because that would be the only think these knuckleheads would understand. Of course the current economic situation could cause them to lose a lot of customers this year. Some of these customers might be more apt to cough up the dough if they could see 100% of the games they want to see.

Comcast here in Nashville is adding the MLB network on December 1. I guess it will be interesting to see what they cover. I may have to consider changing to Directv this year, as we are blacked out for Reds and Braves games here. Funny thing is, comcast doesn’t carry very many of the Reds or Braves games. So, most of the Cubs games against the Braves and the Reds get blacked out with no local Reds or Braves station to watch. Direct does carry these channels so it may be time to switch.

and currently am blacked out from watching Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Mets and Yankees’ games (the last two being no problem because I get their local feeds). But I shell out almost $200 every year for MLB extra innings and when the Cubs aren’t on WGN I’d like to be able to watch them play the Pirates without driving almost 400 miles. Rediculous! The sad part is, Toronto is less than 90 miles away and apparently showing their games is no problem-but then again who really cares?

It represents nothing more than total close-mindedness, greed, and just how stupid that son of a bitch Selig really is.

Dan

I live near the Quad-Cities and subscribe to MLB.tv. I believe I can’t watch the Brewers, Twins, Royals, or Cardinals (not that I would want to watch the Cards anyway). But the cable tv here doesn’t show any Brewers, Twins, or Royals at all. As for the Cards, the Cards fans only get to see their team on the Cards KGCW channel 11 which is a sister network of a CW channel we get here. But we don’t get FSN midwest, which is the main network the Cards play on. Pretty soon it seems like every team in both Central divisions will be blacked out just because.

I was so PO’d when I couldn’t watch Big Z throw a no-hitter live because there was an ESPN Sunday Night game going on at the same time. I’m so glad WGN came to their senses and re-broadcasted the game on the first Friday after the no-hit game.

….and it’s a bit of a muddle with regards to baseball coverage. We of course get WGN. We might get 2 Padres games a week, and a Dodger game once in a great while. In almost 12 years here I’ve never seen a regional telecast for the A’s, Giants, Diamondbacks or Mariners.

OT for Al or anyone: The Dodgers are moving their AAA franchise/rehab/intensive care/MASH unit back to Albuquerque this spring and Las Vegas is getting the Blue Jays AAA affiliate. Any suggestions for good sites for Jays information? Let me know. Thanks.

sorry for the language

…and it looks like Harold Reynolds is going to be a primary analyst! This makes me very happy, as I miss Harold from his ESPN days. Smart guy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MLB_Network

Dan

G n R Chinese Democracy out today (Sunday..weird). Goin to pick mine up now!

Dan

and Las Vegas had multiple choices for viewing? If it happens there then the domino effect would surely bring it to places like NYC, Boston, Chicago—think of the ramifications! People paying to choose the games that they prefer to view—stop the insanity!

Is any of this really surprising from a league that still uses its B.S. unwarranted anti-trust exemption to keep teams and owners where they want them to be—to prevent competition—to prevent choice.

In the end, if fans are upset about it then show it by not watching their B.S. network and not subscribing to their B.S. internet game service. As long as enough people pay enough for this gerrymandered product to make it profitable then MLB will keep doing it this way.

If they didn’t have the anti-trust exemption they’d have to be more responsive to consumers.

Arthur and [dollar] Bill Wirtz died (which they both did), went to hell (again, which they both did) and were reincarnated as MLB officials making this utterly stupid decision.

It’s amazing that right here in our own town we have the completely opposite views with 2 major league organizations. The Cubs who televised nearly every game since the dawn of time and now IMHO have more fans than ANY MLB team, and the Blackhawks who screwed nearly 2 complete generations of fans and completely alienated their fan base until recently.

What a pure case example of how TV WORKS (e.g. the Cubs)! And how the lack of TV DOESN’T work (e.g. the Blackhawks)!

what can we do to help address this problem. since i dont live in Chicago this is something that affects me greatly. is there anyone we can email and bitch too or anything?

Or is it a mythic creature like the NFL network, which no one seems to have (at least on the east coast)

Start 7 games at 1pmET/10amPT and 8 games at 4pmET/1pmPT and make them all available through your cable or satellite provider. Then have the Dodgers and Angels (in my case) be the featured game on the main Fox affiliate. And split the pot for the Saturday games thirty ways.

unless ALL the games were on MLB-TV. You’d have the Fox over-the-air network completely saturated with baseball — which markets would get which games? Who decides? What if a local affiliate says — screw this, I can make more money with infomercials? Then, a market (probably a secondary market )might be without a game.

The time zone problem is also a concern. Depending on the time of day — the Fox net would be supplying baseball to some markets and alternate programming to others?

The logistics of what you suggest only seems possible on a cable net dedicated to one particular sport, and even then you’d have to split it — 30 ways. This is a staggering task. One game per market? What about those midwestern cities, which have been discusssed — where a multiple-team fan base exists. Let’s use Springfield, Illinois. Cubs? White Sox? Cardinals? Two games? The complexity of what you describe is just as bad as what’s in place now, but its’ 100x harder.

The NFL is different because there’s only one game, per team, a week. A over-the-air net can disrupt its’ programming for games that will always deliver good ratings, whether the teams featured are the Colts v Packers or Lions v. Seahawks. Baseball has too many games to allow for every one to be a ratings winner.

The simplest idea is to let every fan see any game, if you pay for it. If you buy the Extra Innings Package — you get it all. If you want a game On Demand, like a PPV movie — you order it, and charge it to your cable/satellite bill.

I guess that’s too simple for the bean counters at MLB to figure this out.

What I still cannot understand is that 4-team cluster on the Territorial map in the middle of East Nowhere, Nevada. I’ve posed this question almost every time this map is posted. I have no answer. Can anybody give me a reason why Area 51 is claimed to be ‘home territory’ by Arizona, Oakland, the Giants and Padres? And why did the Dodgers and Angels drop out of this sector? All six teams claim southern Nevada…
……except for this patch of barren, Nevada desert………..

Naw, you make WAY too much sense for that to ever happen.

Here in DSM we obviously get WGN, so half the games are on TV regardless. However Mediacom (our only cable option) has chosen to pick up FSN KC, rather than Comcast. So we get to watch all those awesome Royals v. Rangers games.