Bring back the Pacific Coast League

I grew up in a world in which Satan, Osama Bin Laden, and the entire Axis of Evil were beloved compared to Walter Francis O'Malley, who moved the Brooklyn Dodgers to Los Angeles. Suffice it to say, I have a natural born prejudice against Major League Baseball on the west coast.

That bias is reinforced by last night's American League playoff game, in which the Boston Red Sox visited (and beat) the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. It was a triumph of good over evil, but our joy came well after midnight. The game started at 10:00 p.m. Eastern Time.

Many old-time sports purists lament inter-league play. For some, the sight of Yankees-Mets or White Sox-Cubs outside of a World Series is sacrilege. I don't see how that's bad for baseball. People really love these games, they fuel intense local rivalries, and they never have a 10:00 p.m. starting time.

As a loyal member of Red Sox nation, where the local ballyard has been sold out for years and fans are held hostage to ticket brokers, a road trip is often the cheapest way to see our beloved team. Baltimore, Chicago, and Tampa Bay are favorite destinations for Red Sox Nation road trips, and the home team radio announcers routinely bemoan the predominance of Red Sox cheers in their home ballpark. Inter-league play has added Philadelphia to the list of Red Sox Nation tourist destinations, and I am sure the convention and visitors bureaus of Washington, Pittsburgh, and Cincinnati would be appreciative of a similar influx of New Englanders.

It's not that I have anything against westward tourism. Trips to the west coast can be fun, and the half-empty stadium in Oakland is a particular draw for a nice Red Sox vacation. However, the west coast teams love night games, and a Pacific Time 7:05 start is a 10:05 start in New England. This late start presents a troublesome conflict between religious obligations and the sleeping patterns of the Red Sox faithful.

It's time to bring back the Pacific Coast League.
It's very nice that the left coast has baseball, but why should it get in the way of the righteous practice of the national pastime in the cradle of baseball civilization? Why should the westward migration and expansion come at the expense of starting times beyond east coast bedtimes?

If they want to have Major League Baseball in places like California, Washington, and Arizona, why can't they have a league of their own? They could happily start their games at any time of the day or night, and nobody east of Kansas will care. Cutting down on the cross-country road trips will also reduce the carbon footprint of Major League Baseball, as a road trip from Baltimore to Washington or Philadelphia is a quick train ride instead of a jet-fuel sucking shlep to Oakland or Seattle.

If Major League Baseball doesn't want to realign the sport, to rid us of those west coast trips, they should consider a New Rule: Baseball games may not start later than 8:00 p.m. in the visiting team's television market. Is it too much to ask that, when the west coast team hosts a team from the east, the game should be scheduled so the fans of the visiting teams can enjoy the game on television? I think not.

Of course, the selfish westerners won't want to make any sacrifice for the good of the game, or at least the east coast fans. Why should they? We don't play our home games when their fans are sleeping. Unless, of course, we start a new tradition of East Coast Breakfast Baseball. If eastern clubs schedule a bunch of 8:00 a.m. starts when we host Pacific teams, we can beat bleary-eyed and jet-lagged Angels and Mariners with ease before their fans even wake up. A single season of morning games will cause the crisis that prompts a great compromise: we won't hold morning games for western teams if the western teams won't start their games with eastern teams later than 8:00 Eastern, 5:00 Pacific.

Cranky and sleep deprived, the best I can do today is to happily await the rapid elimination of the Angels and Dodgers from playoff contention. With any luck, Friday night's late start will be the last we need to endure.