Sometimes, NESN, I Find It Hard To Love You

Dear NESN,

I'm willing to give Sox Appeal a chance. Ten Minute Dating, Blind Date, and a Red Sox game? It's got potential, even if you did decide to pick some low hanging fruit tonight and toss a Yankees fan into the mix (and way to play up the fact that she's not really into baseball - just like a Yankee lover, isn't it?).

But let's agree on one thing: that crap you pulled tonight, airing the show immediately following the game, was just plain dirty. I can understand and appreciate that you were trying to retain the audience from the broadcast and present your new offering to the largest possible pool of viewers, but do you know what happened? You dragged my father into a place he never really expected to go.

The man is 61 years old, and all he wanted to do before heading off to bed was find out who picked up the win. He figured that the best place to do this was the post-game show, which usually passes along such information at the outset before proceeding with the more in-depth analysis. No post-game tonight, however, thanks to some guy named Garrett, who used to be a figure skater and doesn't drink beer.

Yes, we watched the show. We didn't have a choice - we were paralyzed by the change in schedule and my mother (the holder of the remote control) apparently took our silent staring at the television as genuine interest. Around the first commercial break, I turned to my father and said, "Guess there's no post-game tonight." He just gave me a blank look, muttered something indecipherable, and kept watching. I think you broke his brain, NESN. All because he wanted to know that Javier Lopez was the winning pitcher and he thought you would be the one to tell him.

Anyhow, here's my plea: in the future, if you want to debut a new show, don't do it immediately following a game on August 1. We're set in our schedules by this point in the season, and the sudden removal of such important things as a post-game show may be hazardous to our health.

Sincerely,

One More Dying Quail