Comebacks we'd like to see: #7 -- Day baseball during the playoffs
Filed under: Extracurriculars
This post is part of our series ranking the top 25 bygone products and trends we'd like to see return.
By guest blogger Mike Brewster
I remember that Bucky Dent's home run came at precisely 5 p.m., because that's when the Ashlines ate dinner every day. Dent's home run off of Mike Torrez gave the Yanks a 3-2 lead over the hated Red Sox in their 1978 one-game playoff, and I ran to call my best friend and Sox fan extraordinaire George Ashline to gloat. He was shell-shocked: "Yeah, I saw it. But I can't talk. My mom's putting dinner at the table."
That game, and Dent's legendary home run, is one of my greatest sports memories and one of George's most painful. But we have that shared memory only because, at 11 years old, we were awake to watch it.
Kids today aren't that fortunate. The day game has virtually disappeared in the baseball playoffs, and is indeed extinct in the World Series -- all in the name of extracting the most advertising revenue from television. According to Wikipedia, the last outdoor World Series game to be played in the afternoon -- East Coast time -- was game five of the 1984 World Series between the Tigers and the Padres, and in 1987 the final World Series day game was played in Minnesota's Metrodome.
Perhaps there's a silver lining. My eight-year-old daughter Lucy wasn't awake to watch the Yanks flame out versus the Indians last October, and the effects of the loss seemed muted on her eight hours later when I told her about it. Still, when the day comes when the Yanks do win their next title, it would be nice to celebrate the final out with her.
As for me, you might be wondering whether ol' George called me after the Red Sox completed their historic 4-3 series comeback against the Yankees in 2004. I'm not really sure, because I was fast asleep by the end of game seven.
Would you like to see baseball return to day games during the playoffs?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-16-2008 @ 6:28AM
heresthescoop said...
What about the game played in San Francisco the year of the Loma Prieta earthquake? (October 1989)
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5-16-2008 @ 9:22AM
sean said...
The earthquake game was scheduled to start at 5pm pacific time/ 8pm eastern. All games start at this time (depnding on time zone). Games on the west coast just seem to start earlier because of the sulinght. But back to the original topic, I totally agree there should be day World Series games. Why can't the weekend games be during the day? They do it during the first two rounds of the playoffs. The Super Bowl is played partially during the day (late afternoon) and it seems to be fine.
5-16-2008 @ 7:47AM
annettemw said...
Don't worry - the next time the Yankees win the World Series, your 8 year old daughter will be an adult, so she will be able to stay up to watch it with you. Unfortunately, you may be so old that YOU will nod off.
However, I do agree with you on the day game theory. I wish they would bring that back also. Even adults, who have to work the next day, are staying up so late with all the extended commercial breaks they are yawning and dragging themselves around the office the following day.
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5-16-2008 @ 9:56AM
cv63atc said...
good one, amazing that with that payroll and talent the Yankees cant seem to get it together huh??
7-15-2008 @ 8:08PM
jamie said...
I recall my 5th grade teacher Mr. Funk rolling in an old B&W TV set and allowing us to watch a few innings of the first game of the 1963 World Series between the Dodgers and the Yankees... Whitey Ford vs Sandy Koufax ... it was played in NY so it was about 10am in So. Cal.... I saw a few innings when I went home for lunch that day....
The next time he rolled out the TV was about 6 weeks later on Nov 22.... it was just before lunch time and we watched as Walter Cronkeit annouce that President Kennedy had died at Parkland Hospital.
5-16-2008 @ 9:43AM
Kevin said...
As long as you are bringing back day games in the playoffs how about double headers in the regular season. Doing away with the Sunday double headers has added weeks to the regular season. Maybe if they brought them back the playoffs could end before Thanksgiving.
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5-17-2008 @ 12:11PM
al said...
IF YOU WANT KIDS TO WATCH, DAY BASEBALL IS THW WAY TO GO.
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5-18-2008 @ 8:47PM
Bruce Bender said...
Blame the greed of the baseball team owners. This is just another reason why I hate professional sports.
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5-18-2008 @ 10:44PM
Tom Kerrins said...
Before the Chicago Cubs installed lights (8-8-88) there was a change being considered that if the Cubs ever got to the World Series their home games would be moved to either St. Louis, Milwaukee, or heaven help us white socks park, just for the TV revenue, so the games could be played at night.
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7-10-2008 @ 9:22AM
Roy Pruitt said...
Ahhh Day Games; How we used loved to ditch work or school in the afternoons to catch a day game at Wrigley or at Yankee Stadium and others. The pleasure of grabbing a dog and a soda and watching "our" game was the epitomy of prosperity for the nation. Then came big business and free agency, sure, cities need money to help build larger stadiums to keep those tourist dollars coming in, and then the players wanted a cut because owners were notoriously cheap to begin with. But to have the stadiums change their names to placate the backer (Pac-Bell Park,et al.), that started a trend we shall never see an end to. And sports agents, "SHARKS", they were the ones that got greedy, cause they got a cut and they kept wanting bigger cuts and exploiting their players talents. Now a family in financial straits can't afford to relax and enjoy a day at a major league park. We are losing "our game", because of current oil prices, don't be surprised to see Osama Bin Laden sitting in an owners sky seat at one of our parks cheering on the Mapletown Camel Jockeys against the Chicago White Sox.
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