Butch_Stearns's Blog

Many of you have called and e-mailed us here at FOX25 concerning what happened this past Saturday at the end of the Red Sox Yankees game.

If you were watching the Red Sox and the Yankees on FOX25 on Saturday night, you know what happened. If you weren't, here's what happened. 4:00 game. Approximately 6:30pm game is delayed by rain. It gets delayed for nearly two hours. When the game is restarted Fox Network (all over the country) interrupts its network coverage of Nascar from Phoenix. End of the game here is what happened. Two outs , bottom of the 9th, sox leading 4-3, Jonathan Papelbon on the mound facing Robinson Cano. With two strikes on Cano, the game on our air was switched to the Subway Fresh Fit 500 NASCAR race from Phoenix that had just started and you weren't able to see the final out of the Sox game. Papelbon got Cano to ground out to end the game. 15 minutes or so before this incident, the FOX broadcast announced that this would happen and that you might have to switch over to FX ( a sister FOX station) for the end of the game. This, of course, doesn't make this any easier to swallow, especially considering that the game was on the line.

Here is a statement from Dan Bell from the Fox Network in Los Angeles.

"First and foremost we would like to apologize to any viewer who is upset that we switched from the Yankees/Red Sox game to the start of our NASCAR race on Saturday night. After enduring a two-hour rain delay, we tried to finish airing the remainder of the game on the FOX network but due to contractual obligations to NASCAR (specifically that we have to air the entire race on the network from start to finish) we simply ran out of time.

That being said, we did alert viewers several times when we returned that the game was being simulcast on the FX cable channel and the FOX network. This was done for the sole purpose of giving viewers the chance to switch over if the game ran past 8:53 PM ET which was the schedule start of the NASCAR race (after we asked NASCAR to push the race back from 8:45 PM ET).

This was not the situation we would have preferred to be in but we can assure you that we did everything we could to make sure two great sporting events aired in their entirety on the FOX network."

Dan Bell
Vice President, Communications, FOX Sports

Here are a few other things I can tell you about the situation after speaking at length with Dan Bell on Monday morning. Fox actually asked Nascar to push back the start of the race when the Sox game re-started. Nascar did push the race back for 8 minutes. But then they wouldn't push it any further. Also, Dan mentioned in hindsight there should have been further indication to us (the viewers) when they were about to switch. An announcement and possibly a graphic on the screen.

What I can tell you from working for Fox 25 now for almost 10 years is this. With the success of both the Patriots and the Red Sox and their exposure nationally Fox Network has been in the position of covering many championship events that both teams have been involved in. (4 Patriots Super Bowls, 2 Red Sox World Series). During that time I have worked closely and developed relationships with many of the Fox Sports people from the network. They fully understand how much we care about our sports teams in Boston and when Dan Bell issues an apology for everyone from the Network it is genuine. And yes, Joe Buck knows many of you think he hates the Boston teams, but nothing could be further from the truth.

Your thoughts.

Butch