Opinion: World Series pushed back for Barack Obama (and Fox Sports)

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Major League Baseball agreed Wednesday to push back the start time of Game 6 of the World Series by about 15 minutes so that Fox Broadcasting Co. could sell Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama a half-hour of prime time on Wednesday, Oct. 29.

The campaign also has bought the same time period -- 8 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 29 -- on CBS and NBC so Obama can run a 30-minute program on all of the networks. Each network is selling the time for $950,000 to $1 million. Buying time on all of the major broadcast networks would allow Obama to reach more than 20 million people on the Wednesday before the election.

A spokesman for Fox said the network would make available a similar 30-minute block of time for the Republican candidate, Sen. John McCain, if he chooses. Time for McCain would be either later that night (if there is no Game 6) or the following evening.

Major League Baseball did not have an immediate comment.

UPDATE: Alex Conant, spokesman with the Republican National Committee responds with this: “It’s unfortunate that the World Series’ first pitch is being delayed for Obama’s political pitch. Not only is Obama putting politics before principle, he’s putting it before our national pastime.”

-- Meg James