You're right, the catering to the West Coast is ridiculous. Not to bash on those that live out there, but what percentage of the US population lives in either the Eastern or Central time zones? Over 70%?
http://wwp.greenwichmeantime.co.uk/time-zone/usa/usa-time-zone-converte…
With the game actually starting just shy of 9pm eastern, even people living on Mountain Time would still be able to watch at 7pm, so only California, Nevada, Oregon Washington and the part of Arizona that doesn't observe Daylight Savings Time would be really affected if they moved the actual start time up an hour. Except for Vegas, Nevada is a land of nothingness, Oregon doesn't have a team, Washington has the Mariners, which is like not having a team (at least this year) and Dodgers fans show up late and leave early, so it's safe to say the rest of the state is either fair-weather or will be snarled in traffic jams no matter how late the game starts.
I don't get what the networks are thinking...even if the game ended in a 3 hour, 9 inning game, it would still be pushing midnight on the east coast when the game ended.