|
ESPN.com news services
In an effort to boost sagging ratings for the World Series, Major League Baseball will announce Monday that the 2007 Fall Classic will start on Wednesday instead of Saturday, USA Today reported.
A Wednesday start will allow baseball to avoid playing on Friday, which is TV's second-least watched night after Saturday. If the Series goes to a Game 5, it also would go head-to-head with ESPN's Monday Night Football.
According to USA Today, Game 1 will be scheduled for Wednesday Oct. 24. If the Series goes to a Game 7, it will be played on Nov. 1, the first time baseball has scheduled a World Series game in the month of November.
It won't be the first time a Series game has been played in November, however, as the Yankees and Diamondbacks played into November 2001 after the season was delayed after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11 of that year.
MLB president Bob DuPuy told USA Today that baseball considered starting the World Series on a Tuesday, but that would mean a Series game would be played on a Friday, and avoiding a Friday night game was a priority for the league.
| 
