It is time for me to take major issue with Major League Baseball, and today has pushed me over the edge, which as my wife knows is bad. I want to know who in their right mind thought that it would be a good idea to have a playoff game start at 8:37 pm in Boston? I want to know who thought of this idea, because I want to put in a resume for their job, because if I were Bud Seileg that person would be fired yesterday.
Let me be clear, this is not about me or my own desire not to stay up late, it is about my 13 year old brother, my 7 year old god son who should be able to watch the Red Sox in the playoff, to sit down and watch the games with their fathers and have those memories that the rest of us have. How many fathers in New England would love to take their sons and daughters to a Sox playoff game, but probably won’t because the game won’t get over until after midnight, which means not getting home until 2 am. Is that fair to them?
Now as I have vented to my friends and family over the past week about the hour that Sox playoff games have started, some have fairly mentioned that the west coast is three hours behind us and those fans deserve to watch the game. I will give you that the Angels fans have as much right to watch their team as anyone our here in the east, but we have to find a middle ground. In 1989 when the World Series pitted two west coast teams, heck two teams from the same area, the games started at 5 pm in California, meaning it was a reasonable 8 pm back east. And for the record, no one in San Francisco or Oakland was complaining about the games starting too early.
The bottom line is we are a vast country and there is always going to be a time difference between the west and east coasts, but for the sake of the future of baseball, there needs to be a change. So what change? My suggestion no games start after 8 pm on the east coast. This would allow the majority of the fans back west to be home from school or work to watch the games, but also allow those of us back east to be in bed by a reasonable hour. However, no matter where the game is being played it must start by 7 pm local time. So even in California the games start at 4 pm, which allows for at least the kids to be home from school to watch their Angels or Giants play.
Go Sox!
- Chris
