Royals win despite FOX prematurely advertising World Series appearance
The wonders of live TV.
As the folks at FOX Sports know all too well, when you’re broadcasting anything live, and especially a live sporting event, mistakes and accidents are bound to happen. If they didn’t know that before last Sunday, they do now after Alex Rodriguez accidentally shattered a television monitor during an appearance an FOX NFL Sunday.
Unfortunately, the rough streak continued for the folks at FOX Sports during ALCS Game 6. This time in the form of an error from the graphics department.
With the Royals batting in the seventh inning and leading the game 3-1, a graphic popped up advertising Game 1 of the World Series on FOX. Not a big deal, right? We know Game 1 is Tuesday. That would not change regardless of Friday’s result. However, FOX also specifically advertised a New York Mets-Kansas City Royals matchup, which of course had not yet been decided.
Within moments of that graphic appearing on TV, it had gone viral on social media. That’s the price of making a mistake in this day and age, as everybody involved in the media have all learned at one time or another.
In this case though, it became an even bigger topic one-half inning later. That was thanks to Jose Bautista, who launched a game-tying home run.
You all remember Texas governor Greg Abbott and the premature tweet from ALDS Game 4. Abbott (or someone from his staff) congratulated the Houston Astros on winning the ALDS against Kansas City. That tweet also came during the seventh inning, and if you believe in jinxes, it was as big as they come. That game and that series did not end well for Houston, and we would have been in that territory again had Kansas City lost Game 6.
Fortunately for FOX, the person behind the snafu and especially the Royals, it will now quietly fade away into oblivion. Just not yet, because we still have to show you the apology and explanation from Joe Buck.
It happens. It’s live. Buttons get pushed and things we were supposed to see later or not see at all end up plastered on our screens. Such is life in this fast moving world. But at least credit FOX for acknowledging the error and then moving on.
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Mark Townsend is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Townie813
