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Red Sox and Yankees on Sunday Night Baseball…again

By Mitchell Vareldzis

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - AUGUST 04: Xander Bogaerts #2 of the Boston Red Sox looks on from the dugout during the ninth inning against the New York Yankees with his teammates at Yankee Stadium on August 04, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - AUGUST 04: Xander Bogaerts #2 of the Boston Red Sox looks on from the dugout during the ninth inning against the New York Yankees with his teammates at Yankee Stadium on August 04, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images) /
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Should we be surprised when the Red Sox and Yankees are on Sunday Night Baseball? Maybe you have to be when they are scheduled back to back weeks.

Surprise! The Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees are featured on Sunday Night Baseball.

Or should I say, not surprising, and rather say ‘how expected.’

For back to back weeks, ESPN satisfied what they believe to be the baseball public with the classic rivalry of the Sox and Yanks.

The Red Sox and Yankees have four matchups scheduled for this season; the most of any duos in the 23-game slate this season.

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The problem is, that is exactly what the ratings are telling them the public wants.

According to an article from Sports Media Watch, last week’s Sunday Night Baseball game pulled in the highest ratings for the program this season.

Three of the four largest viewed broadcasts this season are Yankees/Red Sox.

So in a money sense, I get it. Do what will build you profit right?

But for the viewers, you have to imagine it gets tiring viewing the same teams, in the same parks, playing the same game despite getting different results.

At a glance, the ballparks the Sunday Night crew has visited this year – aside from Yankee (1) and Fenway (3) – include Citizen’s Bank Park (2), Coors Field (1), Progressive Field (1), Minute Maid (1), Wrigley (3), Nationals Park (1), Busch (2), Dodger (2), Citi Field (1), SunTrust Park (1) and soon Oracle Park (1).

Here is the problem if you dig deeper:

The season does not include even half of the parks in baseball (reason being London and the Little League World Series game in a couple of weeks), but even with the number of duplicates, there is no rhyme or reason as to why there isn’t a little more variety.

You miss out on more than half of the MLB’s parks; including some great parks in Petco in San Diego, PNC in Pittsburgh, and even T-Mobile Park in Seattle.

Yes, of course, there is more to the broadcast than the park itself, but consider the culture you acquire by visiting these places in smaller markets with teams that aren’t necessarily bad.

The Padres might be the most surprising team left off the slate this year all-together! They have Manny Machado signed for 10 years. They have the most exciting rookie in the NL this year in Fernando Tatis Jr.

They have had some pretty incredible wins this year too, including a series at Coors Field where the teams combined for over 90 runs.

You can see the full list of games ESPN has on Sunday night here.

Yes maybe you lose a little money if you don’t put the Yankees and Red Sox on four bazillion times a year, but you also prove variety for what is the biggest night of the week for baseball until football season.

Given baseball has so many more games than football, take advantage of all the markets you can access. Maybe I’m just Grandpa Simpson yelling at the clouds but this stuff matters in terms of growth of the game.

Colorado hosted Sunday Night Baseball FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 18 YEARS! That’s just a huge slap in the face to a market that has four professional sports teams!

Next. Winners and losers of the trade deadline. dark

The schedule needs to change, sooner rather than later.

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