Baseball playoffs start in three days here in Baltimore, how does Major League baseball not know what time the game is?

Yup. Just like we don't know if there will be a game 6/7. And if there is, where/when it will be.

Why would you set a time for a game when you don't even know what two teams are playing in the game? Sure, you could say that it shouldn't matter. But this is Baseball. There are teams on both coasts. The time for a game between the Phillies and Mariners would need to be different than a game between the Angels and Padres.

You start the Mariners game at 8PM PST, Phillies fans are less likely to tune in at 2:00 AM.

Funny how different that is from track and field. Just made me think. Because meets are around the world we get stuck with times in the middle of the American work day. Track is hard to get popular when it's never on primetime TV.

Rojo is right. They should have the times set at least as of last night. The Baltimore v Detroit series is the east coast series (in the AL) no matter what happens in the Wild Card game.

Baseball is stuck with tradition and doesn't care about fans that are under 50. Most of the playoffs games start too late for anyone on the east coast with a job or little kids.

They don't care about the hometown fans. They care about those watching on TV. The games will start at whatever time they think is most conducive to getting the largest television audience across all the games happening that day.

They really don't care at all whether people have to hire a sitter or take the day off, because those people have already bought their tickets. Whether they can actually show up at the game is immaterial to MLB. Only the $ counts.

but... wrote:

Why would you set a time for a game when you don't even know what two teams are playing in the game?

Yes we do, it's Detroit vs. Baltimore. We don't know the other series yet.

The NL doesn't play on Thursday. The AL does. 2 games. Baltimore will be the early game at 6:07 PM ET on TBS. Anaheim will be the late game at 9:37 PM ET on TBS. Regardless who the AL wild card team will be.

I don't know about Friday though.

matur wrote:

They don't care about the hometown fans. They care about those watching on TV. The games will start at whatever time they think is most conducive to getting the largest television audience across all the games happening that day.

They really don't care at all whether people have to hire a sitter or take the day off, because those people have already bought their tickets. Whether they can actually show up at the game is immaterial to MLB. Only the $ counts.

This is correct. It is about the matchups that have the best chance for a large TV audience. I remember the first year that the recent Phillies core made the playoffs (2007 vs. Colorado) all of the games were in the middle of the day or late at night. When the Phillies kept playing well and their players became nationally known, the playoffs games were in prime time.