In yesterday’s Game 3 of the NLCS, the Arizona Diamondbacks hosted the Philadelphia Phillies in a game that started at 2:07 PM local time. 670 The Score’s Danny Parkins argues it’s clear television is setting the start times, and that’s not right.
During Parkins & Spiegel Thursday, Danny Parkins made the case that games of this magnitude should be scheduled with the fans of the two teams playing mind, rather than what’s best for television ratings.
“I think they should be in primetime. Slightly staggered so that if you want to watch the end of both games, you could watch the end of both games,” said Parkins. “But my belief is, in general, I feel people that are watching the NLCS game are Diamondbacks fans and Phillies fans. And in general, it’s Astros fans and Rangers fans. Put them in primetime so that most of those fans can watch and then everybody else who is a casual fan could watch some of it, all of it, whatever. They can pick and choose.”
“I’m sure the advertisers are promised that each game at this point in the playoffs will be in the clear, but as much as possible,” said Matt Spiegel as justification for the start time. “I suspect that each market or each league was promised that it won’t be the late game on consecutive nights of the doubleheader, or something to that effect. They’re not going to make Arizona be the late game in terms of East Coast ad rates. That kind of crap.”
“I know the reason is television, right? Like, I know that,” Parkins responded. “But if you then get into this scenario, and you’re Major League Baseball, it feels like the workaround should be”, start times in the western-most game should be cemented as being in primetime.
For Friday’s MLB Postseason action, the ALCS game between the Houston Astros and Texas Rangers begins at 5:07 PM ET, while the NLCS game between the Philadelphia Phillies and Arizona Diamondbacks begins at 8:07 PM ET.
