As you know, the A's are going to the playoffs again, after a two-year absence. For some who don't live in the San Francisco Bay Area or follow the team as I do, the club's being in the playoffs, and supposedly, on national television, will be the first exposure they've had to the A's, who often finds themselves on the short end of the media attention stick, in favor of Eastern clubs, primarily the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox. But now, as the playoff picture has solidified with the conclusion of baseball's regular season, it's clear that the corporate bigwigs pulling the strings have opted to keep A's fans in the dark, in a never-ending quest for higher media dollars and ratings.As a result of the Detroit Tigers' failing to win a single game against the AL Central doormat Kansas City Royals, the A's are set to take on the Minnesota Twins at the Metrodome starting Tuesday and Wednesday, followed by a home game here in Oakland on Friday. According to the postseason schedule, the two games in Minnesota are planned for the ungodly hour of 10 a.m. here on the West Coast, noon in Minneapolis, and 1 p.m. for those on the East Coast. The primetime schedule is instead dominated, not surprisingly, by games involving the New York Yankees or the New York Mets. In fact, even a hierarchy shows there, as on the days where both Subway teams have games on tap, the Mets draw the weaker of the television schedules, ceding primetime to their cross-town brethren in the Bronx and playing first, against the LA Dodgers.
MLB: 2006 Divison Series Playoff Schedule
For those of us who hold down 9 to 5 jobs and have been following our team for the full year, this schedule is an abomination. Barring staying home to watch the game, we will be barred from seeing them in action completely on Tuesday and Wednesday, and even Friday's game, at 1 locally, forces hard-working employees to take the day off. Instead of enjoying friends and family around the TV set, rooting on our team, we will be stuck at the desk in our cubicles, sneaking glances at the Yahoo! or ESPN scoreboard, or impossibly trying to avoid knowing the outcome until we find the games at home on our TiVo, but that won't work.
There's long been call for MLB, ESPN, Fox and the like to look into their East Coast biases, and their sucking up to big money teams like the Yankees, and each time, we seem to be shot down as conspiratorial loonies. This postseason's schedule is sad, frustrating, and ridiculous all in one, and should not be allowed.
Listening to ''Trishika'', by Telepopmusik (Play Count: 1)