This Is Getting Ridiculous

OK, so it's Monday evening. I turn on the television machine to see if there is anything that will serve as appropriate background noise while I go about my tasks.

I scroll down the programming guide and the listing for the MLB Network informs me that the Brewers/Mariners game is on. Now, the game was played that afternoon (I know because I saw the final score on the Yahoo MLB page), but who cares? It's baseball, and I'll watch it.  God knows I've watched older games.

So I turn my DirecTV crank to channel 213 and get ready for some baseball.  Alas, it was not to be.

Instead of a pleasurable, meaningless spring training game, I saw nothing but a blank screen -- and an on-screen message telling me that "This program is blacked out in your area."

Really, Major League Baseball?  As if the blackout restrictiosn aren't goofy enough -- now you're blacking out Brewers games that have already been played?

Perhaps Baron Budhausen is scared that we'll all stay home and watch the tape delayed game instead of hitching a lift from this guy for the roadie to Arizona:

Return of the Horse[bleep] Tuesday Night Link Dump

Well-rested after a week's vacation, what is widely considered in my house to be the greatest Tuesday Night Link Dump on the Internet tubes returns!

** After a terrible, no-good, rotten day Sunday, Ozzie decided to unclench a little:

Guillen was less critical of media members whom he accused by being too fickle after the first five weeks of the season.

"I don't worry about the media," he said. "I can go to the moon, and people will ask me a question. I went to Spain last year because I don't want to talk about baseball, and people were talking about baseball in bars.

"Wherever I go, people want to know what's going on."

Sounds like somebody got some QT with the blow-up dolls. I kid, I kid!

** MLB continues its efforts to atone for its shameful, shameful past:

As part of its 2008 First-Year Player Draft next month, Major League Baseball will hold a ceremonial selection of players from the Negro Leagues. Participation in the draft is voluntary, but most of the 30 clubs are expected to take part as baseball continues its efforts to keep alive the history of the Negro Leagues.

The ceremonial event will be streamed live by BaseballChannel.TV at 1 p.m. ET, directly preceding the start of the 2008 First-Year Player Draft at 2 p.m. ET. Both events will take place at The Milk House at Disney's Wide World of Sports complex in Orlando, Fla. Fans are encouraged to attend and admission is free, with seating available on a first-come, first-served basis.

"You don't ever want to forget your history," [MLB Executive Vice President Jimmie Lee] Solomon said Tuesday. "The whole gist of what we've been trying to do in this area of diversity -- in this era of inclusion -- is to go full circle: look at our present and examine our past and rededicate ourselves to the true essence of what the American pastime should be."

We've been critical of Baron Budhausen and his cronies here, but I'm more than happy to give him props for stuff like this. If only we didn't have to have stuff like this...

** Voting for the All-Star Game is now open. Because there's no better time to figure out who's having the best season than the first week in May. No props to the Baron for this form of early voting...

** Maybe Jim can add to this, because he's paid for MLB TV while I stick to good ol' reliable Gameday Audio:

According to the customer service at Major League Baseball, the MLB.TV Premium package, which lets customers watch baseball games on their computers at higher bandwidths than the basic package and allows users to watch up to six games at once, is a "bonus."

The rep also claims that the difference between 800k and 1.2Mb video speeds, both of which are available to Premium subscribers, is negligible, and in any case, their product info pages says they're not obligated to provide the 1.2Mb package.

** MLB.com's Mike Bauman wrote the Brew Crew was "for real" after their exciting win Thursday against the Cubs.

Since then, the Crew has dropped four in a row to Houston and Florida.

Note to Mr. Bauman: please don't ever write that the Cubs are "for real." Thank you.

** ESPN.com goes into the details on why the Brewers weren't "for real" since 1983.

** Finally, it wouldn't be a Tuesday Night Link Dump without a You Tube musical interlude. To honor those nutty funsters in the White Sox clubhouse, without any further ado, here's your own -- your very own -- Dirk McQuickly!

Light Shining Through The Blackout?

Well, well...perhaps MLB has finally begun to realize the absurdity of their blackout policies.

Living in Sacramento, I'm blacked out of the Athletics and Giants. I can live with that, even if I don't really agree with it. Besides, who wants to watch the 2008 Giants, anyway? And I do have the option of watching the archived version of the game after it's been played, so I don't have to miss a start by Tim Lincecum if I don't want to.

But the poor guy living in Las Vegas or Billings, Montana or Cedar Rapids, Iowa shouldn't be considered part of the home market of six different teams. That's absurd.

There is bound to be resistance to this among many clubs, and the commissioner and his president will probably have to step in and umpire. While the goal of fixing this situation by the start of the 2009 season is encouraging, it's probably not realistic.

It's still a step forward. The bottom line is that the MLB TV package should serve the function of growing interest in the game as well as being a profit center. The blackout was creating a failure of the first function, which in the long run hurts the second. Allowing more fans and potential fans access to the game is good for everyone.

Blackout or Blockheads?

I am now getting a message from MLB saying that "we are unable to successfully validate your information for purposes of checking your information against our blackout system." Meaning, no more baseball for you today, buddy, until we fix this.

It's not like I'm a new subscriber; I've had an MLB package for several years now. And it's not like they haven't had all spring to figure this out since I re-subscribed.

Of course, if MLB didn't have such archaic, ass-backwards, out-of-touch blackout rules, this wouldn't be a problem, anyway.

Memo to MLB TV

When you promote your season opener from Japan as "being available on MLB TV," don't black it out. It's not like I was gonna hop on a plane that morning and make it to Tokyo to catch it live.

When you advertise your Mosaic system for premium subscribers as being "available on March 31," have it available on March 31.

Paying customers really like it when they get the services they are paying for, and don't much like it when they don't.