MLB's Late-Late Show

So did anyone else stay up for all 14 innings of last night’s longest-ever World Series game?

Personally, I think I nodded off near the end of the 9th (I had been up since 5:30 a.m. after all). I think I missed most of the 10th and was in and out during the 11th. I remember opening my eyes and seeing the White Sox were up in the top of the 12th and finally convinced myself I needed to get off the couch and go to bed. It was about 1 a.m. when I finally dragged myself upstairs.

This brings me to my annual complaint that post season baseball games start entirely too late.

Yesterday on ESPN Radio’s Sports Bash Erik Kuselias brought up a point I hadn’t yet realized: that there were no black players on Houston’s World Series roster. He said that’s the first time that’s been the case for a World Series team in more than 50 years.

Erik didn’t think that was the result of any sort of racism. He pointed out that plenty of other minorities are represented on the Astros and in baseball in general. He only said that he doesn’t think baseball reaches black youths the way other sports do – that young black kids aren’t getting excited about baseball at the Little League level.

I’ll take that a step further and say that is the case of many American kids of all racial backgrounds. And the late hour of baseball’s most important games can’t be helping. I can remember my dad watching playoff games in the afternoon after I came home from school. Now my kids are in bed by the time the first pitch in a World Series game or the All-Star game is thrown.