After going out to dinner, I tuned into the Yankees-Red Sox game last night at 9:45 p.m. Central (10:45 in the East for those who can’t figure it out).
And the game only was in the sixth inning!
Yep, ESPN aired another version of the Boston Marathon on its Sunday night showcase. I bailed quickly, not wanting to get sucked in to another slog at Fenway. Looked at the box score this morning and saw the Yankees won 8-7 in a brisk 3 hours, 42 minutes.
I’m sure the game did a strong rating, because Yankees-Red Sox always performs for the networks. But as a baseball fan, I’ve had enough. The Red Sox are dead and the Yankees are barely treading water. So let’s suspend the mandate that requires one of the national TV partners to air every pitch of this vault rivalry.
Fox Sports 1 also made Yankees-Red Sox its main game Saturday afternoon. Meanwhile, Milwaukee was playing a big series with the Cardinals in St. Louis.
There are plenty of other good teams that deserve to showcased. Hey, have you heard of the Oakland A’s, owners of the best record in baseball?
Fortunately, the A’s will get some national love in August. However, as Steve Lepore at Awful Announcing writes, it has been a long time coming:
Oakland will make two consecutive appearances on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball this month, a rarity for even some of the bigger market teams. The A’s visit the Atlanta Braves on August 17th, making their first appearance on Sunday night since May 28, 2006. That’s right, they haven’t been on MLB’s biggest TV showcase since the Bush administration. The very next week, they host the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim at O.co Coliseum, their first home game on Sunday night since September 4, 2005.
The very next week, the Angels and A’s (the teams with the two best records in the sport) will meet up again, and this time the big telecast belongs to MLB Network. Bob Costas, Jim Kaat and Tom Verducci will have the call. While he hasn’t been calling games with much regularity the past two decades, this factoid may shock you: the August 28th game will be the first time Costas has called an Athletics since the 1989 American League Championship Series. That was when he was working for NBC and broadcasting games with Tony Kubek in that network’s final season of play.
I look forward to seeing the A’s and some of the other contenders such as Washington, Milwaukee (in first place all year), Toronto, Detroit.
According to the schedule, the Yankees-Red Sox play two more series in September. Only one of those games should be on national TV: The season finale in Boston, which will be Derek Jeter’s final regular-season game and perhaps final game, period.
Otherwise, enough.
I couldn’t agree more. Given how much they are on TV, I’m convinced the Red Sox and Yankees play 81 games a year against each other.
Slowest starting pitchers of the last 20 years:
Clay Buchholz > Steve Trachsel (if that’s possible!)
I’ll never watch another Red Sox game if Buchholz is starting!!!
For the most part I watch easspn about 10 min. a week ! That’s no joke !
Well, I think you’re being unreasonable in expecting people based in the east to notice that those of us out west exist.
By the way, yesterday, Josh Beckett pitched for the Dodgers and even Vin Scully seemed to be running out of things to say between pitches. I guess it’s a Red Sox-Yankees thing, and Joe West was right to be critical of the teams.
Ed:
As I’ve said for years, MLB helps promote this Red Sox-Yankees garbage constantly then they wonder why baseball has trouble registering in the national consciousness. Hint to MLB, MOST fans west of the Allegheny Mountains could care one iota about them.
Can you imagine the angst, the heart attacks, MLB, Fox and the Eastern Sports Programming Network are going to have this October when NEITHER the Red Sox or Yankees will be in the playoffs?????
LOL…I can’t wait…for the first time in years I’m actually going to watch simply because those two franchises won’t be around.
I completely agree Indians were last on Sunday Night Baseball on June 26 2011 at San Francisco. Also they barely get any highlight on ESPN
Of course those two teams have a large national following ESPN PROMOTES THEM ALL SEASON LONG, bandwagon fans will follow anything cool; Yankees, Red Sox, Lebron, NFL. I remember watching those 2 teams play in the early 90’s and seeing empty seats at Fenway and Yankee Stadium. Then you get your typical arrogant Yankee or Red Sox fan who claim baseball would not survive without these two since everything revolves around them and how it is the greatest most important rivalry in the history of sports.