Yo, Nero

I never thought I’d see the day where I felt bad for Cubs’ fan, so circle this date on the calendar.  On second thought, I feel bad for all major-league baseball fans.

 

As a professional sport, baseball finds itself slipping into irrelevance.  Managers of last-place teams act like the next pitching change will put them into the World Series; pitchers act like the next pitch will be their last and, so, something to avoid; hitters act like the batter’s box is quicksand waiting to swallow them up and, so, they’re forever jumping out of the box after every pitch.  Walk to the mound for a visit, again; shake off a sign, again; step out of the box again, reset batting gloves, again.  Oh, and run commercials at every chance.  This is a recipe for disaster, folks, as in every game a three-hour plus marathon of boredom.

 

So, what does the Ricketts family do?  They put their team on an exclusive cable channel, only half the area cable providers don’t want to carry it.  Then again, maybe that’s a good thing, unless fans are dying to see camera shots of Javy Baez from the ground up.  The Tribune the other day  suggested calling it “Javy Cam,” but that misses the whole Jack-and-the-Beanstalk aspect to it.     

 

A question for the Ricketts if and when all their fans can access the new Marquee Network:  Will the games be commercial-free?  I’m betting, No, they won’t be.  In other words, fans will have to pay to see games that once upon a time were broadcast free, which is why we all put up with commercials in the first place.  How, then, does Marquee represent progress?

 

If the Ricketts truly wanted to do right by their fans, they would’ve skipped the Marquee thing and taken people’s money by offering shares of stock in the team instead.  That’s honest, that’s ethical, that’s not the Cubs’ way.

 

Or that of any other MLB team, come to think of it.