Obama Ad May Delay Game Six of World Series

In case you’re the sort of person who builds a firewall between sports and politics, we’re terribly sorry. A 15-ton bulldozer is about to come crashing through it in the form of a million-dollar long form Obama ad that may force Game Six of the World Series back -- gasp! -- 15 whole minutes from its start time of 8:22 to at least 8:35.↵↵⇥Major League Baseball agreed Wednesday to delay the start of a World Series game by about 15 minutes to make room for a television commercial that Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama plans to run Oct. 29.↵⇥↵⇥That would be the date for Game 6 of the baseball championship, if a sixth game is necessary.↵⇥

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This massive hypothetical inconvenience to the world of baseball fans is notable for a few reasons. First, this would be the first time a network has moved the start time for an event back due to political advertising. Second, the World Series will likely involve the Phillies (already in) and the Tampa Bay Rays, both of whom sit in key swing states in this election; whether the Obama campaign will be willing to take the marginal risk of offending the public of either state in exchange for “roadblock” coverage on all four major networks for their ad is a legitimate question. (“Roadblock” meaning on all four majors at once, meaning you’ll have to flip to the Food Network for a few minutes to get away from it.)↵↵The campaign likely thinks it is worth the risk, especially because while Phillies fans will be tuned in en masse and in numbers, they’re slotted to go to Obama anyway. Tampa Bay is an entirely different proposition. The minor inconvenience and any resulting disgruntlement likely won’t make a dent with the Florida electorate since the ratings for Tampa Bay games have been the lowest among a largely disappointing slate of games for the MLB playoffs. Chances are that even if the enthusiastic but small Rays fanbase decides to wail about having their game delayed, the noise won’t be loud enough to register on even the sensitive demographic-measuring instruments of either political party.↵

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