At ESPN 950, it's Phillies first as far as what to air
Some people have been asking why ESPN 950 has only aired some of the non-Phillies postseason baseball games. Well, here's your answer.
ESPN 950 has been trying to juggle Phillies games throughout the postseason while also carrying games from the other series. Tonight it's not a problem with just the Phil scheduled for an 8:22 p.m. start. The problem has been when other games have bumped up against either the start or finish of the Phillies games.
Assistant program director and talk-show host Joe DeCamara said a couple hours ago that the priority has been to carry the pregame and postgame shows ahead of a non-Phillies game. "We're doing our best to air the ALCS as much as possible as long as it doesn't interfere with Phillies pre and postgame shows and the [Mike] Missinelli show," he said.
Tonight, they're planning to feature Phillies icon Greg Luzinski on the latter portion of their pregame show, from Bott's Italian Line restaurant in Swedesboro, N.J. That will start at 7 and continue up until the first pitch. DeCamara said that he and fellow host Jon Marks will pilot the postgame afterward and that if the Phillies clinch "and we're getting tons and tons of phone calls, we'll just go as long as people want to talk."
They're planning the same for Friday, if the series goes to Game 6. Mike Missanelli will take the reins of the pregame show starting at 3 p.m. and carry it right up until game time. Postgame will feature DeCamara and Marks and could go on "to 2 or 3 in the morning" if they clinch."
Saturday night, DeCamara said, "gets trickier" if neither series has ended by then. Game 6 of the Rays-Red Sox is scheduled for late afternoon, with Game 7 of the Phillies-Dodgers set for an 8:22 p.m. start. He said they hadn't made a decision yet on whether they'd carry the ALCS game, but "my guess is, and this is just a guess, we wouldn't. It doesn't make sense, because Boston-Tampa wouldn't end until 7:30 or 8 and the Phillies game starts at 8:22. And if we're facing a Game 7 of this series with the Phils, the whole town is going to be freaking out, so we're going to want to have a Phillies pregame show."
And if the Phils end tonight? Then the remaining games of the ALCS will be aired in their entirety on 950.