October 09, 2012

NLDS Game 3

That's right, I'm putting it on my blog that no one reads and that I almost never post to anymore, because 140 characters aren't enough.

1. If you are simply unhappy that you can't make it to Wednesday's Nats playoff game because it's at 1 PM and you (or someone you care about) can't get out of work, I hear you. That sucks.

2. A few people have suggested that the Nats deserve a better start time, because this is the first home playoff game in Washington since 1933, and the first since the Nats moved from Montreal. That's very sweet, and may hold some water if MLB and TBS were motivated by anything other than money. But let's not kid ourselves. The baseball and TV people want to maximize viewership, and that means the games are spread out, and the Yankees get on in prime time. Period, end of discussion.

3. If you're complaining that you can't get off work on short notice, or that you have to eat the tickets now that they've put the game at 1 PM... OK, now you've lost me. The moment the playoff dates were announced, you should have figured out that there would be four games that day, likely with start times of roughly 1, 4, 7, and 10. The Yankees get 7 PM, a west coast team (i.e. Oakland) gets 10 PM. Where does that leave the Nats? I immediately told my boss I would probably be taking some afternoons off this week, though the exact times were TBD. I put that out there over a week ago. So if this caught you off-guard, you blithely missed the fact that first-round playoff games have been played as mid-week day games for a while now. And if you bought tickets knowing you couldn't make a day game, it would have been a good idea to have a plan B, someone who could go to the day game if it came to that. Maybe instead of whining on Twitter about your lost money, you should be on StubHub or Craigslist trying to move them.

Now, I realize that I am luckier than most, in that
a) I have vacation time saved up
b) my Nats fandom is well-established in the office (having a shelf full of bobbleheads will do that), and my boss is understanding
c) there's nothing too crazy going on at work right now, so I can afford to be out of the office, and
d) I can work from an office literally four blocks from the ballpark, so I can keep my time out to a minimum.

Nonetheless, I suppose the next time the Nats make the playoffs, I suppose the team should put in all communications regarding first-round playoff games, "THESE MIGHT BE DAY GAMES. PLAN ACCORDINGLY."

Posted by Carl at 01:45 PM | Comments (0)