The Game Managers: April 15, 2016: Let the West Coast enjoy those 10:30 starts

I can’t go to sleep, the games are on

There are very few instances as a sports fan that you would rather live on the west coast.

Sure there are a lot of amazing teams and players over there, but most of the time, they get screwed by the television times selected to pander to the bigger audiences in the east.

A day of college football, for instance, begins at noon for us and at 9 a.m. for them. While literally waking up to college football every Saturday sounds amazing in theory, in practice it’s not practical. Those few hours before noon kickoffs are for cutting the grass or running to the grocery store before spending the next 12 hours planted in front of the TV.

Notre Dame played Navy at 9 a.m. one time (the game was in Ireland), and I was exhausted by the end of the noon games. It’s an endurance race that we simply aren’t conditioned for.

But during the NHL and NBA Playoffs, it’s the West Coast that wins. Sure, some games start at 7 p.m., but they get to catch those exciting finishes as they finish up their dinner. Then they can settle in and watch their own teams play at 7:30, make it all the way through, even having a cushion for overtime, and get a good night of sleep.

We, on the other hand, have our normal 7 p.m. games, and can also stay up for the 8 p.m. ones without incident. But those 10:30 starts? Oh boy.

Your hope in watching those games is that you don’t get sucked in. You want one team to completely take control or to have the game put you to sleep, because if not, you’re looking at a 1 a.m. finish on a weekday. And if there’s overtime? Good luck.

Before moving to the Eastern Conference, the Red Wings played in these 10:30 atrocities a lot. It would mess me up for weeks, and I worked at night. Thankfully, the farthest West they could go in the conference playoffs now is, well, Detroit.

So when all the NBA and NHL finals are starting at 8 p.m., and you’re complaining about the commercials and the possibility of a game ending after 11, think of your West Coast brethren who were still at work when the games started, even if they were played in their own timezone.

They deserve this two-month stretch of getting the upperhand.

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