It’s Just Frustrating

Baseball on TV These Days

A I Generated Photo

Hello sports fans…

Major League Baseball’s availability on TV is frustrating me, and apparently a lot of other people, too.

Last year I subscribed to FUBO because it provided the network that has most of the Pittsburgh Pirates games. Note, I said “most of.” It seemed like about once a week games would be exclusive to other streaming services like Apple TV, Amazon Prime or some other site to which I do not subscribe.

I paid about $100 a month for FUBO. I won’t do that this year. My MLB app that allows me to listen to all the radio broadcast went up from $19.99 per year to $29.99 for 2025. That’s a 50% increase (who knew inflation was 50% for baseball audio?) I’ll endure that because I’ve listened to baseball on the radio since about 1960. As a teen-ager I did play-by-play for youth league baseball games on the local radio station. So you see, it’s in my blood.

I could subscribe to MLB TV for considerably less than FUBO, but baseball still has those ridiculous blackout rules. Where I live I get blacked out by both Cleveland and Pittsburgh.

When I’m in Georgia I would get blacked out by the Braves games.

Others are noticing. Clay Travis on outback.com said baseball needs to get rid of those ridiculous blackout rules. I agree.

He also pointed out that ESPN may not have a baseball deal for the first time since 1990. It’s asking MLB to cut its $500 million a year contract to $200 million. MLB is not going to do it.

We’ll see how that shakes out.

Flashing the Cash Elsewhere…

Travis also pointed out that ESPN just signed a $2.6 BILLION contract with the NBA. And it has a $2.7 BILLLION contact for Monday Night Football.

ESPN is majority owned by The Walt Disney Company with Hearst Communications as equity stakeholder. They have access to cash, but Travis thinks ESPN is in big financial trouble.

He says ESPN also has a $1.6 BILLION contract with the college football playoffs.

A BILLION here and a BILLION there, pretty soon ESPN is going to have gigantic mortgage payment.

It is believed that ESPN is trying to put together a new all-purpose subscription streaming sports service.

But, is it going to do it without major league baseball? And shouldn’t it be worried about violating monopoly statutes?

Here’s What I’d Buy…

The one streaming service I would pay a reasonable amount for would be for major league baseball, without any blackout rules. That’s my passion. My second favorites would be college football and basketball, then the NFL. I have no need for soccer, boxing, ultimate fighting, NASCAR or the NBA. I have said for years,”If the NBA was playing in my back yard, I’d pull the blinds down.”

And What’s Up With March Madness

While I’m at it, I’m excluded from too many March Madness games because I don’t have cable, so the games on TBS and TNT and truTV, I won’t get. Cable doesn’t even serve where I live. I haven’t had cable for years. CBS gets to decide which games I can watch.

I now use HULU for about $80 a month and it includes ESPN, ESPN 2 and ESPN+. That’s a lot of sports availability. There’s so much regular season college basketball, but no March Madness.

This Might Work…

For baseball, I plan to subscribe for about $18 per month to SNP360 to stream the Pirate Games, but I’m in Georgia through April and it’s not available here. I have to be at my home in Ohio to subscribe. Once subscribed, I can travel to Georgia and get the games. It’s complicated, but I’ll give it a try.

I have a friend who never watches any sports. At times, I envy him. He has so much free time to do other things he enjoys.

I’m just not there yet. I need baseball.

Speaking of Frustration…

How would you liked to have been managing the Holy Cross baseball team last week when George Mason (not one man, the University’s baseball team) scored 23 runs in one inning to set a new NCAA record .

The Patriots put the game away early with the scoring barrage in the bottom of the second inning. And they did it without any home runs or triples. Five doubles, six singles and eight walks issued by Holy Cross hurlers was all that was needed. That must have worn out the Patriots players. They had to run 8,280 feet, about a mile and a half in that inning. That’s not counting all the lead-off steps and the return to the bag steps. George Mason had 19 consecutive batters reach base.

There’s no truth to the rumor that the Holy Cross coach tried to drown himself in the Gatorade dispenser.

The former record was held by Wichita State in 1984 (They were called the Shockers for a reason), and the 1983 Penn State Nittany Lions.

Thanks for reading. Your comments would make this post much more fun.

Or you could occasionally support this column by buying me a coffee here. I need coffee during these shorter baseball games. There’s no time for a nap anymore.