Time to again thank FOX and MLB!!!!

[red-in-la]

I came in from the pool and thought I would catch the end of the Cubs/Cards game.....you know, Reds fan, NL Central and all that.

OK, thanks Fox and MLB.....despite paying for every visual package known to mankind, I get forced to watch the dumbest matchup in baseball....Boston and New York. OK, man, I guess you just aren't a baseball fan unless you are drooling over the idea of listening to Buck and McCarver butcher a completely meaningless game (to me).....and in fact, to watch 300 million dollars plus of ML baseball flesh on parade.



About the only thing I would want to watch LESS would be a Lakers/Celtics playoff game.

Anyway, now they have the DUMBEST commercial I have ever seen where, in the midst of all this, they have Jeter and Ortiz telling me that MLB wants me to HEAR every game....HEAR every game, like this were 1965 or something.

Hey Bud, we have TV and satellites now. How about letting me SEE everything I am already paying for?

[Red in Chicago]

cardinals just won in the bottom of the ninth...not a good performance by k. wood today...

[Unassisted]

Before you throw the baby out with the bath water, keep in mind that the Fox national TV contract money does a world of good for our favorite team's coffers. MLB gives them an exclusive for Saturday afternoons to goose their ratings.

[Tony Cloninger]

Worse is that the Sox could have won that game but Varitek is a Bako like hitter now...and the HP umpire is another bad Ball and Strike ump.....just like almost all the umps in the majors are.


I thought Buck thought baseball was boring? Smarmy.....and condescending ...but still a good voice.... but he should have been at least told by MLB to skip a game and go watch fly fishing or golf...and see some real boredom.

[Blitz Dorsey]

You need to get a grip dude.

[blumj]

Worse is that the Sox could have won that game but Varitek is a Bako like hitter now...

I told my friends over at nyyfans.com, they would have been in big trouble if Jason Varitek was still alive.

[redsrule2500]

I hate the Yanks and Red Sox too....I feel your pain

[red-in-la]

You need to get a grip dude.

If you wrote a book about how to screw up a major corporation, it would be subtitled MLB.

If MLB had a competitor (other than itself) it would have entered Chapter 11 a long time ago.

[RFS62]

If you wrote a book about how to screw up a major corporation, it would be subtitled MLB.

If MLB had a competitor (other than itself) it would have entered Chapter 11 a long time ago.

If you mean by "screw up" that MLB has record profits and attendance and unparalleled popularity and success in its history, you'd be right.

I'm no fan of Selig, but give the devil his due.

[red-in-la]

If you mean by "screw up" that MLB has record profits and attendance and unparalleled popularity and success in its history, you'd be right.

I'm no fan of Selig, but give the devil his due.

MLB is a seriously dysfunctional corporation....period. It (and Buddy boy) wouldn't last a NY minute is a free market.

If there were an "AFL" or other league of any kind, MLB would fall apart like a house of cards.

And. the worst part, while cities struggle to hold together their infrastructure and roads don't get repaired and people sleep in the streets, these same cities are blackmailed into publically financing billion dollars palaces.

Why is it so difficult to put together private finanacing for one of these palaces, because MLB's credit rating is just about zero.

Meanwhile, fans are forced to also pay skyrocking prices for everything MLB, including the tickets to stadiums they paid to build.

Just my rant right now......paying $100 bucks to fill the tank in my car is getting to me a little bit.

[Tony Cloninger]

Simple solution....that people will not do anyways...but do not go to the games.

People need to stop going to the games in droves...or else they will keep charging these prices and doing what they do. Unlike gas....which many people cannot avoid using....or oil in general which is a need....going to a ballgame is not something you need to do. You can watch on tv ....yes it is funner going to the game but if you have had enough of the prices...just don't go.

That goes with movies....basketball...football....the latest electronics.
People will not live like the Amish though....too boring.

[cincinnati chili]

MLB is a seriously dysfunctional corporation....period. It (and Buddy boy) wouldn't last a NY minute is a free market.

If there were an "AFL" or other league of any kind, MLB would fall apart like a house of cards.

And. the worst part, while cities struggle to hold together their infrastructure and roads don't get repaired and people sleep in the streets, these same cities are blackmailed into publically financing billion dollars palaces.

Why is it so difficult to put together private finanacing for one of these palaces, because MLB's credit rating is just about zero.

Meanwhile, fans are forced to also pay skyrocking prices for everything MLB, including the tickets to stadiums they paid to build.

Just my rant right now......paying $100 bucks to fill the tank in my car is getting to me a little bit.

I agree with all this. Keep in mind that MLB did stand up to ESPN, at least. It used to be that MLB Extra Innings was also preempted on Wednesday nights, Sunday nights, or whenever ESPN had national games. This meant a LOT of preemption at the end of the season.

[Unassisted]

Simple solution....that people will not do anyways...but do not go to the games.

People need to stop going to the games in droves...or else they will keep charging these prices and doing what they do.

All that tactic will get you is threats of relocating the Reds to another market. It won't inspire the ownership group to put a better product on the field. They'll play the chicken and egg game to their advantage, claiming that the low attendance means they can't afford to go after FAs.

[Big Klu]

Simple solution....that people will not do anyways...but do not go to the games.

People need to stop going to the games in droves...or else they will keep charging these prices and doing what they do. Unlike gas....which many people cannot avoid using....or oil in general which is a need....going to a ballgame is not something you need to do. You can watch on tv ....yes it is funner going to the game but if you have had enough of the prices...just don't go.

That goes with movies....basketball...football....the latest electronics.
People will not live like the Amish though....too boring.

All that tactic will get you is threats of relocating the Reds to another market. It won't inspire the ownership group to put a better product on the field. They'll play the chicken and egg game to their advantage, claiming that the low attendance means they can't afford to go after FAs.

This is something I have already done--not as any sort of tactic or protest, but simply as a fact of life. At this point in the season last year, I had already been to eight games, and would see five more after the All-Star Break. Two years ago, I had been to six games at this point, and would go to nine more after the Break. So far this season, I have been to one game (Opening Day), and I don't know if I will get to another. It has nothing to do with the product on the field (which is largely unchanged from the last couple of years). It has everything to do with the fact that I cannot justify the cost of making a 360-mile round trip to Cincinnati or a 240-mile round trip to Pittsburgh or Cleveland just to see a ball game. I wish it were different, but it's the fact.

[Tony Cloninger]

I am talking about in all markets.....and yes that is nuts when you consider Boston, NY, CHI, STL...LA....they go no matter what. The small market teams do not have that luxury....those other teams fans...they have more of the power.