Tell me I'm reading this wrong:
Tuesday the Cardinals start at 11 p.m. ESTime, and as usual the Yankees get prime time for all their games; Will things ever change ? Why do we have to kiss yankee ass all the time, aren't there 7 other teams playing ?

[edited thread title for clarity - Outsports moderator]

[ October 03, 2002: Message edited by: m1 ]

MLB.com has the TV schedule set through Friday. Fox will show the Yanks-Angels on both Tuesday and Wednesday, and the Giants-Braves on Thursday. The rest of the games played will be on ABC Family (this was Fox Family last year, then ABC/Disney bought it--it's odd that they kept the rights to these games). Incredibly, on Friday the two games scheduled will both be on ABC Family. There will be playoff baseball on that day and it will NOT be televised on an over-the-air broadcast network! I don't know if this happened in the last few years since the wild-card round was created, but whether it did or not, it's a disgrace.

[quote]Originally posted by Joe in Philly:
Incredibly, on Friday the two games scheduled will both be on ABC Family. There will be playoff baseball on that day and it will NOT be televised on an over-the-air broadcast network! I don't know if this happened in the last few years since the wild-card round was created, but whether it did or not, it's a disgrace.[/QB]

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I agree with your comment completely Joe about the television schedule, especially Friday -- this is absolutely absurd!....even though I receive "ABC Family" on my DirecTV package, I know there are millions of baseball fans nationwide that do NOT and would love to see the games....this decision is more ridiculous coming on the heels of the "strike settlement" when MLB is supposedly trying to lure more fans back to the game and while it is obviously motivated by money more than what is in the best interests of the fans it represents yet another display of idiocy by Selig and his cronies who are becoming "managerial experts" when it comes to running out national pasttime into the dirt (no pun intended) -- could they be any more out of touch with the game they supposedly revere and are trying to INCREASE interest in?....what other sport would actually sign a television contract that allows FEWER fans to see their teams play, especially in the POSTSEASON! -- it simply defies logic.

As far as Friday's programming on Fox is concerned, the series' scheduled to air are "Firefly" and "John Doe"....while these are both new series that they are understandably trying to draw and retain an audience for, why acquire the television rights if you're not willing to support the game? ....Now, of course, Fox IS broadcasting the two Yankee-Angels games on Tuesday and Wednesday nights from the Bronx -- do you suppose their scheduling would be different were the Yanks not even in the postseason?....just another reason to root like hell for the Halos to knock off the Bronx Bombers in round 1 -- wouldn't that make the Fox execs in SoCal happy?

[ September 29, 2002: Message edited by: gamecock ]

Well, the Yankees - Angels series matches up the two biggest television markets in the US, so it does make sense from a business perspective to give it the time slot that will draw the most viewership.

OSUFan, surely you meant that the Cards game starts at 11:00 AM, right?

MLB's TV policy sucks, for reason listed above. It's a poorly thought out policy, to say the least, even though I and other Angels fans benefit from playing the Yankees. Still, the games will start around 5:20 PST, so that means a mad dash home to catch the beginning.

hi jim - mlb.com says 11 p.m., i know it's in AZ but that's still 10 p.m. st louis time

the yankees get 8 p.m. EST no matter who they're playing - i know from 97 and 98 when they played the tribe in playoffs usually we would get 1 p.m.
and of course they changed it for the yankees and we were in shock to be on prime time
p.s. we knocked them out in 97 and came damn close to doing it in 98.....go angels !

Yes, it is true. The start time is 11 pm EDT. One of those bone-headed moves of the Fox executives. There were four potential start times for Tuesday games and three games to play. The start times were 1, 4, 8, and 11 pm EDT. One game is being played in Oakland, one in Phoenix, and one in New York. The most plausible scenario to get the best viewership overall would be to play 1, 4, and 8 pm. However, that would mean that the Yankees would almost have to play in the early slot (10 am in Oakland and 11 am in Phoenix). Nobody wanted that, so the 1 pm slot was nixed and the Yanks got the prime time slot. That meant that either Oakland/Minnesota or Arizona/STL got the late show. (The start time is 9 pm in Phoenix, which is pretty late to start a major league game, but who is keeping track.) Pretty stupid overall, but (hey) the games only on ABC Family anyway. Not like it is really available to everyone on those markets.

When will professional sports start looking out for the fans? Never.

OSUFan, sorry 'bout that. It's early Monday morning, I've only had one cup of joe and the concept of time zones is too complicated to wrap my head around. I just looked at the paper and the game starts at 8:00 PST. Sheesh.

What's on Fox in the afternoon that's so compelling that it can't be pre-empted for baseball? No soaps to piss of fans of The Young & The Restless, no Oprah fans etc. What, When Animals Attack is more important than baseball?

It would seem.