8:52.

That is when Tim Lincecum uncorked the first pitch of last night’s Major League Baseball All-Star Game.

This might have come as a bit of a surprise to you if you tuned in for what was billed as an 8 p.m. game.

Of course, that listed time usually has little to do with the actual start of the game. That’s when the TV coverage starts. And we got plenty of it last night.

Of course Fox did not disappoint. We got all the usuals. The extended introductions of the lineup. And a phalanx of local dignitaries. And President Obama throwing out the first pitch. Weakly, as a matter of fact.

The question is why all that didn’t start at 7, allowing the game to start at 8?

The answer, of course, is because that’s not what TV wants. And when it comes to sports, what TV wants, TV gets.

So you have a game that starts at 8:52. Refreshingly, once the game started, it moved at a brisk pace. It took two hours, 31 minutes. But it still meant the crucial moments late in the game happened after 11 p.m.
Forget that. I for one was long gone. The game ended around 11:30.

Not that it much mattered. Even the addition of no less than five members of the defending World Series champion Phillies could not halt the NL’s skid.

The Senior Circuit has now lost 13 in a row. In fact the last time the NL was victorious, the game was played right here in Philly in 1996.

Shane Victorino got a hit and scored a run. The rest of the Phils were blanked, and Ryan Howard did not look especially good when he came up with two runners in scoring position in the eighth. He struck out on a horrible pitch while trying to check his swing.

Now it’s on to Florida and a weekend set with those Florida Marlins.

Thank goodness those games are supposed to start at a much more manageable time.

Not that TV wouldn’t start them later if they had their druthers.