Wednesday, April 21, 2010

FOX Baseball Blackout Policy is Foul and Depraved.

L.A. Stickball Opening day 2010 got off to a late start this past Saturday as Coachette, Coups and myself attended the Lincecum stifling of the Dodgers in the early afternoon. What began with bemusement at seeing the 0-0 Mets-Cards score on Dodger Stadium's incredibly janky O.O.T.S. (out-of-town scoreboard) turned into confused horror as we checked the blackberry for updates betwixt sticks at-bats.

After I suffered a 1-0 loss in 7 we rushed to a sports bar, the lovely Sports Harbour in MDR to catch the game. Tv's everywhere, showing only K.G. throwing bows and Kings-'Nucks. I meekly asked the bar wench to put on FOX and was met with confused stares as a Married.....with Children episode was on. Patiently, she scrolled through all the MLB Extra Innings and even the MLB mix channel before it dawned on Coups......the game was blacked out in L.A.!! The long-over Dodgers-Giants was the regional FOX game, which precluded the Mets-Cards epic from being shown anywhere out hrrr. So even subscribers who had shelled out for the MLB Extra Innings package in L.A. couldn't watch!

If Coups and I had gone back to my place after sticks we could have easily caught the game on any number of shady streams. (one of which infected my computer thus forcing me to write this post from Coachette's Macbook complete with lack of right mouse click -ugh-). But still, if you can't catch a regular season game in a bar in the 21st century well, then I don't know what to say about your sport.