This week they told a tale that would've left many kids grounded, no video games, for a week. MLB and ESPN took full credit for sensitively solving a sensitive problem. However, they failed to mention that they cause the problem.

After all, when ESPN told MLB that it wanted Sept. 27's Red Sox-Yanks for its 8:05 p.m. start -- otherwise it would begin at 1:05 p.m. -- all MLB had to say was, "Sorry, boys, pick any other game. That night's the start of Yom Kippur."

Perhaps MLB and ESPN missed the story about how the Jets, weeks before the 8:05 start to Red Sox-Yankees was declared, had the NFL change their Sept. 27 home game from 4:15 p.m. to 1 p.m. due to Yom Kippur. Or perhaps MLB and ESPN were aware of that but didn't, at first, care.

It's not as if ESPN and MLB hadn't demonstrated their flexibility and sensitivity on behalf of much less. A few weeks ago, MLB allowed ESPN to start its Sunday night game between the Mets and Braves at 6 p.m., because at 9 p.m. ESPN wanted to show -- on tape, no less -- its annually embarrassing ESPY Awards, this year featuring Victoria's Secret models.

And once they realized that they couldn't change the starting time of Yom Kippur -- "Madge, get me the King of the Jews on the phone" -- what were ESPN and MLB going to say? "Tough, we don't care if it's Yom Kippur in New York or Garo Yepremian in Miami; the game's at 8!"?

And so, because MLB and ESPN originally lacked calendar foresight (or originally didn't give a hoot), this week they returned the game to 1:05, sustained it as an ESPN exclusive and publicly slapped each other on the back as problem-solvers.

MLB and ESPN put out statements crediting themselves and each other for agreeing to "move the Sept. 27 Red Sox-Yankees game in New York from 8 p.m. to 1 p.m. so as not to conflict with Yom Kippur." Bud Selig thanked ESPN for "working with us to adjust the timing of this game, which allowed us to solve this conflict."

But that's a self-serving half-truth/half fib. MLB simply pretended that the game was always scheduled for Sunday night on ESPN, when it was not. No matter when the game was selected for an 8:05 start -- a forgivable error if just an oversight -- a mistake had been made. But rather than admit that simple truth -- as the NFL did with the Jets -- MLB and ESPN took credit for the solution without identifying its source: Them! And you thought Joe Morgan was full of it.