Hard to take Major League Baseball seriously when you see this:

5:08 p.m.? On a Tuesday and a Wednesday? For who? For what? The only good thing is that they can flex games four and five and push them back if the San Diego/LA series ends in a sweep, or four games, but that’s obviously not guaranteed. The Phillies and Mets got kind of dicked here with the Padres playing the Dodgers and the Yankees also being in the ALDS.

As it stands, these start times benefit nobody. If you work a 9-5 job, you have eight minutes to get home and get in front of a television. If you work 10-6 or 11 to 7 you’re setting the DVR. Or, if you’re a Mets fan going to Citi Field, you have to leave early to slog through Queens and get to the ballpark. And if you’re the parent of young children, dinner time is right around first pitch and bedtime coincides with the final out. Awesome! The only people equipped to handle 4:08 p.m. are the retired, the unemployed, and the third shift first responders and triage nurses (shout out to them).

What’s more is that this is the first time the Phillies and Mets have ever played a postseason series. You’ve got a hyper-regional matchup that includes two of the top five television markets, with two longtime rivals involved. The fact that there will be zero prime time games in this series is comical. And it’s not like they don’t have the channels to make it work. They have TBS, FOX, and FS1, plus TruTV and Max. Figure it out!

Playoff baseball shouldn’t be played in the afternoon. Wild Card series? Okay. Maybe. Anything NLDS and beyond being played during the day, or worse, while people are at work or just sitting down for dinner, should go away forever.