Game ended with a curveball
Viewers cry foul after Fox's switch
Robinson Cano was at the plate with two outs in the ninth inning. The Yankee second baseman had two strikes on him as he battled Jonathan Papelbon trying to extend a tense, one-run ballgame that already had outlasted a rain delay of 2 hours 11 minutes. And then . . . NASCAR.
Not what most viewers in Boston wanted to see. Especially not at that moment.
For those fans in the Boston market and elsewhere, that was the moment that Fox chose to switch to the NASCAR Sprint Cup race from Phoenix. The network had alerted viewers they could switch to FX to catch the remainder of the Red Sox-Yankees game. But for those without cable, or those who hadn't heard Joe Buck's warning, there was little time to switch to radio or to change channels before the game was over.
"I think if they could do it over again, at the top of the ninth they would have said, 'You can tune in to FX for the conclusion of the game,' " Red Sox chief operating officer Mike Dee said. "We had that assurance that that was their plan. To pull the plug was a big surprise, needless to say, for all of us. We made it clear that we were upset for our fans. We like to pride ourselves on all of our games being available. It was unfortunate it happened."
Dee said he had been in touch with Major League Baseball yesterday about the incident. Given the weather forecast for Saturday, the Red Sox had, in fact, been in discussions earlier in the week about possible rain delay scenarios. With the forecast improving as the week went on, the Red Sox received assurances from Fox, through MLB, they would stay with the game until 9 p.m. before switching to FX.
But that wasn't what happened, leaving fans incensed they had missed the end of not only a game, but a game against the Yankees, no less.
"It sure would have been nice to see the end of the ball game, to enjoy Pap's reaction to the win, to watch the guys 'high five,' to bask with the Red Sox in a job well done against our arch rivals, only the best rivalry in all of sports," wrote Susan Galt, in an e-mail to the Globe. "But NO!! Fox, in its infinite wisdom, sent me to a bunch of cars roaring around a track. By the time I found the game again, it was long gone."
Fox was contractually obligated to show the entirety of the Subway Fresh Fit 500 race, which created the problem when the rain delay stretched beyond the two-hour mark. The race's start - or the green flag - originally was scheduled for 8:45 p.m., but was moved back eight minutes when the Red Sox-Yankees game was scheduled to resume at 8:25 p.m. Had it started then, there might have been no issue. But it didn't begin until 8:33 p.m. And it still was almost enough time to get it in, just not quite.
"For any frustration on fans' behalf, we apologize," Fox spokesman Dan Bell told the Associated Press yesterday. "It wasn't the smoothest transition, but our intentions were to try to finish on the network."
Fox switched at 8:55 p.m., after Cano was partially through an at-bat that would end at 10 pitches, before the second baseman grounded to second to end the game. The last two pitches of the at-bat were shown only on FX.
The problem came just two days after fans were confused by NESN carrying the Bruins playoff game, rather than the Red Sox-Tigers game.
And then, two days later, they were scrambling to see an end.
Amalie Benjamin can be reached at abenjamin@globe.com.
