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Reactions: Midnight Madness CNNSI.com users fight sleep during late Series gamesPosted: Wednesday October 25, 2000 7:44 PMUpdated: Thursday October 26, 2000 8:57 AM
Feeling the need to hit the snooze button? With the World Series games taking four hours to play, many are finding themselves either asleep before they end or fighting sleep the next morning. CNNSI.com users were asked how they felt about the length of the games and their 8 p.m. EDT starting times. The answers of those awake enough to respond follows: I was at the game last night and was very tired by the seventh inning. So I went home. I still didn't get home until well after midnight, even though I live in the city. That is not good -- Why must the pitcher step off the rubber, and the batter step out of the box on every other pitch? And better yet, why was the game starting at 8:30 anyway? Needless to say, I was very upset. And when they play again next year, I don't think I'll go.
America's pastime has become America's best sleeping aid. How anyone in this day and age can sit through a complete nine-inning game is beyond me -- And I thought Monday Night Football was tough to endure! At least they've got Dennis Miller now -- My vote is to shorten the season and the game (isn't seven innings really enough?).
It's the art of the game. I am 17 years old and considered to be the generation with the least attention span, but baseball is for sitting down with friends or your family to have quality time together. No other power in the world can get my dad and I to sit down for five straight hours and talk and enjoy each other's company so well. Not saying that we don't like each other, just never have the time and baseball gives us that. I am sorry that our American mentality of "get there and leave" does not fit the spirit of our favorite past time, but it is not a reason to change. Let the game be what it is, and it will stand the test of time.
I am all for a great and suspenseful baseball game. I think it is great for the game. However, staying awake until 12:30 a.m. or later when I have to be up at 5 a.m. is tough. I don't see any reason why the games can't begin at 7 or 7:30. There are lots of younger fans out there that don't have the opportunity to see much of the games because they are on so late. Do something for the fans and not the corporations; put the games on earlier.
The thing that pissed me off the most last night about the length of the game was that the first pitch was after 8:30. If the game goes four hours which most of them do (at least four hours), you can't go to bed before 12:30. Start the game at 7:30, so if it ends at 11:30, it's not as bad. It's all about the money and advertising. But if I'm half-asleep while the commercials are airing, what's the point of that commercial. NOTHING!
As a fan of baseball all my life, I can tell you that the increase in time of a baseball game makes it more interesting. The increase in length means that there is more strategy involved in the game. When I used to watch games that took two and a half hours, I never got into the strategy of the game as much as I do now. Now, when a manager brings in a lefty to face a lefty, then takes him out against the next batter, I try to make my own decision on if that was a good move. It gives the viewers the chance to compare what they would have done to the manager's decision. Since everyone seems to love all the offense in today's games, which results from the long ball, they shouldn't complain about the games taking longer. It just gives you more time to enjoy the World Series!
If I have to watch one more batter step out of the box to adjust his gloves, straighten his shirt, pull up his pants, swing at the air, or otherwise waste time I'll start to watch "Survivor" reruns. Football has 45 seconds to get a play off, basketball has 25 seconds to take a shot. I think that a baseball player should only be allowed out of the box once per four pitches. Get your signs and then get in there and do something. Get a hit or get out, just do it faster. You want to know why people in the U.S. don't like soccer? Because it's BORING. Baseball is getting the same way. We love football because something is happening every 25 to 30 seconds. Then we have a few seconds to watch the replay and they're off hitting each other again.
I love watching the World Series! No matter who's playing, I'll watch. However, the way the networks dictate the TV schedule makes it very difficult to stay up late and watch the games. When games are starting at 9:00 Eastern time, the games are going after midnight! It's hard enough for adults to stay up that late let alone kids. How does baseball expect to attract kids to the game if they can't watch them on TV? The other thing is that too many guys waste time walking in and out of the batter's box, pitchers walk around the mound, shake catchers off three and four times. All of these things pile up and cause the game to drag on. And then there's all the pitching changes. Baseball needs to cut the game times, put the screws to the networks to put the games on a little earlier, and shorten the season so it's not snowing in New York or Cleveland during the World Series!
Working straight 9-5 office hours, I find I have to take a nap as soon as I get home just to be able to stay up late enough to catch the best part of the games, (excluding Roger Clemens antics). But even that is not enough for this series. I blame it all on the hitters. Mostly on the Yankees: Bernie Williams and Tino Martinez especially. When you get up to bat, be more like Piazza, get in the box and stay in the box! If your gloves or any other equipment needs adjusting after every pitch, get new gloves! If any of us in the real world had to leave the office to fix our underwear every time we did ANYTHING, we wouldn't be working for long!
Start the games half an hour earlier and eliminate one commercial per commercial break. Instead of Fox advertising their new series "Boston Public" during every commercial break, advertise it every other commercial break. That would reduce 15 minutes per game right there.
Baseball is a yawn game anyway. Pitcher to catcher, pitcher to catcher, ad infinitem. There are far too many games in a season and it interferes with football. Reduce the games to 50 or 60 and that's enough already. Give us a break. When all is said and done, World Series or not, I'm outta here. Overpaid egos and surly crowds, who needs it? And while I'm at it, Clemens should have been suspended from baseball when he beaned the first guy and that should be true of any pitcher. Yuk.
I think it is a shame that the most exciting World Series in many years is so late in the evening. I live in the Los Angeles area and I am falling asleep in a game that is too long. I can only imagine how the New Yorkers must feel with games that are well past midnight.
I don't know how those of you on the East Coast survive. Even being on West Coast time, it was after 10 p.m. here when Armando (I hope I took my heart medicine) Benitez recorded the last out. Ten p.m. in the east had to be somewhere around the fourth inning. Move the game times up to 6 p.m. EDT. Let today's kids have memories of what may be the only Subway Series for some time to come.
Major League Baseball deserves the blame for the ridiculous length of the World Series games. People like to blame the networks, but the networks aren't the ones who charge outrageous fees for the rights to air the games. Broadcasters have no alternative but to show the games during prime time. Moreover, they are forced to run more commercials than they would normally to help offset these exorbitant costs.
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