As you may know already, the Phillies will be playing the Reds in the NLDS.  The Phillies won 5 out of 7 games against the Reds this year in the regular season; 3 of those in July all went to extra innings and ended in spectacular walk-off fashion for the Phillies.  So while the Phils have a slight edge, it is sure to be a well played series.

With the 8 playoff teams finally decided, TBS and MLB announced some of the start times for both the AL and NL Division series.  Here is the schedule so far:

Series	Teams	Day/Date	Time ET
ALDS Game 1	Rangers @ Rays	Wed. Oct. 6	1:30 p.m.
NLDS Game 1	Reds @ Phillies	Wed. Oct. 6	5 p.m.
ALDS Game 1	Yankees @ Twins	Wed. Oct. 6	8:30 p.m.
ALDS Game 2	Rangers @ Rays	Thurs. Oct. 7	2:30 p.m.
ALDS Game 2	Yankees @ Twins	Thurs. Oct. 7	6 p.m.
NLDS Game 1	Braves @ Giants	Thurs. Oct. 7	9:30 p.m.
NLDS Game 2	Reds @ Phillies	Fri. Oct. 8	6 p.m.
NLDS Game 2	Braves @ Giants	Fri. Oct. 8	9:30 p.m.
ALDS Game 3	Rays @ Rangers	Sat. Oct. 9	5 p.m.
ALDS Game 3	Twins @ Yankees	Sat. Oct. 9	8:30 p.m.
NLDS Game 3	Phillies @ Reds	Sun. Oct. 10	TBD
NLDS Game 3	Giants @ Braves	Sun. Oct. 10	TBD
*ALDS Game 4	Rays @ Rangers	Sun. Oct. 10	TBD
*ALDS Game 4	Twins @ Yankees	Sun. Oct. 10	TBD
*NLDS Game 4	Phillies @ Reds	Mon. Oct. 11	TBD
*NLDS Game 4	Giants @ Braves	Mon. Oct. 11	TBD
*ALDS Game 5	Rangers @ Rays	Tues. Oct. 12	TBD
*ALDS Game 5	Yankees @ Twins	Tues. Oct. 12	TBD
*NLDS Game 5	Reds @ Phillies	Wed. Oct. 13	TBD
*NLDS Game 5	Braves @ Giants	Wed. Oct. 13	TBD

 

As I expected, the Phillies, despite have the BEST record in baseball, still got screwed out of the Prime Time slot in favor of the Yankees…again.  So for the 3rd year in a row, I will have to take a day off work to go to get to the stadium in time to find parking and see the pre-game festivities.

Now I realize there are 22 other teams out there whose fans would love to have this problem so it is hard to complain.  But when is a team, other than the Yankees, going to get some much deserved respect?  The Phillies have certainly earned it.   

To the TV people it is all about ratings, and I suppose it is their prerogative.  But guess which team brings in more fans based on stadium capacity?  The Phillies – 103.5%.  It is over 100% due to standing room only tickets that are sold to accommodate more fans.  The Phillies sold out EVERY game this season.  Where do the Yankees rank?  They are 7th in baseball with 88.9%.  If the Phillies had a bigger stadium like the Yankees do, they would no doubt have sold all those seats as well.  Just sayin’…

Not to mention that the TBS coverage of the games, in general, is horrible.  The announcers have NO clue about the teams they are watching and tend to be biased towards particular teams.  The coverage has been historically so bad that there is even a section on Wikipedia dedicated to how bad they suck.  The TBS slogan is “very funny” but we are not laughing.