New zone has challenges

link Derek Major

PNT staff writer

I love watching sports. Kids, preps, college or pros, it doesn’t matter. If it’s on, I’m probably watching.

But after 28 years of living in the Eastern time zone, coming to Mountain hasn’t been easy.

Many media outlets list sports on Eastern time, and I’ve got to remember to subtract two hours if I want to catch a game from the start. As you can imagine this took a while to get used to and there were some mistakes in between.

When I lived in New York and Virginia, a 1 p.m. Cowboys game meant I could sleep in. If they were playing the second game, even better because I could do errands first.

Last fall, I had to adjust. Nobody wants to set an alarm clock for their day off. Not having a TV in my bedroom doesn’t help either as I can’t watch games while laying around. I have to get up and move to the couch to watch a game, and for me, once you put your feet on the ground to get out of bed the day has officially begun.

Baseball? It’s even worse. Now Yankees games start mid-morning, or in the middle of my workday, which means I’m having to catch highlights.

But now I understand why certain games, mainly playoff games, started so late. Half of the country’s 9-to-5 people are still at work or just leaving there when I was ready for the first pitch.

My one positive? My night isn’t over when the game is. You can still have a good time with friends, even after the late Sunday game.

I knew moving 2,000 miles away from everyone and everything I know and to a new land was going to be hard, but you never know the impact until you’re setting the alarm clock for a Dallas Cowboys game.

Derek Major covers sports for the Portales News-Tribune.