The playoffs kick off at noon today, and like many of you, I’m really unhappy about when the Twins are scheduled to play. As an entry level worker at an office without a television outside of Minnesota, I have no chance to see the games live. Which leaves me with a dilemma: do I Tivo it and see if I have the will power to avoid my normal, sports related internet sites? Or do I follow along on MLB Gameday?
And why do I have to make this decision for all of the games? How is this fair? Or an intelligent decision for MLB? I know that New York is the bigger market by far, but is it really intelligent to insure that entire fan bases might not be able to watch a single one of their team’s playoff games?
Oakland fans are equally up in arms, but they aren’t sitting on their hands about it. They’re taking their issues to MLB. I already made a phone call, and I urge you to call or send an email as well. The cynic in me says that it won’t matter, but maybe it will finally make MLB understand that the small market teams are just as important to their league as the big market ones (a guy can dream, right?)
Whether or not you’ll be able to see it, it should be a pretty good series. The Athletics have a quality pitching staff, play solid defense and have some big boppers in Frank Thomas and Nick Swisher. Want to know more? Well, that’s what the quick links are for.
- Athletics’ Nation compares the two teams and my guess is you’re going to like their prediction.
- One of Billy Beane’s famous maxims is that the playoffs are a crapshoot. Since then, he’s revised his master plan, finding new inefficiencies to exploit. And he’s revised his view of the postseason to go along with it.
- The Athletics Supporters have three keys to the series for each team.
- Deadspin is previewing all of the division series as well. They have predictions, and run downs on all the teams, including the Twins and Athletics.
- If you were at the game on Sunday, you probably had an amazing experience. If you had any doubt, so did Pat Neshak.
Enjoy game one everybody. And Win Twins!
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6 comments:
I'm going the Tivo route if anyone is wondering. The media and internet blackout begins at 1pm EST. My guess is that I go crazy sometime around 2:30pm EST.
I'm pretty sure it's the networks that make the final decisions on who plays when. They're the ones who have to sell the ads, after all.
My email to MLB:
I cannot express how angry I am at the scheduling of the playoff games this year. I know MLB thinks the country ends somwhere west of Philly, but there is a whole other country out there, they do play baseball, their teams make the playoffs, and believe it or not, their fans would like to actually watch the play-off games.
I am, or course, referring to the Twins-As' game, scheduled to start at 1pm EDT. I am a Twins fan in New York, and like most people HAVE TO WORK FOR A LIVING. It would be nice to come home and be able to watch a team I have followed since I was 5 play in the playoffs. The sun does not rise and set with the friggin Yankees.
Are you telling me that between Fox, ESPN, ESPN2, MLBTV and the other local affiliates that you can't broadcast all of the games in prime time? Wouldn't the league make more $$$ that way?
All I know is that from a fan's perspective (you know the people who watch the games, buy the tickets, merchandise, etc.) this is beyond outragous. It is callous and a big F-you to the fans from those teams.
If you think otherwise, why not close down every team other than those in NY and Boston and just shorten the season to October because, clearly, those are the only fans that MLB cares about.
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