The late, late, late show

An editor at the afternoon news huddle today asked a curious question. "When did the National League play Game 3?"

It would be easy to miss any number of games in these baseball playoffs. The problem, of course, is the starting times.

First pitch for Game 4 of the National League Championship Series — which could determine the NL's World Series representative — wasn't scheduled until 10:18 p.m. Monday. That's just plain crazy.

OK, Arizona-Colorado might not be a marquee matchup. That doesn't mean you should schedule it when everyone's in bed. Even if you're a big baseball fan you might not choose to hang around for the conclusion. Let's face it: If you can't make it to the closing act on Leno, you probably have no shot of seeing the final out of this game.

And these late starts prevent most newspapers on the East Coast from printing the result (but please do go to Bradenton.com to discover the winner).

If Major League Baseball is mystified by sagging television viewership for its playoffs, it should rethink its decision — based on advertising dollars, of course — to allow games to be broadcast when people aren't going to be watching.

You can't blame it all on the D-Backs and Rockies.

Jim