Quick As a FOX, Heidi Is Back

In a flashback to the “Heidi Game” nearly 40 years ago, FOX 5 in New York pulled the plug on a one-run Yankee-Red Sox game with two outs in the ninth, switching over to NASCAR.

Hey Fox, here’s a news flash — there are more baseball fans than exhaust circuit fans in New York. The FOX swap makes sense in Darlington and Daytona and lots of other places south of here, but not in New York. Not in Boston either. Can’t quite see the Quincy 500 going over big in Massachusetts.

Sure, FOX put the game on FX, as if it’s on the sportslifer’s speed dial remote. By the time I stumbled upon FX, the game was over. Are you kidding me?

The Heidi game made fame in 1968, when NBC pulled the plug on a Raiders-Jets clash in 1968 for Heidi, the charming Swiss girl and title character of Johanna Spyri’s 1880s children’s tale.

Since the Raiders railled to beat the Jets with two touchdowns, the Heidi game came to be known as the “Greatest Game Never Seen.”

NBC president Julius Goodman released a statement 90 minutes after the game, calling the incident “a forgivable error committed by humans who were concerned about children expecting to see Heidi. … I missed the end of the game as much as anyone else.”

Oh yeah, in case you were wondering, the Red Sox won, 4-3. Missed the end of that game too. Thanks to FOX.