What do these places have in common?
Bloomington, Indiana; Indianapolis; Champaign, Illinois
And what do these places have in common?
Davenport, Iowa; North central Iowa; Japan
The first three are places where yesterday's game telecast was blacked out, according to reports from BCB readers in the game thread. The last three are places where BCB readers reported they could watch the game (and in Davenport, cwyers noted that he had both the CSN and TBS feeds).
So let me get this straight. MLB's ridiculous TV blackout policy prevented Cubs fans in the Midwest from watching the game, but dragonsfanatic reported from Japan that he was able to watch the game -- seeing the CSN feed on his satellite channel.
I hesitate to start being a Johnny-one-note on this topic, but hey -- I've got an online soapbox here and I have really strong feelings about this, so why the heck not.
This makes absolutely no sense. How does preventing Cubs fans in Champaign, Bloomington and Indianapolis from watching yesterday's game -- either on the Chicago feed from CSN or the national TBS telecast -- protect anyone's interest? All it accomplished was having fewer sets of eyeballs for either or both telecasts, thus diminishing the ratings numbers -- and possibly lowering advertising rates -- and having pissed-off Cubs fans who couldn't watch the game.
Meanwhile, cwyers had his choice of telecasts in the Quad Cities area. Other parts of Iowa could watch the game on CSN, but not on TBS, and our Japanese correspondent, dragonsfanatic, was also able to see the CSN feed on his Japanese satellite service. In Chicago, I watched the game on CSN, but had TBS blacked out. I guess I can understand this -- in Chicago, they want you to watch the CSN commercials -- but how does blacking out Cub fans in Bloomington, Indiana accomplish anything except making potential customers angry?
Here's what I'm hoping to accomplish with this post. First, I'd like anyone who was blacked out yesterday to post their location. Second, the other day when I wrote on this topic, I quoted Maury Brown's Baseball Prospectus article ($) on the subject. Later that day I discovered that Maury had signed up to be a BCB member. So Maury, if you're reading this, I hope you too will post a comment, and perhaps if we raise our voices loud enough, even the see-no-evil-hear-no-evil-speak-no-evil ostriches who run baseball will see the light of their television screens.
In a phrase borrowed from the Passover season, which begins this weekend: Let our people watch!