Losing to the Worst Team the MLB could Sell

The Gnats. They were Expos, a team at some point in the last century led by Moises Alou. A labor strike killed the team. Owned by the MLB for several years in which their farm system apparently went barren, and their star players went elsewhere, the Gnats now offer fans a subpar baseball experience for their dollar. A real disaster.

Sometimes they win anyway.

All this is of course reminiscent of Major League Bullshit (MLBS) broadcast offerings for out-of-market fans. So perhaps fitting that I tried to watch this disaster of a game on said products of the MLB(S).

Those of us who just proudly ponied up the $160 for ExtraInnings and may also have spent the $70 in desparation for the MLBTV package--since MLB did not resolve the cable situation until their special renewal deal (a slight, yet meaningful discount) expired--are greeted by a familiar set of problems from last year. Blackouts, Buffering, and Bullshit.

Saturday games are owned by Fox. So no dice for Extra Innings. Even if Fox is not airing the Mets in your area, or at all. MLBTV continues to be spotty. You need a pretty fast connection to even get it. Unless you are lucky, get... ready... for...buffering. And stalling. And crashing. The buttons on the MLBTV viewer continue to do nothing. Unless you inadvertantly click on stop of course. The pre-show advertisements run smoothly somehow.

The Fox Saturday b.s. is a real problem. Check the schedule; this month Saturday is hit and miss. And in previous seasons, guess when the YankMets series big game is...thats right the weekend. Fox continues to piss on MLB. They're not showing the Saturday games nationally, but no one else can either.

Basically, its Joe Buck you, or Fuck you.

Thanks MLB(S).

So old story. MLB(S) products continue to be inferior. MLB would have negotiated a better deal for their out-of- market pakages with Fox, but they were too busy trying to stick it to big cable and screw the fans this spring.

None of this helps ease the futher pain of actually being aware (MLB GameDay still kind a works!*) of the awful performance of the actual team in question. Four at bats with runner on 3rd. Zero results. Someone's got to be able to get the ball into the outfield with a Jose on third and less than 2 outs. I don't want to talk about it.

Well, I truly hope today's game is not rained out, not only because it's my birthday and I fucking deserve it, but because Jackie Robinson day or whatever they're calling it properly honors a man who made sacrifices we modern latte sipping no-signaling SUV driving pansie asses can't even begin to understand.

I updated the Stash and Easley sites; check it out if you're into that kind of thing.


*the uselessness of MLB's other services actually make the historically awful Gameday product look better by comparison--could this have been Bud's plan all along?