Don't blame ESPN.

There is a heated discussion on the Angelswin.com message board blaming ESPN for Channel 13 inexplicably going out right before Chris Bootcheck threw the game-deciding pitch to Mark Ellis on Sunday.

Instead, it was a communications error between Vyvx, a satellite carrier, and AT&T, the distributor of the signal. Thus, the signal was lost and a movie was played.

"It was not a technical error," Angels vice president of communications Tim Mead said. "There was some kind of miscommunication between the parties who oversee the satellite feed."

The screen showed a color bar, then black with the KCOP logo in the corner, ran a commercial, then the film began. The movie is described by TV Guide as a "Thriller about a half-Inuit scientist (Julia Ormond) who becomes obsessed with the suspicious death of an Eskimo boy in Copenhagen."

It easily brought comparisons to NBC's decision on November 17, 1968 to cut away from a New York Jets-Oakland Raiders game to show the movie Heidi. The Jets led 32-29 at the time with 65 seconds left, before the Raiders scored 14 points to win, 43-32, yet no one saw it.

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