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FOX’s immediate concern has to be tonight’s X Factor, scheduled for 8-10 pm. The game — if it starts on time and is not interrupted by more rain — should end sometime after 10 pm, completely wiping out any chance of airing The X Factor. No word yet how FOX will handle tonight’s episode and manage the rest of the run of the series. Without a marquee team like the Yankees or Phillies in the running, the LCS and World Series numbers will be NHL-like. Add in the schedule confusion and viewer frustration and FOX must be seriously wondering if baseball is worth it. TBS was already looking at a terrible number tonight. Sunday afternoon’s Game 1 of the NLCS managed a 1.0 rating (ugh), and Monday night’s Game 2, trampled by FOX’s primetime runover of its 11-inning game, could only muster a 0.8 (pathetic). Tonight’s game could be literally a perfect game, and the rating would still be minuscule. There is no bigger baseball fan than I am, but this Postseason points to everything that’s wrong with the sport. Only a few teams people care about. Rain delays. Extremely long games that are subject to late October weather. A scheduling nightmare for the networks that are supposed to boost the sport. Long series with only a small chance that we will be treated to playoff-like Games 7. Major League Baseball insists that these games are not the “playoffs” but rather “the postseason” because the format is technically not a playoff-format. Well, that playoff format works pretty well for the NFL. It might be time for the sport — the one that eschews change — to do something radical and adopt something like a sudden-death playoff format. Something’s got to be done. Otherwise, no broadcast network is going to be interested in carrying this sport much longer.
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