* You Had Me At Play Ball

MLB screws another generation out of watching the post-season.

The ALCS starts tonight: Red Sox at Rays. No matter how little or how much baseball I’ve watched during the season, I watch every inning of every game of the playoffs (and World Series) when the Red Sox are playing. I watched ever game of every inning of the ALDS (Sox defeat the Agels 4 games to 3). I even watched every inning of Game 3 of the 2004 ALCS against the Yankees (19-8 Yankees, and I’m thinking of all of the times the Sox have scored 11 runs in one inning). It’s a disease, it’s a tradition.

But it’s a tradition that I can’t share with my kids. Why? Because MLB insists on playing all of these games in “prime time.” Late games in Boston in October are cold. It’s can’t be enjoyable for the fans or players at Fenway. And my kids – who have to go to bed at a reasonable time – are completely missing out on all of the post-season games.

Would it kill MLB to have a game start at 4:00 pm? Or to play a day game?

As for me, I get up at 5:30 am these days, so I’ve just conceded that I’ll be tired all month. Play ball. Go Sox!