Terry Mitchell

Fox Baseball Market Bias?



Posted: Tuesday, July 18, 2006

by
http://commenterry.blogs.com

Fox TV only seems to be interested in large market teams for its regular season national broadcasts of Major League Baseball on Saturday afternoons. I can't remember the last time I saw on of their games that didn't include at least one of the following teams: New York Yankees, New York Mets, Los Angeles Angels, Los Angeles Dodgers, Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, Boston Red Sox, Atlanta Braves, Houston Astros, San Francisco Giants, and Philadelphia Phillies. That's only 11 out of the 30 MLB teams that get showcased.

Don't hold your breath to see a Cincinnati Reds-Pittsburgh Pirates game on Fox anytime soon. Ditto a Minnesota Twins-Toronto Blue Jays game.

I know Fox is in business to make money, but this is ridiculous. I remember seeing a much broader range of teams on NBC's broadcasts of Saturday afternoon baseball when I was growing up. They would even show the small-market Minnesota Twins in years in which they would consistently finish fourth or fifth in their division.

Of course, once the postseason begins, Fox or ESPN will broadcast every game, regardless of market size. Sadly though, with player free agency still running rampant, the large market teams naturally dominate and the small market teams rarely make it to the postseason. Therefore, the regular season is generally the only time these teams can be seen, and thanks to Fox, this has become a catch-22!


Terry Mitchell is a software engineer, freelance writer, amateur political analyst, and blogger from Virginia, USA. He posts a least one article a day to his blog - http://commenterry.blogs.com - on subjects such as current events, politics, technology, society and culture, religion, health and well-being, self improvement, personal finance, trivia, and sports. Terry is also the owner and operator of a website that is dedicated to allowing U.S. citizens to find all types of insurance at reasonable prices.  
 
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