When Jason Giambi homered in the bottom of the ninth inning at Yankee Stadium Wednesday night he pulled the Bronx Bombers to within eight runs of the Boston Red Sox. At roughly the same time the New York Mets were coming back from a 3-1 deficit to defeat the Philadelphia Phillies 6-3.

Yet the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, better known as ESPN, wouldn’t switch games.

The network, along with MLB’s Saturday broadcast partner Fox, is oft-criticized for an East Coast Bias and a love affair with the Yankees/Red Sox series. And while watching 236 Boston/New York games a season sometimes gets more than a little nauseating, ESPN could justify the decision for most of the past decade by pointing at the standings. It’s been more than a decade since the Yankees missed the playoffs and Boston, in the last half-decade, has overtaken them as the powerhouse of Major League Baseball.

But this year the Yankees are seven games behind Boston – not just for the division, but for a playoff spot as well. And the Red Sox, while ahead in the Wild Card race, trail Tampa Bay in the AL East and are being chased more by Minnesota than New York.

Meanwhile, the Phillies and the Mets have been passing the NL East lead back and forth like Linda Essex has traded husbands. Tonight’s comeback victory put the Miracle Mets back in front by a half-game, just one night after the Mets bullpen passed the lead back to the Fightin’ Phillies.

But yes, the match-up between New York’s portly Sidney Ponson and the always slightly better-than-mediocre recent acquisition Paul Byrd was deemed must-see television.

I understand that Boston and New York are major population centers, that there is a huge rivalry between the two squads and that ESPN gets top notch ratings when they show the two teams’ contests. And maybe I’m wrong, but I can’t see why any true baseball fan would have preferred watching the Yankees/Sox to the Phills/Mets contest tonight.

Call me a whiner. Call me jealous. But I also know I’m not the only one that feels this way – ESPN is mocked for its programming schedule as often as, well, as often as the network decides to show the Red Sox/Yankees games.

And even if ESPN muckety-mucks were dead-set on showing yet another Yankees/Red Sox tilt I certainly don’t understand why they couldn’t have made the switch when it got out of hand – the Phillies/Mets conclusion was awfully compelling to watch, at least via the scrolling news-feed at the bottom of the screen. The only excuse I can come up with is the lack of ESPN broadcasters on site. But I don’t care about that – the Baseball Tonight crew could provide commentary as needed. Most of those clowns talk too much anyway. But that’s for another post.