Monday, May 11, 2015

I want my MLB back...

It's been such a weird beginning of the Major League baseball season. I thought last years memory of no TV would be just that, a memory. I hoped the cable/TV issues would have been resolved by April of this year, for sure. I was wrrrrrrrong. (Anyone remember when Greg Brady refused to admit he was wrong?) This is just the second time in my life when I didn't count the days until my first game at Dodger Stadium, or the first game I was going to watch on TV. And I've been mad about it. The problem is baseball is part of my history, it's part of who I am. My connection with The Brooklyn Dodgers, The L.A. Dodgers and Jackie Robinson goes deeper than my love of the game. My derby Coach, Pete Ybarra, made a fantastic point last night when he told me he doesn't think the Dodgers even realize they are taking baseball away from an entire generation. Kids aren't going to listen to the games on the radio, most of them don't even know what AM radio is. If their parents have it on at home they can't concentrate on it when their minds are stuck in their video games, TV or hand held devices. Kids need to SEE the game to enjoy it, live or at least on TV. This obnoxious corporate battle between a bunch of money hungry businessmen has NOTHING to do with baseball or our LOVE of the game. Unfortunately, it affects how all of us continue to write the history of the Los Angeles Dodgers and it's youngest fan base. If you think about it more analytically, the TV thing is SO much bigger than money. If we don't find a way to bring the games back to television, our young people, who are so connected to their phones, may never come back. I've decided to start planning my nights around my team again, even if it's only on the radio. Because it's more than just the game on the field, it's history, baseball helped change our country in the 40's and 50's.
I owe it to Jackie Robinson, Hank Thompson, Sam Jethroe, Monte Irvin, Roy Campanella, Larry Doby, Don Newcombe, etc. to stick by the boys; even if the team owners and Major League Baseball allow the greedy folks to keep me from SEEING the games. They, we, you, all of us, owe it to the kids to get the Dodgers back on TV, and SOON. Otherwise, another foundation of US history may be lost forever.

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