Saturday: The Black Hole of Baseball

Like half a million Americans, I subscribe to MLB's Extra Innings package, that wonderful addition to my basic package that allows me to watch more baseball than anyone ever thought possible. I call it "Baseball Heroin," as it's all too easy to sit for hours flipping between games, immobile, helpless to the draw of constant, and constantly changing, baseball.

This year has the added bonus of being able to watch either the home or away feed for a game, so I can tailor my watching to the team I like, or switch between the two to get a different perspective on a game. This somewhat ameliorates some of the problems DirecTV has been having this year with feeds--I'm one of the many, many people who woke up at 3AM on Opening Day in Japan . . . only to find that DirecTV's satellite problems were blacking out the broadcast. A handful of games later on in the season experienced this same problem, but these problems have been by and large small ones.

The biggest one is the blackout restrictions negotiated by ESPN and FOX. ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball and FOX's Saturday Game of the Week are exclusive broadcasts--that is, I can watch no other game than the one designated for my area, not even the alternate regional broadcast that is available on ESPN's other nightly broadcasts. This is more galling on Saturday afternoon, which usually is chockablock with games, than Sunday night, where I only miss out on a relative handful.

In some ways, it hearkens back to the days before Extra Innings, or even before cable, when you had to watch the broadcast game on Saturday and hope it was one you cared about. As far as the future of baseball goes, however, I think this Saturday afternoon exclusivity does more harm than good. We're already living in an era where kids can't stay up late enough to watch World Series games (which are all night games), as well as most season games (which are mostly night games). As with the exclusivity negotiated by ESPN and FOX, these restrictions mean more revenue for the broadcasters, but they're selling the future for the sake of the present.

If we want kids to be interested in baseball, we have to realize we're competing with a passel of other entertainment options, and we can't rely on the monopolistic model of the past. If I'm a ten-year-old today, it's hard enough to get interested in the game, without TV stations working to exclude me from watching games other than those they decide are worthy of broadcast--and those are typically games in the larger markets, LA or NY. If you're not a fan of the Yankees, Mets or Dodgers, you're going to find something else to do Saturday afternoon . . . and baseball will be the loser.

There's an even greater picture that this monopoly points to, one that I see on my Extra Innings package. Most of the games I see are broadcast by regional FOX affiliates, who control far more baseball content than the team networks like YES or NESN, which we hear so much about. Someday not too far off--in, say, 2009, when Major League Baseball tries to debut its network, MLB TV--MLB and FOX are going to go head-to-head over baseball, and FOX, with its established presence and infrastructure, are going to be much stronger. 

I'm no business guy, and I'm not familiar with all the arcane manipulations it takes to broadcast a game. Likely, in the end, there will be a kind of compromise, with MLB broadcasting FOX games, or using FOX commentators and equipment, or some such capitalistic concession to one another's needs. What concerns me far more is the long arm of FOX and its Evil Overlord Rupert Murdoch, whose broad reach already encompasses far too many US media outlets. It's bad enough that he monopolizes newspapers, TV stations and runs his odious news network--but must he encroach upon baseball, too?

Whatever you might think about the guy or the politics of FOX, he recognizes the economic power of America's Game, and is doing his level best to snatch up all that he can of the revenue it generates. I don't think anyone or any corporation should control so much of any medium, and certainly not the media outlets of the game I love. And he's no more interested in the game itself than he is in the products hawked on the various FOX channels--they're all ways for him to make a fast buck, and if that means we've got fewer viewing options, that's just part of the monopolistic game plan. Just like any other capitalist, Murdoch would like nothing better than if his product were the only one on the market, and he's doing everything he can to make that happen. If that kills the goose, well, he's got his golden eggs and he's gonna move on to a new one--no poor farmer in this fable to rue the careless slaughter of his one big moneymaker.

If we're not careful, one day we may find that the blackouts I see on Saturdays and Sunday nights are extended all week, and the MLB package is overtaken by the FOX package (or the ESPN package for that matter, they of the Evil Overlord Disney/ABC megaconglomerate). And our future will have become our present, with nobody interested in the game anymore because the other options have now gobbled up the attention of today's kids, who are tomorrow's adults.

And I'll be the old man screaming at his television about how much better watching baseball was when I was younger. And that's probably the scariest picture of them all.