Jan 6th 2009 3:42PM by Eamonn Brennan (author feed)
Sports Business Journal recently did its annual year-end list of sports media predictions. Typically, it’s stuff like “the NFL Network will grow in share,” or “ESPN will continue to be a typically boring monolith.” That sort of thing. And after all, these are just predictions. It doesn’t mean they’re actually going to happen. Face value, with a grain of salt, and so on.

But! There is one prediction that has this early riser, after a 2008 postseason of incredibly late baseball, pretty excited:
Postseason baseball games will start earlier this year: First Fox announced that it is canceling its pregame show during baseball’s regular season. Now look for the broadcaster to start World Series games a half-hour earlier, closer to 8 p.m. ET. Fox has always maintained that later starting times helped ratings, which meant more people were watching. But this year, the World Series games went so much longer (average length for the three non-rain-delayed games was 3 hours, 15 minutes) and ended so late (average ending time was 11:43 p.m. ET) that ratings couldn’t keep up.
To be fair, late baseball games are hardly the worst thing in the world, and the arguments about kids not being able to watch their favorite teams are usually overstated. But MLB could stand to end its games a bit sooner, and beyond making the game shorter (something Bud Selig has tried to do for years now), this is the best way to do so. I’ve got to say: It’s pretty exciting. Sports Business Journal, a nation of bloggers turns its bloodshot eyes to you.

(