Play Ball! (Apr 3, 2007)

The Padres will be playing on XX Sports through the 2011 season as the team agreed to a contract extension to keep the team on XX Sports as their home since the 2004 season.

A rare live daytime Padres game can be viewed on cable 4 on Cox and Time Warner cable systems. Matt Vasgersian and Mark Grant return as the lead announcers with Tony Gwynn filling in.

KCAL 9 and KCOP 13 are the homes for some of the telecasts of the Los Angeles Angeles of Anaheim and the Los Angeles Dodgers of Los Angeles respectively. Too bad no cable system in San Diego carries these stations anymore thanks to the syndicated exclusitively blackout rule as well as the extra distant-channel fee that keeps the local cable systems from having them on the lineup. Is it any wonder why the share of broadcast television watching has gone down while the share for cable television watching has gone up? The rules helped the cable networks and hurt not just the distant stations, but the local stations as well, as cable networks provide far more dangerous competetion against the locals.

Fox Sports Net and Fox Sports Prime Ticket are again the main TV home for the Angels and Dodgers. For most San Diegans that means no Angels or Dodgers because the league blacks out those games to protect the Padres. Fox Sports Net is on most every system in San Diego, but the Angels games are replaced with other fare. Same thing with Fox Sports Prime Ticket if that ever gets carried on Cox locally. As long as the Angels and Dodgers continue to be blacked out, San Diegans who want to follow all three Southern California teams are screwed, courtesy of Major League Baseball.

Is it any wonder why I won't be attending any baseball games at Petco or in any park this year? Change the stupid rule so that we can watch all of the teams in our area.

Major League Baseball: an organization without balls.