Michael Smerconish | A BIG PLAYOFF WHIFF FOR BASEBALL

October 11, 2007

THERE WERE plenty of local complaints when the Phillies playoff schedule was set in the series against the Rockies, most of them focused on personal inconvenience.

Overlooked was one objection based on the long-term appeal of the game.

In the season that marked the 60th anniversary of Jackie Robinson's debut in Brooklyn, the sport needed to do more to cultivate interest in the minority community.

As Phils fans confront some important decisions in the aftermath of the Rockies sweep, namely whether to retain Charlie Manuel (yes - which they have!), pay Aaron Rowand the big number he will now command (yes!), keep Brett Myers as closer (yes!) and pursue a bolstered bullpen (yes!), here's hoping Bud Selig is similarly introspective about his next season.

Because Major League Baseball blew an opportunity for outreach this fall by not putting our role models like Jimmy Rollins and Ryan Howard in primetime television.

Think about it: Games 1 and 2 both had start times of 3:07 p.m., meaning before kids in the Northeast were home from school, and in conflict with anybody playing after-school sports. Game 3 began at 9:37 p.m. on Saturday night, and had there been a Game 4, it would have commenced at 10:07 p.m.

You could say mine is truly a minority view, one obviously not shared by TV brass concerned about a lack of interest in watching the Rockies outside of Denver.

We know this because Turner Sports President David Levy, whose TBS cable network pays $45 million annually for the right to show its playoff game package, said this about the playoffs this year:

"I could have never imagined this type of momentum going into the postseason. This postseason, with the teams involved we have, is an absolute dream for a network."

Translation - once again, we've got the Yanks and Sox in prime time!

How wonderful that Major League Baseball could make TBS' and Fox's dreams come true.

But what about the 80 million fans who made their way to baseball games across the country this summer? By subjecting the playoff schedule to all-too-typical forces (money, television, New Yawk and Beantown), baseball missed another chance to prove it cares about its young fans, and to cultivate new ones, especially in urban settings.

How do we know black Americans are less and less interested in baseball? There is no better indicator than the fact that in 2006, only 8 percent of Major League players were black, as compared to 19 percent in 1995.

Bud Selig said this about the playoff schedule this year:

"We have - and I have - that responsibility to make it as easy for people to watch as possible, not to make it as difficult.

'AND SO OTHER sports do that, and they have been smart about it. We haven't always been as smart."

But part of the problem is that young black kids don't see guys who look like them playing professional baseball.

Why? Well, this October at least, it's because major league baseball wanted to make TBS' wildest dreams a reality.

And as a result, here in Philly, two guys all of our kids should look up to were pinned to the wall like old calendars. They played during America's last-period math class.

What a shame that the men who led baseball's revival in Philadelphia (and overcame the franchise's 10,000th loss in the process) didn't have a real shot to do the same on a national stage.

Jimmy Rollins and Ryan Howard are two legitimate African-American MVP candidates playing in the same infield. That's an equation no other team in the league can match. And I want kids - and especially African-American kids - in cities across the country to know who they are.

Baseball has been good for so many Americans for so many years. It's best to keep that big tent open - and to do so at times when people actually have a chance to enter. *

Listen to Michael Smerconish weekdays 5:30-9 a.m. on the Big Talker, 1210/AM. Read him Sundays in the Inquirer. Contact him via the Web at www.mastalk.com.