 |
| This is me, trying to write my blog. Thanks Bud. |
Dear Mr. Selig,
Longtime member of the baseball community here, having spent time as a fan, player, coach, media member and now an ambassador of sorts over here in Europe.
Prior to coming over to coach with the Hungarian federation and help recruit young players to come out and play ball, I spent about as good a $300 as I've ever spent when I purchased a Slingbox, a device that's hooked into a cable box back home and allows me to pick up TV programming back in the states. I purchased this for four main reasons, to be able to watch as much baseball as possible, catch SportsCenter a couple times a day, tune in for Redskins games in the fall and catch my good friend Angie Goff do the morning news report on NBC back in D.C. (Shout out Ang, holla!)
SportsCenter is broadcast numerous times a day, so there has been no problem watching it. The Redskins, thanks to a lackluster past two decades, had just one prime time night game on their schedule this season, so I can catch most of their games in the evenings (we're six hours ahead of EST). Baseball, however, especially your postseason and now World Series games, are the main reason I walk the streets of Hungary like a zombie with bags the size of golf balls under my eyes.
Your 8:05 p.m. EST (2:05AM in Eastern Europe) game times not only squash any chance of young viewers watching more than the first couple of innings before going to sleep, but it's completely killing any potential of live viewers overseas. To catch a game, I've resorted to a 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. "nap", then attempt to grab another hour or two of sleep after the game ends around 5 a.m., before rising for the day. That's not a sleeping pattern, that's pushing insomnia. Well, maybe not that drastic, but you get the point.
Even your weekend games, which could start in the mid-afternoons to cater to your West Coast audience as well as fans on the East Coast and in Europe, begin the same time as your weekday games. Why? So you can compete against "The Amazing Race" for viewers on Sundays? Please. And don't give me the line about not wanting to compete against college football and the NFL during the day for viewers. You have to do the same thing during night games, and usually against their marquee games.
Day games have been as much a part of baseball as anything going back to the first of the 107 World Series that have taken place, and I don't see why now all of a sudden everything needs to be under the lights. I think your players would even appreciate getting out there in some sunlight and in some warmer weather as well. Wasn't it about 40 degrees during the game in St. Louis on Thursday night? Heck, it was in the low 30s during the '09 series in New York. Last I checked, it's usually warmer during the day than at night.
Okay, that's all for my soap box. Don't get me wrong, you've done some great things for baseball. The Wild Card has added another element and bit of excitement to the regular season that was needed. After casting a blind eye to it while home runs helped bring fans back after the '94 strike, you've cleaned up baseball with drug testing measures. You've even made the All-Star Game matter again, with the winner claiming home-field advantage for its league in the World Series.
But your insistence on starting these games so late is hurting your fan base by not allowing young fans and European followers to watch live (unless they're adopting my sleeping "schedule"). It's time you opened your eyes and see the (day)light. No pun intended. Okay, maybe one was intended.
Thanks for your time.
Yours in Baseball,
Joey Kamide