TBS Takes Away Postseason Luster For Baseball Fans

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A Major League Baseball season lasts a long time. Very few fans are able to watch all 162 games that their favorite team plays. With day games and night games, weekend games and weekday games, the thought of watching a team religiously is nearly impossible. Very few find a way to accomplish the task.

For this, and a variety of other reasons, baseball, a game that was once the national pastime in America, has found itself taking a back seat to the NFL. More people are interested in whether or not Brett Favre will unretire for what seems like the millionth time than watch a Rockies vs. Giants battle that pits up-and-coming flamethrower Ubaldo Jimenez, against a Cy Young winning Tim Lincecum, who looks like a 12 year-old, but is nearly impossible for 12-year Major League veterans to hit. Yet, when the playoffs come around, even the most average sports fan is willing to watch a baseball game, but slowly Major League Baseball is disheartening even those fans.

Major League Baseball often wonders why the next generation of kids is not watching what used to be the nation’s favorite sport. Often times the finger is pointed at a lack of offense, or a less action-filled game that can last up to four hours. These are all potential reasons, but Major League Baseball needs to quit wondering what the NFL is doing right, and look at what they are doing wrong.

The 2009 Colorado Rockies were an incredibly exciting team to watch on a daily basis. They were the epitome of team. Only one player (Todd Helton) hit above .300 and no one hit the 100 RBI plateau, yet they ranked second in the National League in runs scored. They had young talent that was learning to play the game at the Major League level to go along with seasoned veterans like Helton, looking to have another shot at World Series glory. Some of their players had very little talent, but made up for it with a heart the size of the Rocky Mountains. For example look no further than Yorvit Torrealba or Omar Quintanilla. The Wild Card winning Rockies had players that could hit the ball a mile, and could field a ball hit within a mile of them. They were a team that refused to die after a poor start and made a run at winning their division, despite being 15-1/2 games back at one point.

The ‘09 Rockies should have been Major League Baseball’s dream come true. Americans love to root for the underdog. People relate to teams that come from smaller markets and compete with the bigger market teams, ala David vs. Goliath. Despite being in the playoffs just two years ago, the Rockies represent fresh blood in the Major League playoffs, something different than the standard Yankees, Red Sox and Angels that seem to be playing every October. Major League Baseball should have capitalized on the energetic, never-quit Rockies.

Instead, Major League Baseball allowed TBS, a cable station known for rerun sitcoms and second-rate prime time dramas, to not only broadcast every game, but determine the start time of each game as well.

Because of the fact that the Rockies are rarely seen on ESPN highlights it came as no surprise that the series featuring the defending champion Phillies and the Rockies would kick off the playoffs at 3 pm Eastern Time. Not just the first game, but the second game as well. For two games that would at least draw the average Colorado sports fan and family to tune in at night, the games were simply highlight reels, due to the fact that they took place while potential fans were at work or school. If fans thought it would get better for game three, they were mistaken. On a freezing cold night in Denver, fans had to wait until 8 pm for the first pitch. That meant fans in Philadelphia

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