Dear Mr. Bud Selig,
I have always been a big baseball fan. Until I reached the awkward years of puberty, I wore a Seattle Mariners uniform to every game I went to. It had my favorite players number on the back and name, Scott Bradley, no. 9. He was the backup catcher, but he always came through in the clutch and he he also had the same name as me. I skipped many school days to go to the Kingdome to watch my team play the first time they went to the playoffs. I cried in 1994 when the world series was canceled, and I’m not sure if the joy I felt when we beat the Yankees in the ALDS in 1995 has been equaled. The summer of 2001 in Seattle was boring because all the Mariners did was win, I didn’t know what to complain about. Baseball was my first love, before the other loves of my life; my wife and music.
That being said, Major League Baseball’s blackout policy on mlb.tv needs some serious help. In the year 2009, content providers should be agnostic in their delivery method. I would gladly pay twice the amount to mlb.tv to be able to watch my Mariners play every night at Safeco, or whereever they are, over the internet. I could watch games in my cubical, on the road at a coffeeshop, or at home. You can still generate ad revenue subscription fees through mlb.tv. Instead, with your current policy, you’re leaving out a whole generation that believes you should pick what you want to view, where you want to view it, and how you want to view it.
I don’t subscribe to cable. It’s not because I wouldn’t enjoy watching cable or because I can’t afford it. In fact, both of those statements are very true. I don’t subscribe to cable because I know I would enjoy it too much. So, instead I get all of my viewing over the internet. I can choose what I want to pay for, ala carte.
Please take a lesson from CBS Sports in their presentation of the 2009 NCAA tournament. Games were available for viewing through an iPhone app, streaming over the internet or on the plain ole’ television.
a lifelong baseball fan,
Brad Nelson