Ill-timed alert irks Sox TV fans Message aired with one out to go

BANGOR – Like all Boston Red Sox fans, Mike Edgecomb of Rockland was watching the bottom of the ninth inning of Wednesday night’s American League Championship Series game when a pre-scheduled test of the state’s emergency alert system blazed onto his television screen.

But his reaction was different from that of Sox fans statewide.

“Oh, yeah, we’re getting calls tomorrow,” Edgecomb, governmental affairs manager for Adelphia Communications, said Thursday, recalling Wednesday night’s event. “Once a decade, the Red Sox make the playoffs. Once a month, they do the automated test. Go figure.”

Boston had a 10-3 lead at the bottom of the ninth inning, but to true Red Sox fans the game is never won against the New York Yankees until the third out is seen on television or heard on the radio.

At 11:55 p.m., with one out to go, Boston’s Mike Timlin was about to pitch with a 3-0 count on Kenny Lofton of the Yankees. One man was on base and Red Sox fans were restless.

Then, with a flicker of light, the game was gone. “This is a test,” broadcast a recorded statement.

No kidding.

“People were going crazy, CRAZY!” said Doreen Salls, assistant general manager of the Ground Round restaurant in Bangor, which was filled with Sox fans Wednesday night. “They were yelling at the screen. It was ridiculous, honestly. Everyone thought it was rigged by a Yankee.”

After what seemed like an hour later, but actually was a minute or so, a department-store commercial aired. Seconds later, Kevin Millar of the Red Sox was shown leaning against a dugout railing. Reliever Alan Embree was in for Timlin. Then came the last out. Game over. Sox win 10-3. The World Series starts Saturday.

Edgecomb thought fans would forget about the alert thing on Thursday. Wrong.

Adelphia received numerous complaints, as did the Maine Emergency Management Agency.

“It was not intentional and the state apologizes for it,” said Steve Burgess, MEMA’s deputy director.

The emergency alert system is operated through a partnership of MEMA, the Maine State Police, the National Weather Service in Caribou and the Maine Public Broadcasting Corp.

The monthly tests are scheduled prior to the start of each new year, and Wednesday night’s test was arranged last December. No changes are allowed because the Federal Communications Commission monitors the strict schedule.

Gil Mitchell, MPBC’s chief operating officer, said that in a post-season of improbabilities coming true, the sounding of the pre-scheduled alert at that precise moment is just another oddity.

It’s just like a fan announcing last December or even a week ago, when the Yankees were one win away from the World Series, that Boston would be there instead.

“Last week, if you had asked me Saturday, I would have said the alert was not a problem,” Mitchell said. “[The problem] was to be expected. The Sox came back.”