The widely publicized and criticized exclusive deal between Major League Baseball and DirecTV is exclusive no more, as MLB decided to cut cable companies in on the action last night. Hooray for John Kerry! Perhaps now he can get back to whatever it is that he should be doing.
Speaking of MLB cable deals, we were reminded today that TBS has the rights to the NLCS, something that I thought would rouse much more ire in Joe Baseball Fan than it has. I’ve grown particularly fond of watching the LCS in my den (which is not cable equipped) with my loyal smellhound, falling asleep to the dulcet tones of Joe Buck somewhere in the 8th inning. True, FOX still has the ALCS, but now I’m going to have to negotiate with Mrs. Cubicle QB for the rights to the cable TV in the living room for the NLCS. John Kerry had better intervene on that, too.
FOX’s Saturday MLB Game of the Week begins this weekend, too, about a month earlier than years past. FOX held a conference call with exec Ed Goren, announcer Joe Buck, and analysts Tim McCarver and Mark Grace earlier this week to preview their coverage and the MLB season. I’ll post some quotes from the call, hopefully early next week. Highlights of the call included Grace confessing to having contributed to 13 of the Chicago Cubs’ 99 years of futility, and McCarver affirming to me and Frank Deford that it is now officially PC for the sports media to use “athletes” as a euphemism for “black players.”