As I write this I feel a sadness that takes me back to 1970, my first visit to Dodgers Paradise in the Ravine. I was 7 years old and eyes wide open and moth agape. Sitting in the reserve section on the third base side on a hot LA day. Dodgers facing the Cincinnati Reds and a double header to boot. As a mere 7 year old I was engrossed more on the game and less on the vendors of food and souvenir vendors passing each aisle for what seemed all game long. The Dodger faithful in typical huge numbers over 50 thousand fans on a hot summer's day. Both sisters, big brother and dad were all enjoying this hot day and the soda man was busy that day, my first dodger dog which at the time thought was the best hot dog on the planet, now I can't even stomach the smell of the Farmer john dog ! So I sit there and hear Vinnie on the ever-present transistor radio and his voice echoed throughout the park, each pitch called with pinpoint accuracy and the plays were portraits that if I closed my eyes I knew what the play would look like, Vinnie told me so and I believed him. I heard Vin call the play by play and the names of Lee May, Tommy Helms, Johnny Bench ,Pete Rose , Bobby Tolan to name a few. The game progressed and from that point on I was in love with Baseball.
Move to present and the state of the game is so much different than it was back when I was introduced to in 1970 and has become a slower paced self loathing, melodrama and the ME-Generation has taken it over. Money and greed are the benefactors of world class talent and making money via TV deals and sponsorship is the biggest game in town, how to market the product on the field is much more important than winning baseball games and giving fans what they deserve, want and need. Baseball is far less dependent on Fan attendance and more reliant upon TV deals and contracts that woeful companies are willing to sign. Which moves me to my sadness and the Time Warner TV deal the Dodgers signed over a year ago which does not allow 70% of the Dodger Demographics to watch on TV, blacked out games unless you carry the inferior Time Warner Cable system which not everybody can access being a territorial carrier, unlike Direct, dish and Verizon which can essentially be garnered in most regions of SoCal. So here we are with TW selling games to 30% of their potential audience and losing 70% of their potential fan base, bad business form where I sit but I don't really care, I'm willing to pony up the $5 extra to watch the dodgers on direct, but Direct and other refuse to pay that to TW for some very legitimate reason and nobody wants to become bed buddies with TW, I get that Too! So meanwhile the Dodgers are reeling in the green on an 8.2 Billion dollar 25 year deal which nets them $330 million per year whether they win or lose! The dodgers as I write this are in first place but under achieving with the highest payroll in sports and still making money on TV deal, highest attendance in the big Leagues in the # 2 market in the country and still they can't agree to work out a deal . Unless The Feds step in and make this right there will be no dodger baseball for the masses, only the unfortunate that choose TW as their Cable carrier. So here is my dilemma, I love the dodgers but feel betrayed by them and have not been to a game in 2 years and have boycotted them, even if cheering lightly on the side and reading about them I can't watch them on TV and refuse to listen on Radio for 3 inning of Vin Scully and then deal with 6 innings of Charlie Steiner and Rick Monday...Noooo thank you. So out of personal necessity and taking a stand and not giving in and changing cable to get my dodgers game son the TV , I have given this date of June 15, 2015 for them to have a TV deal in the works or at least talking about it seriously or I will burn all of my Dodgers gear and be done with them forever, the extreme betrayal of an organization to its' fans who draw the most attendance, spend the most on food and souvenirs and make them money hand over fist. I feel like millions of other Southern Californians betrayed by our Home team and loyalty has slipped their minds over the mighty dollar. Guggenheim should be ashamed of themselves, Magic Johnson should resign , he knows better than to treat LA fans who supported him as a Laker and during his sickness to give back so little to Dodger fans. Currently I get the Lakers , which is a Time Warner feed , why couldn't I switch that for the dodgers, or be able to buy that channel ala carte so to speak if I wanted to , that way people who don't want the Dodgers won't have to pay for it????? I miss the dodgers and I'm sure I will miss the Baseball but being relegated to becoming a Cubs fan is not my idea of what a 7 year old boy thought his allegiance would be now as a 52 year old man. I thought Dodgers, Rams ,Lakers ,Kings, all of the local teams . The Rams moved away and are thinking of coming back, the Lakers are bad right now but I still like them, even more so when Kobe retires and goes away, Kings Hockey has been good to LA. So TW, LA Dodgers franchise , get it all together this is fundamentally so wrong to so many loyal fans, and yes the easy answer would be for us to all subscribe to TW cable but there is a principal of being done wrong and not being forgiving as you pass on by counting money of the millions of fans who have supported you. It is a shame and I feel horrible but as a 52 year old man I have other things I can and will do to fill my time, giving in to the corporate greed won't be one of them , Sad days indeed but taking a stand. June 15 is coming quickly and a day that I dread!
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