I agree with Cole Hamels -- why is it the Phillies always have to start the postseason in the middle of the afternoon? Why must MLB continue to cater to the Red Sox and Yankees?


Here's what Cole said when asked about playing day games in the first two games of the NLDS:

"Being the defending world champs, I think it's kind of a little weird that we kind of get both games at 2:00 o'clock. I don't think it's fair. I definitely don't think it's fair for the fans, because this is all about the home field advantage or just baseball in general.

I understand TV ratings, but I think at the end of the day, most players would rather play when they're both comfortable, and that's kind of what we've trained at, either 1:00 o'clock or 7:00 o'clock, and I think that's more fair for us than really the TV ratings, because truly, I don't think we mind as much for TV ratings.

We want to get ourselves to the World Series and win it, and that's all that matters. It's not how much money we can make in the process of playing this game, because truly, being a world champ, that's what we really live for, and to be able to experience it, I want to be able to experience it again. And I know that all these baseball players that are playing today want to be able to experience that. What better way than to get more of a situation that we're kind of used to in playing, to have the fans at the stadium, because that's what really matters is having them there to watch.

We can understand that people want to watch it on TV, but I don't know too many people that are going to be watching this game at 11:00 on the west coast."

Although they've moved World Series start times up by a half hour, Major League Baseball continues to whiff in scheduling postseason games.

The fact that MLB gave the Yankees the decision on when they wanted to play (Wednesday or Thursday) while their opponent had to take part in a play-in game Tuesday was ludicrous. Where is the common sense? The Red Sox/Angels game should have been scheduled for today to give the Twins/Tigers winner a travel day.