Baseball and TV

This has been brewing for a while now. Baseball is being lost and the fans are losing. We never owned the game directly, it was something that was there and if we liked it, we attended, we paid attention and most importantly - we savored.

Now, Baseball is being ruled by those that bow to that which is paying them the most money - TV, and in this case: FOX and TBS.

FOX has asked baseball to have its playoff games start at later start times, namely: 8 PM ET, 5 PM PT and mainly, on weeknights. Day games are almost unheard of and double-headers where you paid once for both games, are truly a thing of the past.

The weekday thing is what has lengthened the playoff schedule and moving the playoffs deeper and deeper into the fall. This year, the season started later only because of the Baseball World Cup and for this, games will be played in November. Scheduled November games AND no, this is not the MLB traveling team going to Japan - it is World Series Baseball.

Games start late, questionable officiating and incredible stupidity on the part of the Buck/McCarver duo for FOX. I have to ask them: have you guys been watching baseball for any length of time prior to the playoffs?

Why doesn't baseball follow its own rules? Shirts not being buttoned, Batters stepping out on every pitch, pitchers not coming to stop while in the stretch position, pitches not being delivered in the time required.

What has happened to the grand game? Cheaters galore? Home town fans forgiving the cheaters and adoring them with the love that only a spouse or girlfriend should receive . . . no, having spouse and cheater in the same sentence was not deliberate, nor a subtle dig at anyone or anything.

Record numbers of fans in attendance BUT BASEBALL TV numbers falling and falling and . . . falling. Putting baseball on weeknights will not save baseball on television. Go back to the day games, go back to following a true baseball playoff schedule were the only off days are when the team travels. You really want to improve the speed of games? Reduce the number of pitchers a team can carry so that you do not have "hook happy" managers change pitchers as often because they simply won't have many to choose from. Fine a hitter for stepping out of the box more than once if they don't have a full count or two strikes on 'em. Get in the box and hit and pitchers: deliver your pitches per the rules. Get rid of the DH, get rid of artificial turf and go back to making the sport about the sport. Follow your schedule, play the game and stop making the game so long that kids are asleep when the favorite team starts to play, much less completes the game.

FOX is a major reason that baseball has problems and for making it what it is today: a sport with TV ratings that are falling, increasingly longer games and bringing "issue" to the game that does not need more. Call the game, make the game the issue, not make the game adjust to what your vision is - FOX's vision is not working and we are all paying for it.

One day, in the not too distant future, baseball will be played in an empty stadium and just maybe, Buck Bokai of the London Kings may indeed, be the last true baseball player in a league that was killed by fan disinterest - brought on by a network that believed it could control it.