Sports News With The MLB

The Colorado Rockies’ 2-1 victory in 13 innings over the Chicago Cubs is an -est game.

Longest loser-goes-home game in the playoffs. Longest wild-card game in the seven-year history of this playoff round. Longest postseason game in Wrigley Field’s extensive history.

And one more, though this might not be completely accurate – latest.

Sure, there’s a certain amount of East Coast bias built into that statement, but the TV networks always say they start games in the 8 p.m. ET hour because that’s when the audience is greatest. However, it is not so great (or awake) five hours later. Rockies-Cubs clocked in at 4 hours, 55 minutes. It was also the third game in a different time zone in three days for the Rockies.

It was somewhere after 1 a.m. when the final out was made in this tense, low-scoring battle. Bleary-eyed Cubs fans got off to a slow start on the Wednesday morning commute – let’s not forget that team has a national fan base. And even a finish post-midnight in Chicago is no cause for celebration.

The beauty of baseball, the wise men tell us, is that it has no clock. It could go on to infinity. The audience, however, cannot. This was a fine thing when games were played in the afternoon sunshine. Now they finish in the early morning.

And we are just at the beginning of the playoffs. There’s another wild-card game today – in the American League. We will be sleep-deprived by Halloween, growling “Get off my lawn” at trick-or-treaters.

Starting time Wednesday night: 8:08 p.m. ET at Yankee Stadium for the Oakland Athletics-New York Yankees. A late finish won’t bother A’s fans on the West Coast. For New Yorkers and others on the East Coast, a four-hour epic would be tough to take.

Your humble typist will tune in. Just don’t wake him when the clock hits midnight.

 
 
Post By: Larry Weisman, a longtime sportswriter for USA TODAY, blogs for Twistity.com. Follow him on Twitter @MrLarryWeisman