Nationals fans are miffed over matinee

The Washington Nationals are just two games into their maiden playoff voyage, and come home to the nation's capital all tied up in their series with the St. Louis Cardinals. But their fans are already getting a tutorial in the rough-and-tumble world of playoff baseball.

Wednesday, the Nationals will play the first postseason game in D.C. since 1933, a 1 p.m. Game 3 affair against the Cardinals that will be televised on the MLB Network.

All the details in the previous paragraph are fairly standard stuff this time of year - multiple TV networks, fluid start times, all coming on the fly.

But it's enough to create a perceived injustice for some fans in the nation's capital.

The most popular sports story on the Washington Post's site today is a regional reaction piece to the Nationals' start time and TV slot. The upshot: Fans are upset.

As Nationals fan John Quinn told the Post's Dan Steinberg: "Some of us actually have to work. It's really upsetting. This is the first time we've had playoff baseball since 1933, and to get the 1 o'clock start time and the MLB Network just seems really unfair."

That sentiment is echoed in many of the 200-plus comments on the story.

What's more, a D.C.-based national non-profit, Sports Fans Coalition, has started a petition demanding the game be shown on over-the-air television. The reasoning: D.C.'s $600 million stadium was publicly funded, and thus this historic event should be available to the residents who paid for it.

Which leads us to a few thoughts here:

• That a franchise that was relocated to Washington in 2005 is playing its first home playoff game is of little consequence to anyone outside the Beltway.
• You can probably count on one hand the number of taxpayers happy that stadiums and arenas are publicly funded. But why would an ostensibly national non-profit suddenly express outrage that a playoff game is unavailable on over-the-air TV? Division Series games have been aired exclusively on TBS since 2007 (Who can forget those awesome Dane Cook commercials?) Was a similar petition circulated for Tigers fans forced to watch their team on MLB Network Sunday morning, even though taxpayers fronted $80 million for Comerica Park? Apparently not, though Brian Frederick, executive director of SportsFans.org, cites a scheduling conflict for the lack of a similar effort in Detroit.
• Who knew that getting relegated to the MLB Network, as opposed to TBS, was a major-league diss? Apparently having your playoff action called by Ernie Johnson, Dick Stockton, Don Orsillo, Craig Sager and the like is some sort of badge of honor. Meanwhile, on the call for the MLB Network's coverage: Bob Costas. Who's he?
• Is it somewhat annoying that the New York Yankees are always in prime time? Of course, unless you're a Yankee fan. But TV networks pay a lot of money for rights and would like to, you know, recoup some of that cash by broadcasting popular teams in favorable time slots. Lest we forget, much of that cash flows back to teams like the Nationals, who then use it to spend $126 million on Jayson Werth, or lavish the largest signing bonuses ever for a college pitcher or a teenage slugger.
• Is this anything personal against the Nationals? Of course not. Just ask their hated neighbors to the north, the Phillies. In the 2007 NL Division Series - the Phillies' first playoff appearance since 1993 - Philly played two midweek afternoon games. In 2008: a midweek afternoon game, followed by a 6:07 ET start. In 2009: Two midweek afternoon games. Eventually, the Phillies played their way into more favorable time slots as their popularity grew. Yes, playoff TV is something of a meritocracy.

Oddly enough, we usually hear complaints about too many games being on at night, that kids are in bed by the time their teams are playing, etc. But pulling a child out of school or bailing on work due to "playoff flu" is a decades-long tradition.

Yet suddenly, just because a few govies and the like have to work a half day to go to a playoff game, it's an issue?

We're guessing that finding that babysitter, going to a bar to watch the game or paying $5 to live-stream the game will be worthwhile to the fans who manage to pull off these heroic feats.

In fact, some might consider it a badge of honor. Welcome to the big leagues, Nationals fans.