{"id":1068,"date":"2009-03-18T08:10:16","date_gmt":"2009-03-18T15:10:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/2009\/03\/18\/a-study-in-frustration-the-wbc-the-mlb-network-and-the-fan\/"},"modified":"2009-03-18T20:14:13","modified_gmt":"2009-03-19T03:14:13","slug":"a-study-in-frustration-the-wbc-the-mlb-network-and-the-fan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/2009\/03\/18\/a-study-in-frustration-the-wbc-the-mlb-network-and-the-fan\/","title":{"rendered":"A Study in Frustration: The WBC, the MLB Network, and the Fan"},"content":{"rendered":"

A week ago, after the Netherlands upset the Dominican Republic, I decided that the World Baseball Classic had officially moved to must-see-TV status<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0 From then on, I dedicated myself to catching every meaningful game, especially if it involved the U.S. team.\u00c2\u00a0 Last night, as the U.S. put together a ninth inning rally for the ages, I missed it again!\u00c2\u00a0 However, I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t see David Wright\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s game winning opposite-field single because I was otherwise occupied with the DVRed exploits of Jack, Kate, and Sawyer or Clark, Chloe, and Lana.\u00c2\u00a0 I missed it because the game aired on the new MLB Network.<\/p>\n

I had focused my entire evening around watching the rematch between Puerto Rico and the U.S.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 I returned from an afternoon showing of Watchmen, saw the close score and the late innings, and got even more psyched to watch. But, I couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t because the cable company already takes almost $200 a month from my fianc\u00c3\u00a9 and I, and we don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to pay more.\u00c2\u00a0 So, there I was, at eleven o\u00e2\u20ac\u2122clock at night, desperately searching for some updates on the game, despairingly watching the crawl on the bottom of ESPN\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s coverage of the opening round of the NIT tournament, and ultimately giving up and following the game on Gamecast on MLB.com.\u00c2\u00a0 I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have a proper analogy to describe my level of frustration.\u00c2\u00a0 It would be as if the producers of Friday Night Lights, instead of airing all of season 3 first on DirectTV and then on NBC, presented every other episode on NBC.\u00c2\u00a0 Could you imagine if Damon Lindelof and J.J. Abrams decided to broadcast the penultimate episode of Lost on Showtime, but promised to allow fans to follow the episode on a live blog?\u00c2\u00a0 No matter how good the new Star Trek movie was, no amount of police protection could keep the two of them safe from the torch and pitchfork-carrying mob that would form.<\/p>\n

Once again, Bud Selig and the rest of the used car salesmen that run Major League Baseball have screwed their national fans in favor of the bottom line.\u00c2\u00a0 Moreover, Selig has the gall to bemoan the fact that though the Classic has been an unmitigated success overseas, the United States still hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t caught on to the excitement and revelry of the tournament.\u00c2\u00a0 Selig and his cadre of Willy Lomanesque suits point to graphs and flowcharts showing how the tournament simply can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t compete in the U.S. with March Madness, but they never gave the World Baseball Classic a chance.\u00c2\u00a0 The NCAA tournament airs on CBS, the WBC on the MLB Network.\u00c2\u00a0 When you broadcast a game on a channel not universally available, how do you expect high ratings?\u00c2\u00a0 Ultimately, Selig and company are happy to collect their network-driven revenue, build their product overseas, and force the average baseball fan to pay extra to watch a game supposedly open to the world.<\/p>\n

While I watched the highlights of Shane Victorino subtly deflecting an errant throw from the outfield, Carlos Beltran pulling a Brian McCann drive back from beyond the centerfield fence, Brian Roberts stealing second base by a millimeter, and the U.S. players excitedly celebrating like Little Leaguers after Wright\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s walk off single, a lot of emotions ran through me.\u00c2\u00a0 I felt pride, some nationalism, and more than a little awe at the level of baseball being played this early in March.\u00c2\u00a0 But moreover, I felt let down.<\/p>\n

Between tuning in to television and radio broadcasts, attending games in person, and writing these Seamheads columns, I have devoted massive amounts of time, energy, and money to Major League Baseball.\u00c2\u00a0 I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not looking for a medal or some kind of recognition.\u00c2\u00a0 All I ask for is a little consideration.\u00c2\u00a0 If the MLB wants to build their network and its income through the WBC, fine.\u00c2\u00a0 Just don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t blame fans like me for the tournament\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mediocre success in the states.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A week ago, after the Netherlands upset the Dominican Republic, I decided that the World Baseball Classic had officially moved to must-see-TV status.\u00c2\u00a0 From then on, I dedicated myself to catching every meaningful game, especially if it involved the U.S. team.\u00c2\u00a0 Last night, as the U.S. put together a ninth inning rally for the ages, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":53,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/53"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1068"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1068\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}