To watch The Baseball Network's coverage of the divisional playoffs Tuesday and Wednesday night was to be struck with the impression that the game was reaching out and taking matters into its own hands.

In their greed, the owners may have been party to the most fan- unfriendly scheme for televising the postseason since moving the World Series to prime time, but on the field, the game seemed determined to save the day. And to a large degree, it did.

According to the schedule, fans in Connecticut were only supposed to see Games 1 and 2 of the Red Sox- Indians series. The Yankees-Mariners was supposed to be available only in snippets.

But through a harmonic convergence of bad weather and great baseball, fans not only got to see both Red Sox games, but nine innings of the Yankees-Mariners series.

Tuesday night, WVIT, Channel 30, showed the first two innings of the Yankees game because the start of the Red Sox-Indians game was delayed by rain. Wednesday night, Channel 30 cut to the Yankees after the conclusion of the Red Sox game at 10:45, and to its credit, stayed with it from the top of the eighth until its conclusion in the bottom of the 15th.

In assessing how The Baseball Network is doing with the divisional playoffs, it is necessary to separate the format from the execution of the format.

The concept of playing all four games at the same time and regionalizing them so that only one game is available in each area is, of course, just a selfish, shortsighted, stupid idea.

Baseball owners decided to split the regular and postseason between ABC and NBC, under the aegis of The Baseball Network, after the expiration of its $1.1 billion contract with CBS in 1993. Realizing that no one else was going to ante up the $14 million a team each was receiving, the owners cut the best deal they could from a financial standpoint. And that, unfortunately, was The Baseball Network.

Wednesday, the owners responded to the negative reaction from that decision by assuring fans the current playoff system's first year would be its last: "It is our intention, as we negotiate the next round of television contracts, that each game of the postseason will be seen by our fans in its entirety, nationally, either on cable or network television. In the future, starting times will be arranged so that games will not conflict."

Faced with the prickly present, The Baseball Network promised a format that would keep viewers informed about all games in progress without detracting from the primary game being watched.

This was of particular concern in Connecticut, where allegiance is split between the Red Sox and Yankees. ABC affiliate WTNH, Channel 8, takes over for the final three divisional playoff games tonight. The New Haven-based station will feature the Yankees tonight and, if it is necessary, in Game 5, and the Red Sox Saturday night, if necessary.

Overall, The Baseball Network has made the best of a no-win situation. Through the use of update boxes and split screens, it has generally succeeded in bringing viewers the action from other games without detracting from the game at hand.

Of course, there have been exceptions.

In Game 1 of the Red Sox-Indians, announcer Bob Costas apologized to viewers for the decision to go to a split screen with Albert Belle up at a crucial point in the bottom of the eighth.

During Game 2 Wednesday night, the Red Sox were abandoned for what looked like a key moment in the Dodgers-Reds game. Unfortunately, the moment dragged on through an at-bat that finally concluded with a routine pop foul. The anticlimax was illustrative of the problems associated with trying to cover baseball like the early rounds of the NCAA Tournament. Baseball dances to its own tune, time-wise. It takes as long as it takes.

When the League Championship Series begin next week, they will be televised in the same manner as the divisional playoffs. The two series will begin at the same time, and the split screen will be out in full force.