Little League World Series

[mjrbaseball]

I am sitting here in the newsroom at WNEP-TV in Scranton, the ABC affiliate for northeast and central Pennsylvania (including the Williamsport area).

Here in the newsroom, we are aghast! ABC Sports just cut off the Little League World Series championship game as it went into extra innings. They sent the feed over to ESPN2. And they did it with virtually no notice. Brent Cheeseburger made a quick announcement as they went to a commercial, and the closed-circuit announcement came over that we were to go to local news in two minutes.

The phones just stopped ringing. We tried to explain to callers that it was ABC's doing, not ours. Some were very understanding, if still upset. Others couldn't figure out why we didn't ignore ABC and stay with the game. (How???) Still more didn't believe the explanation that it was ABC's fault -- they called us liars!

The tricky part is ... we cover the LLWS as a local news story, because for us, it is. For everyone else, Little League is something nice that happens somewhere else, unless your local team is in it. For us, it's a backyard story.

So ABC threw it to us, and there we are, with our reporter standing on the hillside, live, with the game in the background still going on. No wonder people were upset. But what's a local affiliate to do.

(I'm sorry, but I just needed to vent. Thank you for your patience.)

Oh, if you want to hear what our viewers are saying, go to wnep.com and click on the blue "Talkback" button at the left.

[DEAD!]

That really sucks. I was watched the 6th inning when they came back and missed a great finish. I can't figure out why ABC would do that in any market other than the gulf coast states. The local news could wait a while in PA couldn't they?

[slapshot]

Well, ordinarily, I'd say there's a big beef. The network should have provided more warnings and instructions on where to find the game.

But I would cut ABC a little slack, so the affiliates could cut to their own local newscasts to cover one of the biggest friggin hurricanes to hit the Gulf Coast

[OB33]

But I would cut ABC a little slack, so the affiliates could cut to their own local newscasts to cover one of the biggest friggin hurricanes to hit the Gulf Coast

From the looks of it there's gonna be a Hurricane hitting Pennsylvania if this doesn't get resolved quick.

[DEAD!]

Now if only the hurricane hit that stupid church that disrupts soldiers funerals.... but I guess a tornado would do the trick...

[BCBoy]

Worst part is.....I don't have ESPN2

[leafs13]

I think a lot of people don't have ESPN 2. I taped the game, because I was doing something else at the time. Then later when I watched the tape after that great come back- WHAM. I didn't know what happened. Stupid ABC.

[SEMOSTLfan]

luckily for me im at school in my dorm where i have cable...if i had still been at home i would have been watching on ABC but would have been screwed when they switched to espn2 because i dont have cable at home. I understand partly why they did it but its still aggrivating.

[Andy]

Yeah, working with the public sucks.