This is one of those posts that I expect will get the “so negative” “stop complaining” feedback and be unpopular. That’s OK, the guys at the Amazin’ Apple Insiderized Mets Blog Report will have plenty of articles about how they always loved Travis d’Arnaud and you can go read those. Over here, I try to do different things.
So last night I sat down to watch the game at “eight.” Right? That’s how we talk and that’s how we think. What time are Mets night games? They play at “seven.”
Except when you turn on an MLB game, and I will focus on the Mets here, you get Gary Cohen telling you what city he’s in, commercials, Gary Cohen telling you there’s a game coming, commercials, another short burst of Gary and then commercials. It’s a complete void of content for ten minutes.
As I slogged through that last night I went from “oh cool, I haven’t watched a Mets game in three weeks!” to being bored one minute before first pitch and already reevaluating my TV choices for the evening. (I wound up bailing at 9pm due to boredom.)
This got me wondering – WHY start the games at 10 past? I know the answer is so they can get those three extra breaks in…..but at what cost? Does it slowly ebb away at the casual viewers? If I had my so sit down at 8:01 last night he would have never made it through those 9 minutes.
I look at the NFL. Did you ever turn on an NFL game at 1:02? You’ve missed like 5 plays already. They seem to be doing OK.
So just a thought. There’s plenty of inventory in the pre-game show to fill with commercials. I’d even be OK, as I have said before, with the first few half inning breaks having MORE commercials….I’d deal with some 2:40 breaks if the game started at 7:01.
Just a thought….
