Ok baseball, let’s try a new approach. Every year I complain that my son and myself cannot stay up and watch the end of the MLB playoffs. And every year you complain “Why are TV ratings down again and why are we losing kids to other sports?”
So instead of writing yet another article after the fact ( MLB Playoffs, Set DVR for Midnight! - I Can Save the World Series) I’m going to drop all that logical Freakonomics thinking and just beg you to give it a shot this year. Just do it for us. We are loyal fans who plan our summer vacations around seeing baseball parks. My son is now 15 years old and he has seen the end of exactly one World Series game. It won’t be long until he moves out of the house and I’d really like a chance to enjoy some Father/Son time watching our favorite sport play some meaningful games. In case you are wondering, we have watched the end of EVERY Super Bowl together and that is our 5th favorite sport. ( MLB, NBA, College Football, NCAA Basketball). How can this be?
Ok, I lied, maybe a little bit of logical thinking.
The Super Bowl kicks off at 6:30 pm.
Last year the World Series started games at 8:20 (except game one and two at 8:09)
The Games finished at these times:
Game One 10:39pm
Game Two 12:28 am
Game Three 12:06 am
Game Four 11:26 pm
Game Five 1:37 am (!!)
Game Six 11:44 pm
Game Seven 11:57 pm
I encourage you to look at those ending times again. That is insane.
The AVERAGE length of an MLB Postseason game is 3.5 hours. (click here for the study)
Oh, and those exciting 2017 one game wildcard games finished at 11:51 pm and 12:02 am. Both on week nights too. (editor’s note: the 2018 NL Wildcard game on Tuesday Oct 2 finished at 1:10 am)
“But why aren’t more kids watching baseball??”
Look MLB, there are lots of reasons the sport is losing ground (and many involve Fortnite) but having the most exciting moments of a mostly non-exciting sport play out while most every kid is asleep doesn’t seem to be working. Maybe it’s time for a fresh approach? If the Rays can go 20 games over .500 getting rid of using a starting pitcher for half the season, you can expand your thinking too.
You haven’t announced the post season TV schedule yet. There is still time to do me and my son this solid. My proposal is this: All playoff games East of the Mississippi start at 7:09 EST. And if I were commish, I would have all World Series games start the same time as the Super Bowl kicks off: 6:30 Every Single Game.
Colin Gawel founded Pencilstorm and banged out this rant while serving customers at Colin’s Coffee. He also wrote a nifty baseball song called Dad Can’t Help You Now.