Wild Card Round IGT - White Sox at Houston, 1700 hours 9/29

[Frayed Knot]

This game is available only via Peacock apparently. I guess NBC figures no one will watch anyway so why take up network airspace.

Chicago pitcher is listed at TBA. Houston going with AJ Blueballs Blubaugh, a rookie making his first start of the season (he had 3 GS in a trial run last year).

Like Philly, these teams had to go down to the last day of the season to secure and/or fight for a spot so they couldn't exactly set-up an ideal rotation.

[Frayed Knot]

White Sox 6 - Astros 3

[Frayed Knot]

From the Braves/Phillies thread:

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The paid attendance for this game was 30,127 — meaning there were more than 10,000 empty seats in Atlanta/whatever suburb that park is located in yesterday.

It’s almost as if selling tickets with no gametime and not announcing it until 48 hours in advance is not fan-friendly. 

A bunch of unsold seats in Houston also, about 7,000 or so. Even the players noticed/commented on this; they also noticed/commented on the intermittent booing they got but I'll write that off to a meh/.500 season plus the lousy results in Game 1.

Be nice if MLB takes notice of this if and when they contemplate expanding playoffs.

[Gwreck]

7 hours ago, Frayed Knot said:

Be nice if MLB takes notice of this if and when they contemplate expanding playoffs.

Here’s hoping sooner.  Gate receipts from guaranteed playoff games largely go to the players, so maybe they’ll care about this during the upcoming CBA negotiations.

All seriousness, we know the real money is in TV and thus that dictates the timeslots.  

What continues to baffle me is that it’s more profitable for TV to show games at 2 and 5 PM versus, say, staggering the starts at 6, 7, 8, and 9 PM.  I guess it must be, since they keep doing it that way…but it sure seems odd.

[Frayed Knot]

They certainly don't want too much overlap with each game robbing/being robbed of eyeballs from the game just before and just after it.

 

Anyway, ChiSox take care of business in two games.  It only belatedly occurred to me that this matchup is a replay of the 2005 World Series. So Houston still hasn't won a playoff game vs CHW

[Gwreck]

9 consecutive home playoff losses for Houston.

[Gwreck]

1 hour ago, Frayed Knot said:

They certainly don't want too much overlap with each game robbing/being robbed of eyeballs from the game just before and just after it.

This idea has never made too much sense to me.

-If it’s “your team” playing, you’re going to watch that game, no matter what else is on.  

-If you don’t care about the teams and just want to watch baseball, you’ll watch what’s convenient or interesting.  If the game is a blowout/boring you, having an alternative would seemingly keep you watching versus going to a different type of programming altogether, or turning off the TV.

[Frayed Knot]

But the networks are going to lose viewers from the overlap. They're the ones who don't want it and they're not going to pay MLB as much if they insist on structuring things that way.

From a fan p.o.v., sure I'll watch my team to the exclusion of others. But that doesn't mean I don't want to watch one or more other games as well and it's tough to do that if the starting times are so close together.

Bottom line is: with a potential 12 games in three days with this current opening round format, somebody's going to be upset no matter what you do. I remember many years ago, back when WC rounds were semi-new (so '90s some time), Francesa throwing an on-the-air fit over early playoff games even partially overlapping. 'Baseball is so stupid, he ranted, you wouldn't see the NFL doing things this way!!!' 

Yes, Mike, the NFL is so fucking brilliant that they somehow managed to figure out a way to schedule 11 playoff games over a five week span without having two or more conflict. Such genius in that league you wonder why MLB can't learn from it.

[Gwreck]

45 minutes ago, Frayed Knot said:

But the networks are going to lose viewers from the overlap. They're the ones who don't want it and they're not going to pay MLB as much if they insist on structuring things that way.

Yes, as already stated above, it’s well understood which party is driving the decision.

What I’ve never heard is a cogent explanation as to why doing it that way makes the network(s) more money.

Why is a given that they will lose viewers from the “overlap” versus gaining viewers from Philadelphia and Atlanta who aren’t going to watch at 2 PM but would watch at 7.  Do those Philly and Atlanta fans who work come home and really watch the Red Sox or Cubs instead? 

45 minutes ago, Frayed Knot said:

From a fan p.o.v., sure I'll watch my team to the exclusion of others. But that doesn't mean I don't want to watch one or more other games as well

I guess this must be the case, that there are enough (1) fans who will watch an additional game or (2) unaffiliated viewers who will watch multiple games if given the chance.  

[Frayed Knot]

Plus the 6, 7, 8, and 9 PM start times you suggest would require not two but four different channels so multiple networks with at least two options each. In this case that would mean no NBC exclusive for Round 1.

I agree that they could stick the starting times closer together to where there's a bit of overlap from Game 1 to 2, and then from 2 to 3 etc. But they're also trying to keep the late-afternoon/early evening time unclogged as possible since national, and particularly local, news programs are solid money making slots for affiliates. That's why the early afternoon game was on the network but the 5 PM slot was Peacock only.

 

 

Meanwhile, with the Padres also winning last night, that's now 14 series out of 20 best-of-three series that were two game sweeps and either 18 or 19 of the 20 where the winner of game one went on to win the series depending on the outcome of today's Braves/Phillies.

[Gwreck]

4 hours ago, Frayed Knot said:

since national, and particularly local, news programs are solid money making slots for affiliates.

 

This is also something that remains surprising to me, that the early evening news actually gets meaningful viewership. I have a tough time imagining the demographic for that other than…senior citizens?

This is where it becomes clear, I suppose, that I am not a network television executive.

[MFS62]

From Yahoo Sports/ ESPN:

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The Catholic Church may have a new member after Wednesday night. 

Chicago White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf, shortly after the franchise won their first playoff series since 2005, couldn't help but think about the letter he received from the Pope earlier this week.

"Imagine a Jewish kid from Brooklyn getting a letter from the Pope," he said, via ESPN's Jesse Rogers. 

"I'm going to convert," he added, joking.

Hours before the White Sox's playoff opener against the Houston Astros on Tuesday, the club announced they had received a letter from Pope Leo XIV. The Pope is a Chicago native and undoubtedly the franchise's most famous fan. 

Later