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 Posted: Fri Oct 23, 2009 2:17 pm |
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http://www.nctimes.com/sports/columnists/maffei/article_7371a57d-4551-515d-a136-aa6d329518a6.html
Story Discussion By JOHN MAFFEI - jmaffei at (no spam) nctimes.com | Posted:
Thursday, October 22, 2009 11:05 pm | No Comments Posted
In the grand scheme of things, 30-35 minutes doesn't seem like much.
But with baseball playoff games averaging more than 3 1/2 hours and
some stretching to five hours as managers change pitchers four and
five times an inning, 30 minutes is a step in the right direction. But
only for some.
In an effort to try to let viewers in the East go to bed before the
sun comes up, Fox will start World Series games this season at 7:57
p.m. EDT. That means a 4:57 start time in the West.
Game 1 is Wednesday. A seven-game series would conclude Nov. 5.
The start time is the earliest for any U.S. major sports championship
excluding the Super Bowl. Last year, the average World Series start
time was 8:28 p.m. EDT.
The problem networks face is that to accommodate viewers in the East,
games on the West Coast start before most people clock out of work. So
you lose a good portion of the country at the start of games.
That could have been significant this season had the Angels and
Dodgers faced off in a Freeway Series. It's not as big a deal now,
since it appears the World Series will match the Philadelphia Phillies
and New York Yankees.
"Prime-time postseason games on Fox have always been scheduled for a
window that maximizes the potential audience from coast to coast," Fox
Sports president Ed Goren said. "The fact is that over the last few
years, games have been ending a bit later than we'd like. This new
schedule should help fans of all ages see week-night games from start
to finish.
"There is certainly a belief that for a younger audience, particularly
on the East Coast, this is a real plus,"
The World Series pregame show will start at 4:30 p.m. PDT, and Goren
said part of moving the starting time up was convincing affiliates to
drop lucrative syndicated shows.
"We couldn't have done this without the cooperation of our
affiliates," Goren said.
The thinking behind moving the start times is that baseball is losing
young viewers. Baseball commissioner Bud Selig says that isn't
necessarily true, but one Phillies-Rockies playoff game in Colorado
this season started at 10 p.m. EDT. How many kids who love the
Phillies were up for the start of that game? Heck, how many adults
were awake for the game? Ridiculous.
Obviously, there is no easy solution to this problem. With the three-
hour difference between time zones, there are built-in scheduling
hurdles.
In the West, we reap the benefit by waking up to college football on
Saturdays and NFL games on Sundays. We don't have to endure 8 p.m.
start times for games to accommodate East Coast viewers.
Living here, though, does force a lot of us to catch the start of big
games on the radio so people on the East Coast aren't hearing the cock
crow when the last pitch is delivered.
Around the bases
-- Joe Buck and Tim McCarver will be in the Fox booth for the World
Series. McCarver, who is working his record 20th World Series, has
toned things down a little over the years and is now tolerable. Buck,
who is working his 12th Series, wasn't at his best calling the ALCS,
but is a good, professional announcer. Chris Myers and Ken Rosenthal
will roam the ballparks.
-- Chris Rose hosts Fox's pregame show, taking over for Jeanne
Zelasko, who had the job for the last eight Fall Classics. Rose will
work at the game sites with Mark Grace, Eric Karros and White Sox
manager Ozzie Guillen.
-- Jon Miller and Joe Morgan have the radio call on ESPN 800 and ESPN
710 AM.
-- ESPN2 will present the Web Gem Awards at 5 p.m. Monday. Hosted by
Karl Ravich and John Kruk, the 30-minute show will present one Web Gem
for each of the nine positions and one for the top fielder at each
position.
-- Online voting for the 2010 Ford C. Frick Award for excellence in
baseball broadcasting begins Dec. 1. Bios and ballots of eligible
candidates are available on www.baseballhall.org. Longtime Padres
announcer Jerry Coleman was a Frick Award winner in 2005. Ted Leitner
is on the ballot again this year. Tony Kubek was honored last year.
Playoff review
-- Chip Caray, the lead announcer for TBS playoff games, had a tough
few weeks. He had a string of odd and missed calls. For whatever
reason, a normally solid announcer was off his game.
-- Joe Simpson of TBS is a solid color analyst. Ron Darling is
emerging.
-- Ernie Johnson, the host of the TBS postgame show, just didn't click
with Dennis Eckersley, Cal Ripken Jr. and David Wells, Johnson, who
has great rapport with Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith on TNT's NBA
pregame show, couldn't pull it together for baseball telecasts.
-- The MLB Network has the strongest set of analysts. Barry Larkin,
Mitch Williams and Dan Plesac are good. And Harold Reynolds brings
them all together. Throw in Astros infielder Aaron Boone, who was
brought in for the playoffs, and the MLB Network provided the best
pre- and postgame coverage of the playoffs.
-- I got to listen to the Angels radio team of Rory Markas and Terry
Smith quite a bit during the playoffs, and they're pretty darn good.
-- I also got to listen to Dan Shulman and Dave Campbell call NL
games. Campbell might be the best analyst on radio or TV. |
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