Was Game 5 Of The 2017 World Series The Greatest World Series Game Ever Played?

How Many Were Still Watching When The Game Ended At 1:40 am EST?

WORLD SERIES game 5 2017 1:39 A.M EST

I started watching game five of the World Series with the Houston Astros and Los Angeles Dodgers on Sunday night.

It looked like it was going to be a great game. The Astros had overcome two deficits and at 11:30 pm the score was tied 7-7 and it was only the sixth inning.

But like most people on the east coast who had to get up for work in the morning, it was getting near time to turn in for the night.

Some  children might get a pass and be allowed to stay up til midnight, but not many, because there is school the next day. And the adults? As much as they want to watch, they know they have real life obligations that require not being exhausted the next morning.

Over 19 million people watched the game but viewership peaked between 11:45  – midnight EST. After that, a steady drop-off in viewers occurred as the game went on and on.

The winning run – game 5 2017 World Series

It did not surprise me that the game ended with a dramatic 13-12 Astros extra inning victory. What was surprising was that the game lasted until 1:40 in the morning. Total time of the game: five hours and seventeen minutes!

How many millions of people missed seeing this great game because of how long it lasted and its starting time? We’ll never know. All I know is that I did not see its conclusion, nor did any of my friends.

As I will continue to point out in story after story, Major League Baseball needs to get their priorities straightened out.

Is it more important to run nonsensical advertisements featuring children “you’re a bigger fan than me? Prove it.” to sell officially sanctioned MLB garbage? Or is it more important to have that target audience watching the games?

Why a Sunday World Series game was not played during the daytime is simply because FOX TV gets to dictate the start time and derive maximum advertising revenue. Money is more important than the future of the game.

At least start games at 7:00 p.m. or even 6:00 p.m on the weekends. Most people are home, not coming or going to work.

Oh, there is football.

Game 5 2017 World Series 10th inning drama

FOX knows baseball fans won’t tune in because the football game is on. No, FOX must squeeze out every last dollar by insuring there is no sporting competition on against the World Series. That makes no sense there is still the Sunday night football game. Also there are still hockey and basketball games on at the same time as the World Series. None of that activity scares off FOX the way a full day’s line-up of pro football does.

If baseball can’t have it’s top event compete against middle of the season pro football then baseball is truly doomed.

It may have been the greatest game ever, but most baseball fans in the eastern and central time zones will have only seen part of it or read about it afterwards.

Shame on FOX and MLB.