Baseball’s late hours for TV make some fans doze

Baseball was meant to be played during warm, daylight hours.  But with high profit-concerned television in the picture, dictating a prime-time audience, when an American League Championship Series game between the Boston Red Sox and the Cleveland Indians starts at 8:24 p.m. (Eastern), one expects the match to go deep into the night.

It did, indeed, on Saturday --- clear into early Sunday.  The extra-innings game concluded at 1:38 a.m., local time, with Cleveland winning, 13 to 6 in the 11th.  Even without the extra innings, the bottom of the ninth was reached at 45 minutes past midnight.

Babe Ruth would have frowned at that.

Since TV thrives on ratings, imagine the falloff in audience numbers as the clock ticked past midnight and even loyal viewers decided to retire for the night, observes Grumpy Editor.  TV watchers, unless they had ample coffee handy, were fighting off dozing, stemming in part from the colorless pair of commentators --- who should take lessons from the Vin Scully school of baseball play-by-play.  Scully, who calls for the Los Angeles Dodgers, keeps viewers alert with interesting non-stop details, backgrounds, facts and stories --- and what’s going on down on the field and in the stands, captured by cameras.

In addition, the outcome was decided far past East Coast newspaper deadlines.  Thus, baseball fans in a good portion of the country on Sunday morning had to check elsewhere to find the score.  The late hours also meant news photographers covering the event went into overtime.

Boston’s Fenway Park fans included a number of youngsters who tried to stay awake far past bedtime.  Temperatures in the latter part of the game dropped to the mid-40s.  That triggered much blowing on hands by pitchers.  Meanwhile, the game, until the 11th inning, was so slow moving that Boston’s manager, Terry Francona, was caught in frequent TV camera close-ups spitting in the dugout at about 10-second intervals.

Certainly, an afternoon game --- on a day when the only scheduled baseball game spotlighted the Red Sox and Indians  --- would have yielded a larger Saturday audience from start to finish.

Another "deep into the night" game --- in cold drizzle --- was last evening's National League Championship Series.  It ended 15 minutes shy of midnight, Eastern.  That saw the Colorado Rockies beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 4 to 1.

Today’s ALCS game starting time in Cleveland, at 7:10 p.m., Eastern, is an improvement from Saturday's play.  But the baseball battle still will end rather late, especially for youngsters on a school night.

And keep an eye on Francona’s frequency of saliva ejections.