Unusual Circumstances Create Commercial-Free Telecasts for Monday’s Texas Rangers and Houston Astros Games

Viewers of FOX Sports Southwest's and FOX Sports Houston's (also FOX Sports Southwest Plus) telecasts of the Texas Rangers and Houston Astros on Monday watched something unusual. In fact, it harkened back to baseball telecasts in the 1950s: no commercial breaks.

Between innings, both telecasts stayed with the action on the field and either gave score updates from games across MLB, banter with their field reporters (Emily Jones for the Rangers, Greg Lucas for the Astros), or they occasionally cut back to the studio for brief updates and promos from John Rhadigan, pictured during a cut-in, (Rangers) or Kevin Eschenfelder (Astros).

Viewers were also able to watch the players warming up between innings and the pitchers getting their warm-up tosses in. FOX Sports was still able to provide graphics and their score-box in the top left-hand corner, so most of the modern amenities of a baseball telecast were available.

When asked about tonight's commercial-free telecasts for both the Rangers and Astros, Ramon Alvarez with FOX Sports Southwest told SportsRadio 1340 The Fan, "We're having technical issues at our Operations Center affecting games nationwide. We're commercial free until the problem is fixed."

Also, during the Astros game, video feeds from the Chicago Cubs' Comcast Sports Chicago channel were used because of technical difficulties. "Astros TV is using the Comcast Chicago video tonite due to a major technical problem that will be corrected by tomorrow," from Greg Lucas on Twitter @GREGCLUCAS.

---------------------------------------

So, what did you think about Monday's commercial-free telecasts?  Tell us in the comments section below.