The Boston Red Sox-Detroit Tigers game scheduled for tonight was rained out. With this being the only time the Red Sox will play in Motown this season, the Tigers scheduled the makeup game for Sunday night at 7:05 p.m. to make it a day-night separate admission doubleheader as there is an afternoon game at 1:05 p.m. That afternoon game will be aired on TBS, NESN and Fox Sports Detroit.
However, with the nightcap falling in ESPN’s exclusive window for Sunday Night Baseball (5 p.m. — midnight), there will be no local TV. So the only broadcasts of the game will be on radio, led by WEEI in Boston and WXYT in Detroit.
Red Sox fans are angry because they’re used to seeing every game as NESN airs 150 contests with ESPN and Fox picking up the rest.
Usually the Red Sox avoid being blacked out and I have to contact NESN for the last time this occurred.
On Twitter, my timeline is filled with Red Sox fans angry at ESPN, but they paid millions for the exclusivity.
In addition, Detroit could have scheduled a traditional doubleheader, but the Tigers want the concessions and the ticket revenue.
It’s one night, Red Sox and Tigers fans will survive. The sun will come up on Monday and the earth will not fall off its orbital axis because one game is not televised.
Some fans have called for ESPN to relax its rules, but the network wants fans to watch Cincinnati-Atlanta tomorrow night and I can’t blame the network.
I’ve been critical of ESPN, but I can’t kill it for rules that have been in place since 1991.
I’m at a sports bar blogging. Time for me to go back to drinking my beer.
– Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
