Dodgers Win, But Still, Fuck Them and MLB

But I Have My Dodgers

I knew the Dodgers had three runs. I knew somehow that they won. But I didn’t give a shit because I needed sleep, and a game that started 2 a.m. PDT didn’t stand a chance.

Thanks to a spot of rain, a first pitch that was scheduled at 1:45-ish a.m. got pushed back. SportsNetLA had to fill time, so there was John Hartung and Orel Hershiser talking about how Clayton Kershaw would handle the occasion considering his bad spring and awful start against St. Louis in the final game of the Dodgers playoff run. For the fourth time in an hour. (John just asked the question. Orel was confident Kershaw would turn it around.)

As this droned on, it’s not that hard to imagine why sleep would win.

What I saw was Kershaw getting into a jam in the first inning, back-to-back one-out singles by Aaron Hill and Paul Goldschimdt making things sticky. But I’ve seen Kershaw negotiate his way out of these situations, and it was no different in this case.

I saw that Scott Van Slyke hit a booming shot to left field in the second inning. D-Backs left fielder Mark Trumbo jumped at the fence to make a play for the ball, but the ball hit the base of the wall about ten feet away towards centerfield. Everyone thought it was a home run except for the umpires. They correctly saw it was in play.

That’s really about it.

Since anyone can read a box score we can see that Kershaw pitched into the seventh inning giving up only a run, that Yasiel Puig went 0-for-5 with three strikeouts, that Van Slyke went 2-for-3 with a walk and an actual two-run home, that the Dodgers are 1-0 with the 3-1 win. And, most importantly, the game lasted two hours, 49 minutes, a sportswriter’s dream.

At the end of it all, however, fuck everyone involved. I know there are plenty of people happy and thrilled that baseball has returned. And yes, I do agree with that. I too still love baseball, but who the fuck schedules a real game that counts in the standings that starts at 2 a.m. in that team’s market? This 35-year old dealt with a grandmother who got a touch of food poisoning and diarrhea, so staying up until 5 a.m. is out of the question. Even though I did try, though in hindsight I should have realized it was a losing proposition.

And, most of all, fuck the Dodgers and Time Warner Cable. There are those who are more than happy to stay up through the late night hours to watch a baseball game. But because a lot of fans don’t have Time Warner Cable, they were not able to watch the game without the combination of an MLB.TV account and a VPN.

We know about the $8 billion television deal with TWC. We know TWC wants an outrageous $5 per subscriber or so for the Dodger-only channel. There are people who do want to watch, feel the need to watch. But they’re shit out of luck.

“Things will eventually work themselves out,” we are told by the Dodger brass.

Gone are the days of the-customer-is-always-right ethos. Welcome to the 21st century where the bottom line reigns supreme. Mo’ money! Mo’ money! Mo’ money! Fuck the 99%, the rich need to get richer.

So until then, you the Dodger fan who they are saying they are trying to serve will just have to twiddle your thumbs. Fuck you.

I am a fortunate one. I do have Time Warner Cable and this channel. I get to see that stupid hashtag “#INEEDMYDODGERS” burned on the top left corner of every broadcast, retarded if you ask me since I already have the damn channel so the need is quenched.

I don’t know when other providers will pick up the channel. But hey, Champion Broadband picked it up so there’s momentum!