Dear MLB, We Need to Talk About Your TBS Contract

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/70495-dear-mlb-we-need-to-talk-abou...our-tbs

Dear MLB,

I have already written a complaint to TBS in regard to their
unprofessional and, seemingly, biased announcers. Now I want answers
from you. What's it going to take?

What is it going to take to buy back the rest of your contract from
TBS? There has been a large outcry from disgruntled baseball fans over
TBS's coverage of postseason baseball. At first, it was due to half of
the playoff games being televised on a cable network. Why can't all of
the games be televised on regular, non-cable, broadcast networks, like
Fox, ABC, NBC, or CBS?

Throughout this season, I have noticed that postseason baseball has
been advertised as a sort of magical, mystical, and fairytale like
time of the year. I associate all three of those words with Disney.

The Walt Disney Company owns the ABC Television Network, as well as
ESPN. Between those two companies, you should be able to pull in large
figures for the contract and put together a top-notch group of
announcers that offer in-depth, professional analysis. The worst case
scenario is you're told they want all of the postseason games, split
between ESPN and ABC, and you're already light years ahead of where
you are right now.

I was able let that issue go. I wrote it off as a non-discriminatory
call against cable networks. An issue similar to Monday Night Football
no longer being on ABC, after 36 years, and coincidentally now airing
on ESPN.

That aside, the next issue was the announcing. Their evident lack of
professionalism and inability to make accurate, non-partisan, calls
makes the games excruciating to watch. I am referring to their biased
play calls and inability to reference players by their correct names.

Now, our complaint to you is their inability to push a button, or
perhaps their inability to push the correct button.

When I tuned in to watch Game Six of the ALCS, I thought my dreams had
come true—baseball was not on TBS anymore. But then I was quickly
informed, by a 1990s scrolling marquee across the screen, that they
were experiencing "technical difficulties" with the game. Difficulties
that caused eager baseball fans, from coast to coast, to miss the
entire first inning.

The game picked up with a score of 1-0. Rather than being able to
witness the first score, or the entire first inning for that matter,
we were left watching House of Payne re-runs. Which, literally, caused
a house full of pain.

I consider last night's "glitch" to be foreshadowing to TBS's future
with postseason baseball. Pull the plug. Dissolve the contract.
Baseball has yet to fully recover from the 1994 strike, and you're
already flirting with another disaster.

Sincerely,

Baseball Fans Across America

Outcry? Where? You? Hardly a natonal outcry.

Unless your a fan of a Large Market, Large Payroll team who demands all
announcers
kiss their assets....


No. No Gary Thorne. No Chris Berman...and whats left of his voice.
No Mike Tirico. No. No ESPN, and with ABC's woman-heavy lineup
of dramadies, they wont go near baseball.

Biased? You want biased? Try Gary Thorne and John Saunders, ("Welcome to St
Petersburg,
Gods' waiting room) during the Davis Cup in the 90s, and who when
teamed up to call the NHL Stanley Cup, snoozed their way through it. Oh yes,
it was in Tampa, the city ESPN has loathed for the last 15 years. See Tony
Kornheiser.

Fox? Joe Buck himself states he's 'bored' with baseball and ten years into
the Rays
has never...ever set foot inside the Trop as an announcer.

He..and Commisioner Selig will have to attend. No choice.

I don't know what youve been watching, but TBS is the first network thats
covered
the Rays to call it down the line.

Technical difficulties happen. Its a power outage. Deal with it.