Before the introduction of the Extra Innings package on cable, the only way a Yankees fan in Columbus Ohio could watch his (or her, in case there are others besides me) team was if a game was carried by Fox or ESPN as a national game.
There were a few drawbacks to having the Yankees being a national game, such as having to put up with the networks’ insufferable announce teams (both sides are guilty of this), “balanced” coverage, and awkward start times.
But for the past few years, as I’ve mentioned before, I pay to let MLB kick my ass subscribe to the extra innings get to watch pretty much every Yankees game (unless they’re playing Pittsburgh). I also get to see them when they’re on Fox or ESPN, but there have still been some negatives-see the aforementioned drawbacks, and add the fact that Fox will often pre-empt a Yankees game with a game featuring the Indians or Reds.
Other than that, you would think that having your team as one of two featured during the weekly nationally broadcast game would be a good thing. But there’s one instance when it’s not- when they face Boston. For some reason, it seems that every weekend series featuring the Yankees and the Red Sox includes a Saturday game on Fox followed by a Sunday night game on ESPN. And it always feels like these games are out-and-out slugfests (unlike last night’s awesome pitchers’ duel), are punctuated by shameless network self promotions, and last for six hours (but feel like 12 hours because of the horrible announcers both networks employ).
If it were once or twice a year, it wouldn’t be so bad. But it feels like this happens every time these two teams play. Every year.
And it’s just gotten worse.
Oh, how I pine for those random games where they play the Royals or Baltimore that the networks don’t care about.
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