The Postseason just keeps getting worse for MLB and its broadcast partners FOX and TBS. ALCS Game 4 in Detroit was supposed to have started shortly after 4 pm ET today, but it was raining in Detroit. FOX is now saying the game should start at 6:30 pm ET, just in time to make another mess of its primetime schedule (like Monday) and to destroy the ratings of the National League game (Milwaukee at St Louis at 8 pm ET on TBS).
TBS was already looking at a terrible number tonight. Sunday afternoon's Game 1 of the NLCS managed a 1.0 rating (ugh), and Monday night's Game 2, trampled by FOX's primetime runover of its 11-inning game, could only muster a 0.8 (pathetic). Tonight's game could be literally a perfect game, and the rating would still be minuscule.
There is no bigger baseball fan than I am, but this Postseason points to everything that's wrong with the sport. Only a few teams people care about. Rain delays. Extremely long games that are subject to late October weather. A scheduling nightmare for the networks that are supposed to boost the sport. Long series with only a small chance that we will be treated to playoff-like Games 7.
Major League Baseball insists that these games are not the "playoffs" but rather "the postseason" because the format is technically not a playoff-format. Well, that playoff format works pretty well for the NFL. It might be time for the sport -- the one that eschews change -- to do something radical and adopt something like a sudden-death playoff format. Something's got to be done. Otherwise, no broadcast network is going to be interested in carrying this sport much longer.
0 comments:
Post a Comment