For the first time in a long time, the West Coast is the center of the baseball universe. With two super teams in Los Angeles (well, one's in Anaheim), the World Series champs in San Francisco and one of baseball's most promising young teams in Oakland, there's no doubt that the coastal power has shifted.
Well, unless, you're Fox, who this week released its schedule of Saturday afternoon national games of the week. You'd expect it would be loaded up with Josh Hamilton, Zack Greinke, Albert Pujols, Buster Posey, Matt Kemp and Matt Cain.
Those guys and those teams are there, but still not as much as the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees ... because, of course.
Over at SB Nation, Grant Brisbee does the heavy lifting (i.e. counting) and figures out which teams get the most love from Fox this season. Three teams have nine appearances: the Red Sox, the Cincinnati Reds and the Washington Nationals.
Interesting teams? Sure, especially the last two. Five teams have eight appearances: the Yankees, Atlanta Braves, Detroit Tigers, St. Louis Cardinals and Los Angeles Dodgers.
So of the top eight teams, only the Dodgers are on the West Coast, and they're also the only team west of St. Louis. Here's the full list, notice we see the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and the San Francisco Giants at the seven-game and six-game mark, respectively.
For starters there's only 6 teams in the entire league that are based in the Pacific Time Zone - and 4 of them are in 'shared' markets (Oakland is different than San Francisco and Anaheim is different than LA...but they're still in the same metro area...not to mention San Diego is ~2 hours away from both the Dodgers and Padres).
The Giants absolutely should have more games on national TV than the Red Sox...but the Red Sox draw a crowd, no matter how ****** they are. Almost 50% of the nation lives on EST and another ~32% on CST...only <15% of the country lives on PST so it should come as no surprise that the national game is going to pander to the majority instead of the minority.
And to be fair the 'west of St. Louis' grab is a bit harsh as that is only 1/3 of the league - and a disproportionate amount of those teams are lousy (Minnesota, Kansas City, Houston, Seattle, potentially Arizona...maybe Oakland falls back to Earth...Los Angeles is on the list so that leaves only the Rangers, Giants, and Angels really being slighted in any way...and even then they're all getting at least 6 games, as are the A's).
In other words out of 164 possible combinations in 82 games 31 are teams on the West Coast...meaning 18.9% of those possibilities involve teams from a time zone that has a little less than 15% of the population.
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“The most terrifying fact about the universe is not that it is hostile, but that it is indifferent. If we can come to terms with this indifference and accept the challenges of life within the boundaries of death, our existence as a species can have genuine meaning and fulfillment. However vast the darkness, we must supply our own light.” - Stanley Kubrick
Last edited by Big McLargehuge: 02-19-2013 at 05:42 AM.
Reason: spelling
I'm kind of hoping the Red Sox suck this year and I say that as a Red Sox fan. You used to never see Red Sox hats before 2004. I wouldn't be sad to see the bandwagon thin out.
As a Yankee fan, I'd kill to not have any more games on FOX. Buck/McCarver are awful, the late afternoon starts suck, and the mlb.tv blackout. For all I care you West Coast fans can get all of the national Saturday games.
I don't think that there are very many fans that are devastated by their team being "snubbed" by FOX. I'm more interested in ESPN's SNB schedule. That is the real "Game of the Week". In fact, I hate the fact that FOX broadcasts more than one game on Saturday. Their backup broadcasting crews are unbearable.
I love ESPN's baseball programming and their SNB production, but I do hope their broadcasting crew has learned a little more about the Giants. Last year against Atlanta (the Giants' first SNB appearance of the year and the day after the big Dodger trade) was one of the most pathetic displays of nationally-televised sports broadcasting that I've ever seen.
Honestly, I have to laugh when someone asks where the love is for West coast baseball. Hey, this is a league that had no problems playing the winner-take-all Game 5 of the NLDS at 10 AM local time (for one of the teams involved) on a weekday!
As a Yankee fan, I'd kill to not have any more games on FOX. Buck/McCarver are awful, the late afternoon starts suck, and the mlb.tv blackout. For all I care you West Coast fans can get all of the national Saturday games.
Absolutely, positively.
People complaining about East Coast bias should be careful what they wish for. Being on Fox and ESPN constantly blows after a little while.
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I'd like to thank the voters, the boardies committee, and most of all: Michael Del Zotto and Dan Girardi for making this all possible!
