While you were out clubbing Saturday night, I was sorting out what happened at Fox during the final at-bat of the Yankees-Red Sox tilt.
I included some of it in the early edition of the newspaper and more of it in the late edition, but WatchDog readers are the only ones who will get the entire story, via spokesman Dan Bell, who called at 11 p.m. to explain what happened and express Fox's apology to any fans who were confused or inconvenienced.
Click below for the gory details.
Toward the end of the rain delay, Fox was told the game would resume at 8:25. (In fact, it ended up starting at 8:30.)
Fox then asked NASCAR to delay the start of the Subway Fresh Fit 500 from 8:45 to 8:53, figuring that would give it enough of a window to get in the end of the baseball game, and NASCAR agreed.
(I think that's what the race was called. If not, sorry. As a New Yorker I have a God-given right to get NASCAR details wrong.)
Joe Buck alerted viewers that the baseball game would be simulcast on FX from the moment it resumed, and would be the sole place to find the game as of 8:53. It turns out Fox is obligated by contract to show the entire NASCAR race on its broadcast channel and in every market.
People watching in bars and offices (such as Newsday's sports department) with the sound off did not hear what Buck said. Fox could have done a better job of posting alerts on the screen for the benefit of such people.
Fox held on as long as it could, but when the race actually began at 8:55 it made the switch . . . alas, with two outs and a full count on Robinson Cano in the ninth!
Cano grounded out on FX while some viewers watched the beginning of the race and wondered what had happened.
There wasn't much more Fox could have done, given its contract, other than the aforementioned warnings on the screen.
I've mentioned this before, but I am just old enough to remember the "Heidi Game" in 1968, and just young enough so that I was happy NBC switched off Jets-Raiders to get to the movie on time.
Comments (16)
There is absolutely no logical reason whatsoever that Fox should require itself to show a car race in its entirety. Except for the fact that the people in charge there are morons. I doubt the rednecks who normally watch this stuff are even home on Saturday nights, they are at their local honky tonks.
Thanks for getting to the bottom of this Neil, I thought someone had hit the remote because I didn't have the sound on either.
Ha. Now baseball fans and hockey fans have something in common: a major network cutting away from end-game action.
While it's pretty ridiculous fox is contracted to show an entire race, what is more ridiculous is how they expected people to know what was going on? I had people over during the game, so we could hardly hear what Buck was saying, and if anything was said during the rain delay... well they're just foolish for thinking people don't wander over to other channels when there is no game being played.
It was one of the most moronic things I've ever seen.
I did eventually find Fx, but only after the last out. Just silly.
Then again, maybe I'm missing something about the start of a NASCAR race being really meaningful for fans.
FOX really had no choice:
As it was, they were a half-lap into the race when FOX switched, which probably got a ton of NASCAR fans into a MAJOR tizzy. Those fans are among the most loyal in all of sports, and NASCAR these days is FAR from the "Southern Sport" that many New Yorkers still seem to think it is.
If they had stayed with the game to conclusion, even if it were only 4-5 laps in, FOX's switchboard would have been OFF THE HOOK with NASCAR fans upset, and they likely did get some calls because they did miss the waving of the green flag and the actual start of the race. That's how loyal NASCAR fans really are, especially to drivers of whom they will often be very loyal to the driver's sponsors as well.
"If not, sorry. As a New Yorker I have a God-given right to get NASCAR details wrong."
QUOTE of the day, week, month.
One of the great burdens of my life is living in the hometown/state of the Unser family. I even had one of them as a client of mine...(for the life of me, I can't --or choose not to--remember which one)....until I fired him after 6 months or so for too much "pit-row" abuse of my staff.
Side note....flew back from Phoenix this morning....there is a Nascar race going on out there this weekend. (NOT the reason for my visit).
God's honest truth...At the Southwest Tkt Counter thi AM, there were signs at each checkin position..
"ATTN NASCAR FANS...YOU MAY NOT CHECK ANY FUEL ITEMS, BATTERIES OR TIRES ON BOARD YOUR FLIGHT.
Tires???
Glauber....
"Then again, maybe I'm missing something about the start of a NASCAR race being really meaningful for fans."
You are....and I am in the same boat with you. In fact, I feel the same way about the start, middle and end.
Years back I made the the mistake of attending a friends INDY 500 that surpassed any home Super Bowl party that I have ever been to.
And I made the mistake of mentioning to a circle of about 15 guys huddled and squeezed around the TV set (which made conversations with some of hot wives and girl friends easier) that I get as much pleasure standing on an overpass on I-40 watching the traffic go by as I did watching the what I considered to be the equivalent on TV.
At which point I found out what it was like to be a newborn zebra dropped within a pride of lions.
Islander505:
Thanks. I figured. Glad you made it out of there alive. What would Best and I do without your page views and comments?
LIve the celibate life of Baumbach
I understand the point everyone is making about the following NASCAR has, but those people are missing something. In sports, one undeniable truth, is that it is far better to miss the beginning of an event than it is the end.
As it was, FOX didn't cut away from a 10 run ballgame. They cut away from a game, that while close to concluding, was still very much in doubt. It was also between the two biggest rivals in the sport. Fans of the baseball game were far more likely to miss something far more heroic, far more memorable than the race fans were just because of what part of the event they were in.
And one other nitpick, did FOX really have to make the switch with 2 outs, and 2 strikes? Could they not have done that inbetween atbats. FOX made the switch, and then took about 20-30 seconds to flash something on the screen about where to watch the Yankees-Sox game. So, therefore a deliberate decision was made, that if the next pitch thrown was the last pitch, all those people watching on FOX were going to miss the end of the game.
Very puzzling.
The fault lies with you the viewer who didnt heed the warning they would switch over to the race at 8:53pm.
I had FX all ready to go... with no announcers either!
If you werent on FX at 8:53, dont blame Fox. Blame yourself.
Fox should have switched over after Arod struck out to end the top of the 8th. Or at least warn everyone they were switching over for the 9th.
The only thing I hate about FOX doing, other than Kevin Kennedy, Jeanne Zelasko, Joe Buck, Tim McCarver, constantly missing opening pich sequences after seeing the same commercials, is that as a person who has the DirectTV MLB package, games not in my area get blacked out. That's a load of crap. Also the NASCAR argument is dumb since unless it doesn't get excitng, I say this as a casual viewer of big races in NASCAR, until the final dozen laps.
NASCAR races are important to catch the beginning just for DW (Darrell Waltrip) to yell "Boogity, Boogity, Boogity, let's go racing!" at the beginning. In contrast Formula One races (which like soccer are massively popular worldwide but a niche sport in the USA) are very important to watch at the beginning. F1 races are from a dead stop (NASCAR are from a moving start) where it is possible to move several positions up or down in the first hundred yards.
There were several factors that collided saturday night. The rain, the fact FOX dictates a 4PM start to maximize the West Coast audience, the fact NASCAR had a rare Saturday night race, the slow pace of baseball games today, the fact FOX has the NASCAR package the first half, the contracts both had with what can be televised in one market.
Back in 1979 NBC once switched away from a Mets vs Cubs Saturday afternoon game as it went to the ninth with the Mets holding a 6-4 lead. The reason? To show a track and field event that NBC host Bryant Gumbel assured us "was very important to the US Olympic team that will go to Moscow in 1980".
Watching a NASCAR race from beginning to end is just as important to NASCAR fans as it is for baseball fans to watch a baseball game from beginning to end.
People need to take a step back and look at it logically instead of with their bias built in. Just because you find it unimportant and uninteresting doesnt mean everyone else is the same way.
Fox should have forced viewers to FX to start the 9th. They should have ran graphics and verbally reminded people a few more times. But they did what they felt was right. They even told the fans they would switch over at 8:53pm. If you ignored that... sorry. And for those who didnt have sound, yes there should have been graphics, but im not sure how quickly fox can whip up a graphic like that. Im sure it was chaotic from 8:30 on.
Jason. I agree with you. It is important for fans of both sports to watch from start to finish - but why cut away from the end of one for the beginning of the other, when the end of a sporting event is always more important than the beginning? That's the most mysterious part to me.
And, I'm guessing here, but I'm going to assume putting together a simple graphic like that is pretty easy it today's world of television. And really, despite the degree of difficulty, it needed to be done.