Yankees / Red Sox Coverage
Coverage of the pre-race was interrupted when Fox switched over to cover the remaining New York Yankees-Boston Red Sox baseball game which had been delayed due to rain. Fox then switched back to the race as the cars were on the dogleg just after the start. The final two pitches of the game were shown on the cable / satellite channel FX leaving some baseball fans confused. Fox was contractually required to show the entire race on its broadcast network.
NASCAR fans were upset that the network did not show the invocation and national anthem, especially as it was realized that the game was shown on both Fox and FX, in a simulcast, for about 10 minutes. Theoretically, the baseball game could have continued on Fox and the pre-race ceremonies would have been seen on FX, but parent company News Corporation chose not to use that option.
This is the first known occurrence in the history in American sports television that a network missed both the ending of one event (similar to the Heidi Game, except that there was an option to see the remainder of it) and the beginning of another.
On the Speed Channel rebroadcast later that week, the start of the race was shown, in real time, from Brett Bodine pulling the pace car to pit road, and Fox analyst Larry McReynolds waving the green flag, all the way through the entire first lap. It is evident in that replay that the broadcast started on the backstretch as the graphics package did not appear until the cars were on the dogleg.
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Famous quotes containing the words yankees and/or red:
“Well, you Yankees and your holy principle about savin’ the Union. You’re plunderin’ pirates that’s what. Well, you think there’s no Confederate army where you’re goin’. You think our boys are asleep down here. Well, they’ll catch up to you and they’ll cut you to pieces you, you nameless, fatherless scum. I wish I could be there to see it.”
—John Lee Mahin (1902–1984)
“From behind the red gates comes the stink of wine and meat, while along the road sides lie the bones of the frozen dead.”
—Chinese proverb.