Baseball game causes headache for Fox Sports
Quote selected text Published April 17th, 2008 in NASCAR News
The 2-hour, 11-minute rain delay in last Saturday’s Yankees-Red Sox game caused some juggling on the Fox and FX networks.
Race fans missed the start of the Cup race at Phoenix because Fox stayed with the baseball game. A Fox spokesman said the network asked NASCAR to push the race start from 8:45 to 9 p.m. NASCAR insisted on an 8:53 green flag.
It seemed to take forever to finish an inning-and-a-half and when the race finally started at 8:55, Fox switched to it. When the game resumed, play-by-play announcer Joe Buck noted that the game also was airing on FX, but there was no scroll or graphic on the screen.
The Fox spokesman said the network apologizes “for the abrupt switch and completely understands any viewer frustration.”
- Richard Petty to throw out first pitch at MLB game
- #42 Dodge to honor legacy of Jackie Robinson
- Roush, Red Sox plan New England bash
- Sonoma race last weekend’s highest-rated sporting event on television
- Terry Labonte to Make Start at Fontana-Career Winds Down
Fox also said “race fans will not miss any of the race or the start of the race”.
Must be a rush to know as a network you can piss off so many fans on both sides all at once…
It was a easy fix to switch to the FX station at 8:30 from the baseball game then both venues could have gone on uninterrupted, but NO, good old fox sports network had to screw this up…
Oh well what do you expect from a cable network that still has Revoldo Riviera as there ACE reporter…
Like Dave Despain said on Windtunnel, Fox has a contract with the MLB to show the entire game, and they have a contract with NASCAR to show the entire RACE, not the pre/post race junk, but the actual race.
Either way they broke two contracts in a matter of 15 seconds, however I don’t think its anything the organizations will get mad over as they know that having more then one live sport on the same network on the same day, that you have to show all of both is just asking for trouble.
Personally I would have put the baseball game in a box in the lower corner of the screen because there was what like one pitch left in the game (unless the dude hit it)
Fisha695 wrote:
I was at the race so I didn’t see, but I thought my friend
had said they switched right as the green flag dropped.
Wouldn’t that be considered showing the entire race?
(Unless he was wrong.)
The cars were already on Turn 3 by the time FOX switched to the race. I thought that they should have switched the baseball game to FX from the very beginning of the restart of the baseball game. They do that all the time when the race is postponed for long periods and something else is scheduled to be on.
The hell with the start of the race!!!!
Bottom of the ninth, 2 out, 3 balls- 2 strikes, the batter fouls off 3 consecutive pitches and the network cuts to NASCAR!!!! THEN THEY NEVER SHOW THE END!!!!!!!!
As far as I’m concerned, FOX can apologize til the cows come home, they knew that the game could go into overtime and that the race was “due up” so what’s the problem ??? All they had to do was TELL everyone what to do and where to go for whatever they were trying to see. I mean after all, I missed Larry Mac waving the Green !!! (I’m joking) FOX is getting just as bad or worse then the NASCAR officials !!!
I agree with what NASCAR did. The baseball game was almost over anyway. Missing a half-lap of racing isn’t going to be the end of the world.
Lets not forgot ESPN and the nationwide race. I tuned in at 9:30 p.m. to catch the pre race stuff….. I heard Allen ( I think) for a couple seconds, looked up and basketball was on. I looked at espn classic to see if they moved the pre race there as they did in the past.. Nope. They did get back on in time for start of race but still……..!!!! Both screwed up and Both sucked this past weekend.
We were both so ticked off we turned the tv off 30 minute into both of the races… No sense in giving either ratings from this house.
wrote:
Point is they cut the end of the game as well so every one lost!!!
Guest
Apr 17th, 2008 at 4:24 pm Quote
I agree with what NASCAR did. The baseball game was almost over anyway. Missing a half-lap of racing isn’t going to be the end of the world.
Yes it is like the end of the world when you don’t get to hear Darrell Waltrip say Boogity, Boogity, Boogity, lets go racing boys…
the game was played on FX. they even mentioned that. there was no need for it to be on both FOX sections. if ppl wanted to watch the end of the game, they had a chance to on FX…but the rest of us missed the start of the race and that was not being shown on another station, well unless you have hotpass on directv. so FOX screwed up.
All they had to do, Was do a Split Screen like Espn or Speed. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Problem Fixed………………….
Mel wrote:
ESPN said they only do that for the IRL
FOX has already blocked that time slot for NASCAR, they should show the race ONLY. FOX can also show the split screen, Racing would be the major screen and the baseball is the minor because it’s time to go racing, period.