Really Sloppy Stuff

I was home last night watching the Red Sox-Mariners game on the MLB Extra Innings package. I've never been able to fully figure out exactly how they pick which team's broadcasts on any given night, but they overwhelmingly pick the home team's feed more often than not.

For the Seattle series they had the Mariners broadcasts. (Although when ESPN showed every Manny Ramirez at-bat last night as he was going for home run #500, I switched over every time, as they used the NESN feed.) Their guys aren't too bad, and I've always liked Dave Sims, as I met him years ago back in New York when he was doing a cable sports show called "Gameface." Really nice guy.

But the game started in a really lousy fashion on FSN Northwest. As it was about to start, I noticed a plethora of commercials as the game time passed. And when they joined the game, the first pitch had already happened, and Jacoby Ellsbury had already struck out and was walking back to the Red Sox dugout. And Dave Niehaus, the longtime Seattle announcer, said to his audience, "They started early on us."

No, Dave, they started on time. Your broadcast network blew it, and had to jam in more commercials.

I've seen games where the first pitch of an inning has been missed due to commercials, but I've never seen a game start, and a batter had already struck out before they joined the game. (I believe Ellsbury struck out on four pitches.) That is just unbelievable to me, that a game could be going for more than a pitch and they are still running commercials.

That is simply beyond sloppy. It makes me appreciate NESN all the more, and how much I miss it when I'm forced to watch other team's broadcasts.