Heidi: Avoided or Revisited?

April 19, 2008

By Brenda Benedict

I have a confession to make. I am having difficulty letting go of my anger towards the Fox Network for their handling of the start of the NASCAR race at Phoenix International Raceway last Saturday. Fox opted to show the end of a rain-delayed baseball game between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox.

I thought I had come to grips with the situation until last night. I saw my husband watching a baseball game on television. “Who’s playing?” I innocently asked. When he told me it was New York and Boston, the anger bubbled up again.

“You mean those two teams are playing again already?” It didn’t seem fair to me that I missed part of a NASCAR race to show these teams and here they were in a re-match -- within five days.

Last Saturday we saw a battle of the sporting worlds. Baseball went head to head with NASCAR and the final result was that no one won and many people on both sides of the issue were displeased. Fox proved that it had not thought out a contingency strategy to deal with the effects of Mother Nature.

If you tuned into Saturday night’s race from Phoenix, you were watching the usual pre-race interviews, banter between the commentators and usual routine for pre-race. There was talk about the New York Yankees vs. Boston Red Sox baseball game being on a rain delay but what happened then has caused a stir that's still being talked about.

Fox went from pre-race coverage to the baseball game. However, the game had not resumed and what we saw was the pitcher warming up. The baseball commentators assured the race fans that they would return to the race in time for the green flag. There was another ten minutes of baseball coverage before the first pitch was thrown.

The baseball game resumed but the coverage of the race did not begin until well into the first lap of the race. Race fans missed the pre-game festivities included the prayer, national anthem and the “Gentlemen, start your engines.”

I’ve heard many people compare this incident to the famous ‘Heidi’ fiasco from 1968. NBC incurred the wrath of football fans by cutting short coverage of a game between the New York Jets and the Oakland Raiders. There was 65 seconds left in the game with the Jets leading 32-29. NBC terminated their football coverage and started showing the children’s movie, Heidi, at its regularly scheduled time. However the Raiders came back in those 65 seconds and scored 14 points and won the game 43 – 32. The result was immediate. Fans flooded the NBC with so many phone calls that the switchboard was overloaded and shut down.

Possibly, Fox had the Heidi incident in mind when they tried to please both sides. But when you look at the reaction of fans, you can see Fox’s strategy did not work well.

As the discussions have gone on all week on blogs and chat rooms, it has become very apparent to me that the United States is a place where people have a great variety in opinions and they like to express those opinions as well as put down others for opposing opinions.

There are race fans and there are baseball fans. Both of them were angered by Fox’s choice to try and finish the baseball game. As it worked out, Fox cut to the race before the end of the baseball game but advised viewers that they could finish watching the game on FX. Neither group of fans was happy about that.

Even within the NASCAR fans group, there is great variety of likes and dislikes.

There are race fans that enjoy the pre-race coverage. For some, the national anthem and prayer are very enjoyable parts, if not the most enjoyable part, of the race. I am one of those. Part of the reason that I like NASCAR is its emphasis on God, country and family. NASCAR displays recognition of the importance of these institutions by always showing reverence for God and country at the beginning of each event.

For other fans, not having to listen to those was wonderful. They are tuned in strictly to see the racing.

You can even get people fired up by discussing whether Darrell Waltrip should be allowed to begin the race coverage with his trademark “Boogity, boogity boogity. Let’s go racing boys.” However, Saturday night we did not get to hear Darrell continue this tradition.

FOX had to make a decision Saturday night. The network seemed to be trying to please both groups and in doing that, they displeased both groups.

It is not possible to keep all viewers happy with their choices. FOX would have been better served by adhering to their published schedule. By trying to adjust and go between both events, they diminished the enjoyment and coverage for all fans. They had committed to airing the entire NASCAR race. The baseball game was going to be seen on FX and would have been available to most baseball fans.

The thoughts and ideas expressed by this writer or any other writer on Insider Racing News, are not necessarily the views of the staff and/or management of IRN.

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