"ESPN Sunday Night Baseball Excludes A's"

[Jamaal510]

More: http://www.athleticsnation.com/2015/1/14/7547377/athletics-not-on-espn-sunday-night-baseball-dog-bites-man

Once again, the Oakland Athletics are not featured on Sunday Night Baseball in its opening weeks, the Worldwide Leader preferring known ratings winners like the Yankees, the Red Sox, and the Cardinals. This is not necessarily ESPN's fault, as the A's have had a few chances to appear on Sunday Night Baseball before their August appearance last year but either the A's or the visiting team declined, according to Sunday Night Baseball announcer Dan Schulman.

Last August's appearance at the Coliseum was the first time since 2005 that ESPN's Sunday night broadcast came to Oakland. The hard part in playing the game here is moving the game to the early evening on a Sunday. That time at the Coliseum tend to put the Sun directly into the eyes of outfielders, and draws inevitable discussions about shadows. Additionally, Sunday is almost certainly a getaway day for the road team, who may be returning to points east and would prefer not to compound the time zone change with late travel.

Lev Facher wrote about why he thought ESPN has been reluctant to come to Oakland when this story came out at this time last year:

The issue for me is less the practical implications - personally, I don't care all that much whether the A's are on Sunday Night Baseball - and more the repeatedly reinforced reality that Oakland and other small-market franchises play second fiddle to the big-name clubs. ESPN seems far more interested in generating impressive rankings than broadcasting compelling baseball of the highest possible quality. In today's world, I can't really say I blame them.

Interesting that the Royals haven't been included so far, either, despite being the runner-up from last year.

[Auggie]

1. If they play exciting baseball, and win, we'll see them before August

[KamaAina]

2. And the time-zone issue is a nonfactor in KC

[Yavin4]

3. Simple truth of the matter is that people don't watch baseball unless its the Yankees or Red Sox

Put the Yankees on, and the ratings rise. Same for the Red Sox, Cubs, and Mets. Put on other teams and the ratings collapse.

[Jamaal510]

4. Yup, even when

all of those teams are garbage. All that matters is ratings, not so much with airing quality baseball or giving a wider variety of teams some air time.