I was stuck in a bit of traffic on my way home tonight, listening to the start of Game 6 of the ALCS on the radio but excited to finally get home and settle in for an evening of baseball. Imagine my surprise, then, that I got home to find that baseball wasn't on TBS.
I checked FOX to be sure I wasn't wrong about the channel, then sat dumbfounded as an episode of "The Steve Harvey Show" unfurled before my eyes. I was about to call the cable company when, finally, a scroll appeared on the screen informing me that technical difficulties were keeping the game from the air and I stopped wondering what the hell was happening.
Look, I understand the vagaries of broadcasting. As Donald Rumsfeld once said, "Stuff happens." It's never happened to anyone else televising a playoff game, not that I can remember, but, hey, first time for everything. But how do you not affix a graphic to the screen letting people know that they haven't slipped into some awful netherworld where watching Steve Harvey is the national pastime?
It's really poor form by TBS as is refusing to discuss what happened with The Associated Press. I hope that right after MLB makes sure they don't need a hamster wheel to keep their equipment working, they tell them to be a little more transparent about the fact that they've screwed up. Between the incessant "Frank TV" commercials, Chip Caray and this massive snafu, I can't imagine many baseball fans are thrilled with the decision to give TBS a piece of the playoff pie until 2013.
