btw: ...you were the first to report this stupid error. 2 outs, bottom of 9th. 3-2 count. and fox switches me to a friggin NASCAR race. the very beginning of a race, no less. fox sports is run by a bunch of idiots.

hey, if they're gonna make a switch like that, why not just show Heidi? ...anyways, who the heck likes watching cars drive in circles?

Could there have been something contractual that required Fox to show the start of the race?

I agree--it was odd -- I ddin't hear them mention that the game was going to FX until the racing announcer mentioned it.

ebornick... Stop making excuses for the stupidity of Faux Sports.
This was as clueless as Heidi Bowl!
In the "small-market" cities of Boston and New York, a few Thelma-Raes and Billy-Budds who were visiting from Charlotte got to watch Lap 3 of 300, Meanwhile a few million Red Sox and Yankees fans who sat through hours of a terrific baseball game and hung in there through an endless rain delay (listening to Kevin Kennedy's pointless palaver all the while) suddenly suffered cardiac spasms in unison as they scrambled for the clicker.
And by the time they changed the channel it was over!
Faux sports shouldn't carry Red Sox games if they don't intend to finish the coverage. Unconscionable.
Whoever made that decision should boiled in his own crankcase oil and buried with a Louisville Slugger through his heart!
P.S. I'm glad you called attention to this feeble-minded move by Faux.

Ken Schott obviously has no business commenting on racing at all. FOX screwed everyone who was watching, baseball fans and race fans, and fans of both. They blew it on the end of the ballgame and they blew it on the beginning of the race. But the race WAS the scheduled broadcast. They should have sent the ballgame to FX for an uninterrupted ending. And they should have fulfilled their contract with NASCAR by televising the green flag, which they didn't. As it was NASCAR gave them some 15 minutes by backing up the sart of their race. It doesn't matter what you wanted to watch, FOX screwed you out of an important part of it.

Hey Ruprecht,

I wasn't making excuses -- I was presenting a theory -- one that, as it turns out, was correct...

From Neil Best in Newsday:

<<While you were out clubbing Saturday night, I was sorting out what happened at Fox during the final at-bat of the Yankees-Red Sox tilt.

I included some of it in the early edition of the newspaper and more of it in the late edition, but WatchDog readers are the only ones who will get the entire story, via spokesman Dan Bell, who called at 11 p.m. to explain what happened and express Fox's apology to any fans who were confused or inconvenienced.

Toward the end of the rain delay, Fox was told the game would resume at 8:25. (In fact, it ended up starting at 8:30.)

Fox then asked NASCAR to delay the start of the Subway Fresh Fit 500 from 8:45 to 8:53, figuring that would give it enough of a window to get in the end of the baseball game, and NASCAR agreed.

(I think that's what the race was called. If not, sorry. As a New Yorker I have a God-given right to get NASCAR details wrong.)

Joe Buck alerted viewers that the baseball game would be simulcast on FX from the moment it resumed, and would be the sole place to find the game as of 8:53. It turns out Fox is obligated by contract to show the entire NASCAR race on its broadcast channel and in every market.

People watching in bars and offices (such as Newsday's sports department) with the sound off did not hear what Buck said. Fox could have done a better job of posting alerts on the screen for the benefit of such people.

Fox held on as long as it could, but when the race actually began at 8:55 it made the switch . . . alas, with two outs and a full count on Robinson Cano in the ninth!

Cano grounded out on FX while some viewers watched the beginning of the race and wondered what had happened.

There wasn't much more Fox could have done, given its contract, other than the aforementioned warnings on the screen.

I've mentioned this before, but I am just old enough to remember the "Heidi Game" in 1968, and just young enough so that I was happy NBC switched off Jets-Raiders to get to the movie on time.>>

I agree with Neil -- Fox needed to do a better job on-screen of letting viewers know what was happening. I had the game on while helping my kids and missed Buck telling people that it was moving.