Hey did you see the football games? Of course you saw the football games. I wonder if Baseball saw the football games.
At several points during the weekend, Football was dominating all the chatter on social media. Last night, during the 9pm Eastern hour, I even saw famous baseball players Mike Trout and Noah Syndergaard tweeting about the Chiefs-Bills game.
The nation seemed riveted to the overtime game, which had its best moments between 9 and 10pm Eastern.
Then there is baseball. Postseason Baseball would have been maybe in the 5th inning at 9:59pm.
Baseball has decided it is more important for the West Coast Fans to see the beginning of a game than for the East Coast fans to see the end of a game, despite me repeatedly posting this image.
A wise man once said, “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few” – yet baseball seems obsessed with being popular in those white spaces.
Take Game 7 of the Cubs and Cleveland World Series. It went to extra innings! One of these teams will end a lengthy championship drought! And when was this excitement happening? Midnight eastern.
That game in particular then had the misfortune of a rain delay at midnight, so I turned the game off. Baseball had its best possible scenario, extra innings in Game 7, but it was happening at 1am on the East Coast.
THAT IS INSANE.
Think about it. THAT IS INSANE.
This Football League seems to do quite well playing earlier. The most watched thing on TV every week is the Sunday 4:25pm Eastern game. I don’t mean most watched sporting event, I mean most watched THING.
Here are the top shows according to Variety.
and here are some other shows.
You would think the people at FOX SPORTS would have access to their own football numbers.
I don’t want to hear “well that’s football.” HOW did football become so popular? Baseball used to be popular? What broke? How can we fix it.
Oh – fun fact shared on last night’s football game – the most watched Super Bowl of all time? The 49ers-Bengals game. It kicked off at 4pm Eastern.
Funny how that 4pm timeslot keeps doing really well.
I am trying to help you baseball. You need to rebuild. You need to get some kids’ eyes on this sport.
I saw one tweet last night that I think sums this all up.
Play the games earlier baseball. If someone sees the game they might actually like it.
