Just wishing and hoping…that won’t get Vin Scully back in your TV set.
It’s still out there: the unofficial blackout. The dispute between one ginormous, obscenely rich media company and other gargantuan, opulent media companies.
Who’s right? Who’s wrong? Do the Dodgers think that, at this point, fans really care? The vast majority of the Los Angeles region still don’t get the Dodgers on television. It’s remarkable, really.
That Scully could possibly broadcast a 67th consecutive and final season and most fans wouldn’t get to appreciate his last bits of professional brilliance is criminal. Is there anyone breathing in Los Angeles unaware of this?
Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred said at the general managers meetings in Florida on Tuesday that he was keenly aware.
“My concern could not be higher,” Manfred said. “I think that the Dodgers and the Los Angeles market are crucial to Major League Baseball and its reach. This has gone on a long time.”
Isn’t that swell? Manfred is concerned. Thanks for the input. That should shake up those stalled negotiations between Time Warner Cable and all the rest of the satellite and cable operators.
“I’m hopeful that there are dynamics in play beyond baseball, in terms of corporate activity, that may create some flexibility and, hopefully, we will get a resolution in time for the 2016 season,” he said.
Right, never heard that one before. Every year this proposed merger or that corporate union was just going to change everything. Only DirecTV and AT&T merged — and nothing. Charter and Time Warner announced they were hooking up like a couple of supervillains back in May, and still no agreement. And when has reducing competition ever proved beneficial to consumers?
The Dodgers signed their sweetheart, $8.35-billion deal with Time Warner and then washed their hands of the entire thing. It’s not our fault! If you write about this fiasco and don’t paint DirecTV as the heavy, team President Stan Kasten stops talking to you. There go all my one-on-ones.
Read more of this article at the Los Angeles Times which is where it was originally published