The East Coast Penalty

10/30/2018

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Bill Y - (the groggy) Franklin Guy

Bill Y w/ Lee Ackerson - a great Franklin Guy - at the Pats/KC Sunday Night Game.

I know coming from a Boston sports fan, this will seem like a bunch of whining. With all of our success over the past two decades, it is hard for anyone to feel sorry for us. But today I want to represent the whole East Coast. If you are a Baltimore Fan, Pittsburgh, Miami, Philly, Buffalo, and yes a Yankee Fan - we all suffer the same fate for rooting for the home team.

I call it The East Coast Penalty. The professional sports leagues and their television network minions start games so damn late - in an effort to appeal to the West Coast. Now, I can see if a game is being played in the West, it should start at a "normal time" for them. Let their fans at least get out of work. And though it may seem like I'm hating on the West Coast, I'm not. It is just the luck of how the Earth rotates that we get up three hours before them.

I spent a year in California on a contract job. There are a lot of die-hard sports fans there - many are transplants. As an East Coaster, I trekked to sports bars every Sunday to catch Patriots games that were not game-of-the-week, nationally televised. I'd roll into The Beer Hunter in Rancho Cucamonga (and no, I did not make up either name) a little before 10 am to catch a one o'clock game in the East. That place was packed - and it was no tiny corner bar. I'm talking strip mall storefront, 140 big screens and small TVs at each booth and your own speaker - you could actually hear your game too! That place was filled with Steelers, Green Bay, Miami, Pats Fans, Giants and on and on...

If you love your team you find a way to catch the game. You know they invented this crazy thing called the DVR - it had a less capable predecessor the VCR - but it did the job too. In Cali - local or transplant - if you really love your team, you can set the game to record. If it starts while you are still trudging your way home from work, it will be waiting for you when you get there - start it whenever you want. Listen to a podcast to avoid the radio on your way home (many of us do that now anyway). And shut off push notifications of sports scores on your phone. If you disconnect for just a little while, you can catch your favorite team when you get home without knowing the score.

You could make the case that an East Coaster can do the same - record that late game and watch it later. It is one thing to avoid hearing the score of a game that just started an hour ago. Most of us don't have the time to cram a game in between waking up and getting to work. It is impossible to go to work the next morning and avoid hearing about last night's nine o'clock game that you recorded - so that you could be a productive member of society the next morning.

Once a week, staying up a little late may not be killer. But come playoff time in baseball, basketball and hockey - there goes your sleep. Now we are talking two or three weeknights up past midnight. If your team moves to the next round - or you just want to watch whoever is in the playoffs, you are looking at a month of lost days. I'm sure the lost productivity in East Coast businesses the next day is tremendous - as the zombies slog into work. Mistakes are greater, workplace accidents, traffic accidents - all likely increase the day after.

Even on a weekend day, Major League Baseball held playoff games off until 8pm or so. What the hell? How about we meet half way and start it at 4PM. I don't think it is a hardship for the West Coast to catch a weekend game at 1pm.

It is hard to feel sorry for an all out sports psycho that wants to catch every game - in every sport. But most of us have one or two teams that we follow. We catch the home team, because it is about community. It's an opportunity to step away from all of life's difficulties, for just a little while.

Let's be fair - if a West Coast team is playing, let it start at a decent hour for them. But when the Patriots are playing the Bills on Monday Night how about a 7pm kickoff? Is that too much to ask?

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