I know that FOX and FOX NEWS aren’t exactly the same thing, but they’re all supposed to be in the tank for McCain, right? Well, maybe even they’re jumping off that bandwagon, as the network has convinced Major League Baseball to move the start time of the if-necessary Game 6 of the World Series back 15 minutes so Barack Obama can run a half-hour infomercial.

Obama has already purchased the 8:00-8:30 time block on October 29th from NBC and CBS, and is currently negotiating with ABC. The only obstacle to buying the same half-hour on FOX was the World Series, which was previously scheduled to have its first pitch at 8:22. MLB has agreed to move the start time to 8:35 to accommodate the Obama show. The best part of all of this? Way less Kevin Kennedy and Jeanne Zelasko. Yes we can!

There’s no doubt that the Obama camp is rooting for the Rays to make the series, as Florida is perhaps the most crucial of the swing states right now. A huge number of Floridians are likely to tune in to FOX early that night, and many will wonder why Ken Rosenthal is talking to them about health care. The tight turnaround leaves only five minutes for pregame coverage before first pitch, meaning that a huge number of people are likely to see at least part of the show. All this, I should note, comes to pass only if the series goes to six games.

The LOS ANGELES TIMES reports that no presidential candidate since Ross Perot in 1992 has bought a long-form advertisement, and even that program was only aired on two networks.

The Republicans, as to be expected, are very happy about all this:

“It’s unfortunate that the World Series’ first pitch is being delayed for Obama’s political pitch,” said Alex Conant, an RNC spokesman. “Not only is Obama putting politics before principle, he’s putting it before our national pastime.”

For what it’s worth, FOX has said they would be willing to make similar arrangements if the red camp wanted some time for McCain to talk about tax breaks and sell his new food dehydrator:

FOX issued a statement, saying: “FOX will accommodate Sen. Obama’s desire to communicate with voters in this long-form format. We are pleased that Major League Baseball has agreed to delay the first pitch of World Series Game 6 for a few minutes in order for FOX to carry his program on Oct. 29. If requested, the network would be willing to make similar time available to Sen. McCain’s campaign.”

All McCain would need to do is come up with a truckload of money. Which he doesn’t have, of course. Networks are obligated to provide paid airtime to candidates at a lower rate than they would charge otherwise, but the Obama campaign still has had to come up with nearly $3 million so far to buy the time on the three networks.

The program will actually air after the baseball game in the two western time zones, and will be airing concurrently with the game on the other networks in those areas. Nevada and Colorado are the only two contested states in those time zones.

The goal of buying up time on all four major networks is to create a “roadblock” effect. Let’s let somebody who’s qualified explain that:

Obama is orchestrating what TV industry executives call a “roadblock” by buying the same time period on all the major TV networks so viewers flipping around the channels would stop to watch the program because it was carried on so many stations.

“By using this roadblock strategy, he will make sure that he gets a good deal of coverage with one final push to get his message out to a very large audience,” said George Belch, a marketing professor at San Diego State University.

Boy, sure glad they got a marketing expert there. No way I would’ve understood that concept otherwise.

MLB has declined comment, and is probably just hoping the series goes five games so they don’t have to face any sort of criticism for caving to FOX’s request, since they were under no obligation to change the start time of the game.