There is No Progress

"I said, you're a big douche!"

Here we go again. Southern California can not get the goddamn games. I subscribed to the pricey MLB Extra Innings, and once again, they sold their goods twice. Once to fans, and once to Fux Network. It will be only luck if I get a single Saturday game in April. How is it that I am still paying to see all these games, except for when Fux decides to keep them all to themselves? If you bought a car, and some random guy kept taking it for a spin, wouldn't you be pissed?

Fux Network apparently has the rights to all Saturday games for all times, even if they don't bother showing them. I imagine Joe Buck is sitting in his lair enjoying them all as he hangs from the ceiling munching on ants and spiders. The Simpsons just doesn't make up for all the evil perpetrated on the world by Fux Network.

So I once again call bullshit on MLB. MLB, Baseball wants to be free. Well at least free after $159 tacked on to your cable bill. Worse, Klan sponsored quasi-network TBS (Tounging Brother by Sister) has stopped broadcasting Br*ves games, so if there is a game today, I can't see it on my mutherfucking tv. Mother Nature has gotten into the act of torturing out of market fans this year, and I'll be lucky to see one game in 4 days. Each year since this great cable scam started, I see fewer and fewer games. Thinking MLB would do the right thing and negotiate with Fux to release the goddamn games they aren't broadcasting in certain regions would be wishful thinking at best, since MLB fans don't demand anything from MLB, content to bend over on command, and take it again and again.

Witness the MLBTV opening day fiasco, where countless fans could not get the games streamed properly. Here's how the MLB apologized to fans (Washington Post link courtesy of Cver):

"We run the most successful live programming site in the country. Our subscribers are well aware of our success and of the complicated and complex nature of providing three different streaming speeds of live events every day," he said. "Most of our subscribers ... are well aware that we have one day to get all the bugs worked out when the clubs get back to the ballpark."

In other words, "fuck you, we're the MLB." Well aware, my ass.

Sorry, that is just fucking inexcusable, like opening a restaurant but forgetting to take the dead rat off of the host stand. The MLB thinks you're fucking stupid, enticing you to buy "Mosiac" multiple game service, when they have yet to prove they can even get the single game service to work reliably. And so far, they're right, so strap on your helmet and board the short bus. Yet bloggers, increasingly part of the network machine, don't raise a peep. And fans sit around complacent because we know Bud Selig already has our money, and he doesn't give a rat's ass if we see the games.

For an example of fans' complicit attitudes, in that same article, some douche customer has this to say:

Jordan Shank, an auditor and premium-level subscriber for about two years, believes the potential for MLB.TV is tremendous. "The MLB.tv package seems like an absolute beast of a service," he said via e-mail. "So in terms of what the product could be, this has to be one of the most disappointing purchases I've ever made."

Shank advises MLB.com to listen to its customers. "Don't act like some Draconian corporation -- even though you are -- ignoring the pleas of a few dedicated users," he wrote. "Work with the fans and you can create the ultimate product. I'd probably pay $250 a year if the thing worked correctly."

Thanks a lot Jordan, if they didn't think of that already, in the future we'll appreciate your suggestion that MLB work out the kinks and then, by golly, CHARGE US EVEN MORE FOR SOMETHING THAT WORKS. Ass.