MLB Commissioner Bud Selig spoke about one of the more inane rules still existing in baseball, the media blackout of selected games:
PITTSBURGH ? Even the commissioner of baseball isn’t immune to the sport’s television blackout rules.
Bud Selig admitted Tuesday that he has been restricted from watching some games this season ? and that he intends to change the policy that leaves some cities without as many as six baseball games each night.
“I don’t understand (blackouts) myself,” Selig said at a luncheon with the Baseball Writers Association of America. “I get blacked out from some games.”
While he did not outline a plan, Selig said he had spoken with Major League Baseball about addressing the blackout issue.
“Right now,” he said, “I don’t know what to do about it. We’ll figure it out.”
Just how bad is it ?
[F]ans in Las Vegas cannot watch the Los Angeles Dodgers, Los Angeles Angels, Oakland Athletics, San Francisco Giants, San Diego Padres and Arizona Diamondbacks. And no one in Iowa can watch the Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, St. Louis Cardinals, Milwaukee Brewers, Minnesota Twins and Kansas City Royals. And so on, all across the country.
Stupid strategy for a sport trying to reach out to fans if you ask me.
Selig also gave more details about the media deal announced yesterday:
The World Series will begin the first Tuesday after the completion of the League Championship Series starting in 2007, possibly pushing the championship into the first week of November and setting up a schedule that sets games on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and, if necessary, Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday.
Fox will broadcast alternating LCS, with the American League in 2007, 2009, 2011 and 2013, and the National League in 2008, 2010 and 2012. “A significant number of people,” Selig said, are in the running for LCS rights opposite Fox.
Starting in 2007, Turner will televise all the Division Series games, on TBS and TNT, and a new Sunday-afternoon game. There will not be a blackout Sunday afternoon, except in the host city of the teams playing.
Get rid of the stupid blackout rule and everything sounds fine.
Previous Posts:
Fixing Baseball
MLB and Fox, Perfect Together
