Television Taking Fans Away From Baseball

DirecTV also is the exclusive home of the National Football League's Sunday Ticket package of games. The NFL gets $700 million a year for Sunday Ticket, which consists of all the games being televised on Sunday by rights-holders CBS and Fox. But the package has never been available on cable television, so consumers could never argue that something had been taken away from them. They may not like the fact that Sunday Ticket is not an option, but since they never had it in the first place, the level of bile directed toward the Teflon NFL has generally been minimal.

Baseball, on the other hand, had 230,000 satisfied customers for the Extra Innings package -- 180,000 on cable, 50,000 on Dish Network -- most of them now furious at the league for taking away lots of summer pleasure from their lives. Those fans are angry as hell, writing their Congressmen, signing petitions, blogging their fingers to the bone and creating another public relations nightmare for a sport that seems to create such scenarios on a regular basis.

Major League Baseball can counter by saying that consumers who don't have DirecTV at least will be able to get the Extra Innings games on the internet via mlb.tv for about $100 a year. But really now, have you ever heard of anyone kicking back on the sofa with their feet propped up and a cold one by their side actually firing up their laptops to watch a nine-inning baseball game on a tiny screen.

That seems far too anatomically dangerous to even think about, an option only your friendly neighborhood eye doctor or chiropractor would ever think to cheer. And what about your 80-year-old grandparents living down in Del Boca Vista Del Rio Shores who love baseball but still think a mouse has two ears and wouldn't know a gigabyte from an overbite.

The other option for soon-to-be-blacked-out baseball fans would be to simply call their local cable company, cancel their service and sign up for DirecTV. Then again, think of all the apartment and condominium complexes and homeowner associations that have restrictions about mounting satellite dishes on their buildings or in their communities. How many folks living on lots with tall trees blocking any access to a satellite in the sky will be shut out?

Michael Abramowicz is an Arlington, Va., law professor at George Washington University who had been getting Extra Innings on cable. The Los Angeles Times quoted his blog on the pending deal last week.

"My reaction to this has been genuine sadness," he wrote. "Watching baseball games is my No. 1 hobby, and my house can't get DirecTV because of nearby trees. It did occur to me that if I chopped down my neighbors' trees, I would probably do a year in jail, which would leave me six years to enjoy the games."

There's also a petition currently circulating on the internet with close to 3,000 signatures protesting the pending deal, including comments from disgruntled cable viewers.

"I've been able to watch my Yankee games for three years running from an out of market city and it has truly made those summer nights enjoyable," wrote Bob Frankel (no address). "This is what they give you in return for several years of loyalty? Dishes are not allowed in my building. Hello. Is anyone home? It's 2007 and we are moving technology and viewership backwards. Please do the right thing."

Added another no-address petitioner, Barry Spiegel, "this reminds me of the comment made long ago that baseball must be a great game to survive all the fools who run it."

Leonard Shapiro can be reached at Badgerlen@hotmail.com or Badgerlen@aol.com.