If the Dodgers and Time Warner Cable now find themselves in cahoots to make the last week of the Major League Baseball season a little less guilt-free on their parts, we’re not buying it.
Again.
As a season-long negotiation stalemate with every other cable and dish system has limited the Dodgers’ new SportsNet L.A. cable channel to be carried only by the company that helped create it, Time Warner Cable announced Monday it figured out a way to simulcast the team’s final six home games on local independent station KDOC-Channel 56.
That way, anybody in Southern California who has any kind of TV hookup can see the team more than likely wrap up the National League West title, either during their three-game series against the San Francisco Giants on Sept. 22-24, or against the Colorado Rockies on Sept. 26-28.
Such a condescending, un-noble gesture on their parts.
It’s enough to make any loyal Dodgers fan consider throwing another kind of insulting gesture right back at them.
It’s much too little.
It’s far too late.
And, sadly, it’s too bad that while the Dodgers and TWC were preoccupied counting the billions of dollars they were to divide up in rights fees, other providers such as DirecTV, Dish, AT&T, Verizon, Cox and Charter felt it was too expensive to give their customers the option to watch all the other 150-some games between April and mid-September that set the stage for this other mini-drama to take place.
Dodger fans must feel like this is tougher to stomach than watching Tommy Lasorda take Olive Garden up on their latest feast-fast deal.
Not that they should be ungrateful for this opportunity to watch the players and front-office folk spraying Champagne around in celebration of their achievement. But what’s that line again about letting them eat cake?
“Time Warner Cable is part of this community and we’re Dodger fans too,” said TWC Chief Operating Officer Dinni Jain in a statement released by the cable company and the Dodgers. “Angelenos love their Dodgers, and we’re happy to give them a way to watch their beloved team during this pennant chase.
“Right now, we can’t change the fact that other area TV distributors won’t carry the channel, but we don’t want anyone to miss this exciting pennant run. We hope everyone will tune in to KDOC and help us cheer on the Dodgers. We will continue to work on long-term agreements with other providers in the off season.”
This is just another reminder that the Dodgers’ 2014 has been simply a rumor for many of those same Angelenos who decided to remain in this relationship with the local team that they loyally supported for decades. Especially for those who can’t even afford cable TV and have been shut out from games on over-the-air broadcasts.
It’s one more admonition that Vin Scully, the Hall of Fame voice of the team for the past 65 years, told dozens of stories during his hundreds of innings that weren’t heard by the masses, but hopefully were stored somewhere for safe keeping.
Having got to this position by winning two out of three in San Francisco last weekend — during a series that again less than 30 percent in L.A. could access on TV — the Dodgers and their broadcast partners seem to have finally decided this is the time to extend some pretend goodwill, to keep the cityfolk on their right side, to prove the team really is missed.
Thanks, but we’ve been getting along just fine listening to games on the radio.
And, thanks, but we’ve actually created a new group of friends down at the local sports bar with whom we’ve been watching games. Abandoning them, as well as the barkeep who got the hookup established, isn’t a real classy move.
Thanks, but we know if the Dodgers were just coming to the conclusion of a season where the playoffs weren’t in sight, this same offer would not have materialized.
And thanks, but all this is about as laughable as when local lawmakers and FCC officials were trying to squeeze companies like DirecTV to enter into binding arbitration to resolve the impasse with Time Warner.
So thanks for reopening wounds that we thought might have been healed to some degree. But we’re going to have to pass on this self-serving offer.
Consider this our own true-blue blackout. Unless, of course, you come up with a better recourse.
