(Yankees-Redsox)Game time changed to avoid conflict with holiday

[JonLP24]

WASHINGTON — ESPN and Major League Baseball have agreed to switch the starting time of a Yankees-Red Sox game to avoid conflicting with Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar.

ESPN told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the Sept. 27 game was returning to its original start time of 1 p.m. EDT. It had been changed to 8 p.m. to accommodate ESPN's schedule; Yom Kippur, a day of fasting and atonement, begins at sundown that evening.

<snip>

Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y., had sent a letter to Selig and ESPN President George Bodenheimer urging the game be returned to its original afternoon start time.

"There's no reason why the largest Jewish community in the country should be punished for a last-minute scheduling swap," Weiner wrote in the letter.

<snip>

The congressman said that ESPN had the contractual right to change the starting time. "There is the contract, there is the major league rule book, but then there is a higher authority that was dictating a lot of this for fans," he said.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jSqW9vtB30Jcq4USX7NbOfWgnQgwD9AEQ0DO0

[Upton]

1. This whole thing seems a little odd

why is MLB allowing religion to dictate to them like this? I'm not Jewish, in fact I'm not a believer at all ("higher authority"..what baloney)...so maybe it's just me. I just feel a little uncomfortable when religion mixes with politics or sports.

[JonLP24]

2. I don't know

I honestly don't care except for the fact the quote got a laugh out of me about the higher authority and thought it make a few people chuckle as well but probably not many.

I'm not religious either except I'm the time of person that doesn't know what's out there and what's true. However when I was younger my grandma was a church going person and I also felt that the church hours on Sunday conflicted with my ability to watch football.

[Captain Hilts]

7. There a HUGE number of Jewish Yanks, Sox and Mets fans. nt

[madinmaryland]

8. I would not really consider it mixing religion with sports. I see it more as the

Yankees not wanting to alienate a huge contingency of fans who would other not be able to attend or even watch the game on TV. They are in no way integrating a religion into the actual game as some minor league teams do (i.e. Bible night, etc.) It is strictly a financial and PR decision by the Yankees.

[Auggie]

3. ESPN is going to kick themselves if the Yankee/Sox race tightens

by then. They'll miss a lot of national ad revenue. I'm amazed they've agreed to change the starting time -- money's been trumped by religion.

[brendan120678]

4. Good...it always pisses me off when ESPN decides to take over...

what should be a nice Sunday afternoon game and switches it to 8:00 pm. It happened to me twice last year with the Mets. I had tickets to about a dozen Mets games, and two of those were Sunday games that were supposed to be at 1:00. However, ESPN, in their infinite wisdom, decided that 8:00 pm would be a much better starting time. And what's worse is they only gave two weeks notice both times. For someone who had a 2 1/2 hour trip to and from the stadium, that's a big difference between a game that would normally end around 4:00pm and a game that would end around 11:00 pm.

[TZ]

5. Lot of Jewish NY fans.

With money to go to games I should add...

[Captain Hilts]

6. Good! I know a lot of Jews who had conflicts. U2 is also changing the time of their NJconcert. nt