Okay, this is going to be a rant, if you do not want to read this, please click your back button or the "find more blogs" link over there on the right-hand side of this page.  Thank you.

I JUST WANT TO WATCH SOME DAMN BASEBALL!

Dear Mr. Bud Selig :

You have my hands tied.  You got me. 

I fell in love with baseball at an early age, even played the wonderful sport growing up.  I have followed the Atlanta Braves (remember them don't you??) for decades.  I want to continue to enjoy watching the Braves, as well as various teams play the sport.  I want to see Pujols and Chipper jack one out of the park.  I want to watch the finesse and strategy of all the top notch players, and analyze the newcomers as they play with the big boys.

But, last night, I was so outraged, I don't know where to begin.

I will start, though, by saying that last year we purchased the MLB package with DirecTV, our satellite provider of choice.  Of course, with the economy the way it is, we can only hope for the best and plan for the worse.  Therefore, we didn't shell out the huge amount of money this year for the MLB package.

However, after watching the Braves get beat last night I tried searching for another game and especially wanted to watch the Cardinals.  I saw it listed on many channels, none of which I have purchased.  It was interesting to see that the FSN channels had so many baseball games available.  So we get on the phone with DirecTV and inquire as to purchasing just the Fox Sports channels.  The price was fair, it seemed, only $12.00 a month for all the FSN channels, including FS Midwest, which of course shows the Cardinals games.

We order.  We reboot system.  We are not able to see the games.  What?

After some strained conversation with the rep on the phone, we finally pulled the explanation from them that if the games are being shown on the MLB channels, they are not broadcast on the FSN channels.  What is the point of having these channels then??  Strangely enough, this money making scheme doesn't surprise me, but we quickly canceled the FSN channels, almost faster than we had ordered them.

So, I am stuck wondering why someone like Bud Selig, a lover of the game, a businessman of the game, a promoter of the game, the stinking Commissioner of the game, would try to wrangle so much from us.  We love the game as much as you do and want to share that love with our children, our spouses, our families, but most importantly to fill that love inside ourselves! 

Thanks for breaking my heart.