A Long Night's Baseball Journey into Day

It's shaping up to be a beautiful fall morning.

If only I could tear myself away from the baseball playoff game.

I'm not sure if Major League Baseball is trying to dominate the coveted 1 AM to 3 AM time slot or turn itself into some sort of telethon aimed at cushioning the blow from the upcoming release of George Mitchell's steroid report.

"If you'll watch just one more inning. Buy one more product...we can save baseball from impending doom. Won't you help?"

Friday night's 11-inning National League championship series game ended at 1:49 AM.

Central time.

Even without the extra frames, it would have ended at an hour that had even left coasters yawning.

Saturday night's ALCS game continues as I write this just past 1:15 AM Fenway time. Trot Nixon's go-ahead base hit was met with silence in Boston. It was met with snoring across the rest of the country. The game started just after 8:30. The ninth inning ended just past midnight. Cricket matches don't take this long.

Since 2004, the average Red Sox post-season game has lasted over four hours. Bud Selig and the crew that decides how to balance television exposure with common sense expectations clearly still leans toward the money. They talk about how late starts and later finishes are making it impossible for tomorrow's fans--the 8 and 9 year-olds of today--from staying up. When the grown-ups can't stay up, you really have issues.

The sport's three-week showcase is tip-toeing the balance beam of irrelevance when even die-hard fans can't stay awake to see how things end. News organizations measure public interest with the water cooler test. What are people in offices talking about the next morning? You can't talk about what you didn't see.

Deadlines mean the score won't even make the Sunday paper. No worries. Baseball can run promo after promo during the Fox football coverage on Sunday afternoon to hype the excitement of both series.

That is, if they aren't still playing tonight's game.