified and therefore pretentious.
Now, run along and feed that pathetic little ego of yours somewhere else.
Sidebar - loved the ad, already voted for Obama, and it had no impact on the actual game.
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10-29-2008 @ 11:08AM
Danielle said...
At the start of the game, it wasn't raining, so they played. As time went on, the rain came and then got worse. GO PHILLIES! I hope they take it tonight! :D
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