I have changed my stance. Previously, I thought there was something special about important October baseball games during the day on Monday through Friday. Old school.

This year, though, I came to a realization: I never can watch those weekday games.

I work during the day, as do most of you (when you’re not reading Sherman Report). Yesterday, I wasn’t able to tune in to the Boston-Detroit game until 6 p.m. Central. By then, the game was in the eighth inning. The same probably will be true for this afternoon’s St. Louis-LA game.

There’s a reason why Major League Baseball finally shifted World Series games to night in 1971: That’s when people are home to watch them.

It really doesn’t make sense to play your most important games of the year on weekdays. Imagine the NBA or NHL airing conference final playoff games on weekdays.

The day playoff games aren’t about serving the fans; it’s about serving the networks. MLB obviously doesn’t want to have the two LCS games competing against each other on Fox and TBS in primetime.

However, in the process, the set-up limits the audience for the weekday game, especially on the West coast.

I’m a channel flipper. I would love nothing more than to spend the evening bouncing around between two playoff games. Baseball moves at such a slow pace, you wouldn’t miss much from either game.

The concept of airing multiple playoff games at the same time has lifted the Stanley Cup playoffs on NBC’s multiple platforms. It pulled me in, given all the great finishes in hockey. Baseball should take notice.

Here’s a suggestion: MLB should begin the early game at 5:30-6 p.m. ET, instead of 4 p.m. Then push back the late game from 7 p.m. ET to 7:30. Sure, there would be some overlap, but most people still would be able to see the bulk of both games.

The one plus of afternoon playoff baseball is that allows young kids with early bedtimes to watch the games. I’ve made the argument for years that baseball has lost a generation of young fans with the late starts for the World Series. At the very least, the weekend World Series games definitely should begin earlier.

However, I’m not sure the kids are watching anyway. If they are, if LCS games started at 5:30-6 p.m. ET, those young fans still would be able to see plenty of baseball.

MLB, though, likely won’t make any changes to the format. Too much hassle with the networks.

That means more afternoon playoff games that I and many other baseball fans won’t be able to see.

My latest column for the National Sports Journalism Center at Indiana University notes the one and only time the world saw Steve Bartman.

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It is odd how things work on the beat. If you asked sports journalists about the one interview they truly would like to land, a bucket-list subject so to speak, it would be with an individual who never played in a game or even sat on the sidelines as a coach.

He appeared on our TV screen for 30 minutes, if that long, before disappearing completely from sight. Come to think of it, we’ve never heard this person speak.

And still haven’t a decade after he was unwittingly thrust into our public consciousness.

No. 1 on most of our dream interview lists: Steve Bartman.

Monday marks the 10th anniversary of the night Bartman’s life changed forever. On Oct. 14, 2003, during the top of the eighth inning of Game 6 of the Cubs-Marlins series at Wrigley Field, the meek-looking fan with the geeky headphones was transformed into a symbol for a century-plus of futility for the Cubs. All because he reached for a foul ball.

The story has been told many times over and continues to be told. In Chicago, Comcast Sports Net will air a documentary, “5 Outs,” Tuesday night on that ill-fated 2003 Cubs team.

Both the Chicago Tribune and the New York Times came out with 10th anniversary stories. ESPN Classic re-aired the 30 for 30 documentary, “Catching Hell,” throughout the weekend.

Even though I have seen the film many times, I had to watch again. And then again. The incredible random nature of what happened to Bartman, an ordinary fan among 40,000 people on that night, arguably makes it the strangest, if not the most compelling sports story of all time.

The aftermath only served to take the story to an even higher level. The following day, a devastated Bartman issued a statement, apologizing to Cubs fans for his misdeed. That was it. No interviews. No nothing.

Bartman completely faded from view. In fact, during the “Catching Hell” documentary, ESPN’s Wayne Drehs said if you saw Bartman walking around the mall without his Cubs cap and headphones, you probably wouldn’t recognize him.

The Tribune‘s Paul Sullivan writes: “Bartman has remained Sphinxlike, staying out of the public eye, ignoring interview requests and monetary offers and basically keeping a low profile, becoming the J.D. Salinger of sports fans.”

Indeed, that’s part of the on-going fascination with Bartman. In an age when everyone seems to be running towards the spotlight like moths to a flame, he wants nothing to do with it. Bartman has turned down six-figure offers to do interviews.

In the Tribune piece, Sullivan quotes Frank Murtha, an attorney who spoke on behalf of Bartman: “Because of the kind of person he is, he has continued to live his life in a manner with the same moral fiber he had going into this incident. He continues to work. Has this incident posed challenges to him? Yes. Has he more than overcome them? Yes. But he has been bigger than those who have commercially exploited the incident.”

After his story appeared, I contacted Sullivan, a long-time Chicago baseball writer, about what he would ask if he had the chance to interview Bartman.

“If he did talk, of course I would love to be the one he goes to,” Sullivan said. “I guess I would ask him how he refrains from being bitter at the fans and media; how he feels about the ball being blown up; if he considered changing his name; if any good came out of this and of course if he thinks the Cubs will win in his lifetime?

“Many other questions depending on his answers, but those would top my list.”

All relevant questions to be sure. However, there is a part of Sullivan who hopes Bartman never answers them from him or anyone else.

“Actually I think Bartman has gained immense respect for not talking and for not cashing in, so I would hope he continues to remain out of the public eye,” Sullivan said. “The response I have received so far has basically cemented my thinking that his decision to disappear was the correct one.”

To some extent, I can see his point. There is a certain nobility in Bartman’s desire to remain in the shadows. He owes the public, and specifically Cubs fans, nothing. If anything, they all owe him an apology for the intense reaction that altered his life forever.

Yet it’s been 10 years. I think it would be great to hear from Bartman himself. I want to know how his life is going and his thoughts about what happened on that night and the following days after Game 6. There’s a possibility an interview would serve as some sort of closure for him–and perhaps us.

Who knows if it will ever happen? In Sullivan’s piece, Murtha said, “Steve has no intention to personally speak about it. When and if he did, it’d be under his terms and conditions.”

Until then, sports journalists will keep Bartman’s name high on their wish list.

I know I am going to get shouted down here for complaining after what was a big day for baseball. Dramatic homers; a no-hitter into the eighth; and Sandy Koufax hugging Clayton Kershaw.

But I’m diving in anyway. As good as Monday was, a 4-hour, 19-minute game that lasts only 9 innings underscores everything that is wrong with baseball.

Yes, Tampa Bay’s 5-4, not 15-14, victory over Boston broke my stopwatch. I mean, you’ve got to be trying really hard to play any slower. The finish might have been exciting, but getting there felt at times like a long slog through the Florida swamp.

It was the second 4-hour, 9-inning game in as many nights for baseball. Sunday, the Dodgers’ 13-6 victory over Atlanta stretched to 4:01.

I’m on a mission during the postseason to highlight the maddening slow pace of baseball. Check out my interview last week with Jim Kaat, the quick-pitch artist who also believes something needs to be done.

When I started to complain about the never-ending game last night on Twitter, several fans told me to shut up.

Tweeted back Chris Lake: “At this point no one cares about time of game… Great unpredictable ending…worth every second.”

Yes, but how many people got to “this point?” I wish Chris had been watching the game with my 18-year-old son. I wish Bud Selig and his crew also were with us.

Bored by the slow pace, my squirming son kept wanting me to switch to the football game. I can assure you many viewers in that key young demographic felt the same way. That’s the demo that is tuning out baseball.

By comparison to Tampa-Boston, the Dodgers’ 4-3 win over Atlanta felt brisk at 3:19, which still is too long. And did the St. Louis-Pittsburgh game really get done in 2:36? Now that’s the way it should be.

Too bad the St. Louis game will be an anomaly during the postseason, the rare finish under three hours. Heck, forget about three hours. At this rate, four hours might be the new standard.

I’ve got you on the clock, baseball. More to come.

My latest column for the National Sports Journalism Center at Indiana features a chat with Jim Kaat on my biggest complaint: The numbing length of baseball games.

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I say to Jim Kaat that he still could pitch a game in two hours, 15 minutes these days.

“I don’t know about that,” Kaat laughed.

Kaat is right. Make it two-and-a-half hours. After all, Kaat is 74.

Nearly 40 years ago, anything over two hours for a game Kaat started was considered a marathon. In 1974, Kaat, then 35, used a quick-pitch approach to revive his career with back-to-back 20-win seasons with the White Sox. He would get the ball and throw it in virtually the same motion.

“The umps loved me and the vendors hated me,” Kaat said.

Here’s why: On May 31, 1975, Kaat and the Sox lost a 2-0 game to Detroit that lasted an hour, 35 minutes. He routinely had games in the 1:45-1:50 range. If you blinked, you missed three innings.

So if you are looking for an expert to discuss one of baseball’s biggest problems–the maddening slow pace of play–you couldn’t find a better one than Kaat.

Make no mistake, Kaat’s passion for baseball is as high at 74 as it was at 20 when he broke in with the Washington Senators in 1959. Kaat will join Bob Costas for Game 2 of the St. Louis-Pittsburgh series Friday at 1 p.m. (ET) on MLB Network. He also is slated to work a playoff game Monday for MLB Network.

Kaat, though, thinks the game would be better if it moved quicker. He hardly is alone here. Game times have become bloated in the last 20 years. For instance, Game 3 of the 2012 World Series took three hours, 25 minutes. A slugfest, right? No, that was for a 2-0 victory for San Francisco over Detroit.

“Don’t misunderstand me,” Kaat said. “It’s not that I want to get the game over with. It’s just that 2-1 game in three hours, 15 minutes is too long. It’s not necessary.”

Television obviously is a culprit by adding more commercials. To show how much times have changed, Kaat told an amusing story of White Sox General Manager Roland Hemond asking him to take more time between innings.

“I worked so fast, a couple of times, they’d come back from commercial, and there would be one, even two outs,” said the 283-career game winner. “I didn’t have compassion for TV back then. My focus was on pitching. I said to Roland, ‘Do I have to?’ He said, ‘No.’ So I didn’t.”

Any chance of that request being turned down today? Ha. No way, not in an era where TV is king. Kaat thinks the long gaps between innings (two-and-a-half to three minutes) have an impact that carries over once play resumes.

“Players now sit in the dugout and wait because they know they’re going to get two-and-a-half minutes,” Kaat said. “It makes the whole pace, running back on to the field and then playing the game, much slower.”

TV, though, doesn’t get the entire blame here. In Game 2 of the 1965 World Series, Kaat and Minnesota took a 5-1 victory over Sandy Koufax and the Los Angeles Dodgers. The game took two hours, 13 minutes. So let’s add an additional 30 minutes for commercials in the modern telecast. That’s still a game time of two hours, 43 minutes.

Now you’ll be hard-pressed to find a post-season game under three hours. Tuesday, Pittsburgh’s 6-2 victory over Cincinnati went three hours, 14 minutes.

Kaat jokes that he blames Ken “Hawk” Harrelson for introducing the batting glove to baseball. Now every hitter has to step out of the box and adjust his glove after a pitch. He actually charted the numbing routine during a playoff game a few years ago, and it added 35 minutes to the game.

“If Mickey Mantle took a pitch, he’d keep his back foot in place and reset his front foot,” Kaat said. “He’d be ready to go. You never see that today.”

The other “little things,” as Kaat says, bog down the game: Repeated catcher’s visits to the mound; more pitching changes than back in his era; and don’t get him started on theme music for individual hitters.

“Now they all wait in the on-deck circle for their theme music to begin,” Kaat said. “It’s ridiculous.”

The concern, Kaat and others say, is that long games are turning off viewers, especially in the younger demographics. This is a fast-paced society and games that run on at three hours, 30 minutes are too languid to captivate short attention spans, young and old. I see it in my own home. My 18-year-old son, Matt, told me he is more excited about watching early-season hockey games than postseason baseball.

Frankly, I’m not sure why the networks don’t push MLB harder to improve the pace of these big games. More isn’t better here.

Obviously, MLB can put rules in place to speed up the game, but old habits die hard. Kaat contends the key now is for baseball to get players in the minor leagues. Teach them how to play faster.

“You have to go to the minor leagues with the game on TV in mind,” Kaat said. “Encourage hitters to stay in the box. Encourage pitchers to work faster. You do all those little things, and you could knock off 30-45 minutes off a game.”

What MLB really should do is show those minor leaguers old videos of Kaat working quickly and efficiently on the mound. There’s a reason why he won all those games.

Or better yet, have Kaat suit up. Even at 74, I bet he still can work faster than the kids.

For the latest in sports media, follow me at Sherman_Report.