Posted on 05/26/2014 6:14:21 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Quick, name a time a Dodgers no-hitter left half the fan base pissed. Hashtag never.
Josh Beckett twirled a 2:37 no-hit gem in Philadelphia Sunday, leading Los Angeles to a 6-0 win and a series victory over the Phils. The former Florida World Series hero, two months into a comeback from thoracic outlet syndrome surgery, pitched to 30 batters, walked three and struck out six on a career-high 128 pitches. Eighty strikes, 48 balls and 24 rapidly beating hearts in the chests of teammates.
It was beautiful, poetic - even without Vin Scully at the mike - historic, and a bit of a shame all at the same time. Within seconds of Beckett's final out called third strike to Chase Utley, Twitter exploded in exhilaration from fans watching on TV, and frustration from the ones who couldn't.
Among the contributions to social media in the wake of baseball history was this insult-to-incompetence tweet, courtesy of Time Warner Cable. Click the date to read the venomous responses of your neighbors. SportsNet LA launched in February, a blackout that affects 70 percent of the Southland started in earnest in March, and we are almost a third of the way into a season with no televised L.A. baseball on the horizon for many, many fans. We'll have the ratings shortly, but it's safe to assume that the 36,141 attendance figure resembles closely enough the number of people who saw the thing on TV.
But enough talk of corporate tomfoolery for Memorial Day. Josh Beckett was magnificent yesterday, so let's celebrate his accomplishment, while adding a little perspective.
Beckett's was the 11th no-hitter in Los Angeles Dodger history. If you go all the way back to the 1800s in Brooklyn - and you should - there have been 13 others. Carl Erskine has two no-no's to his credit (in 1952 and 1956), and of course, Sandy Koufax has four (one per year from 1962 through 1965), the finale being a perfect game, September 9, 1965, versus the Cubs at Chavez Ravine.
I was at the Koufax perfecto, and while I'd like to call it an all-time life highlight, I do not remember a single pitch, nor do I have the ticket stub to prove that I was there. My brother, Don, a federal judge and a religious man five years my senior, assures me of my presence. Los Angeles Times, July 1, 1962 - HOWARD COLE/L.A. WEEKLY Howard Cole/L.A. Weekly Los Angeles Times, July 1, 1962 My father kept scrapbooks filled with Dodgers newspaper clippings, both in Brooklyn while there, and in Los Angeles later. Interestingly, the image shown, from the July 1, 1962 edition of Los Angeles Times labels Koufax's garden-variety no-hit win (if there can be such a thing) over the New York Mets a "perfecto." I have no idea why.
The Dodgers' 24 franchise no-hitters lead baseball, with the Giants' 15 a distant second place in National League history. Note the "24 Los Angeles Dodgers (Brooklyn Atlantics/Brooklyn Bridegrooms/Brooklyn Grooms/Brooklyn Superbas/Brooklyn Robins/Brooklyn Dodgers)" listing at the fun site, NoNoHitters.com.
Congratulations to Josh Beckett. This one is in the record books for all eternity, even if only a few thousand Angelenos were lucky enough to see it.
And remember, glove conquers all.
Beckett can be (is) an a**hole, but there’s no denying what he’s done and apparently still can do. The way he shoved the bat up the Yankee’s a** in 2003 is still one of the best pitching performances you’ll see.
Good explanation of the absolutely bizarre MLB blackout rules:
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2870960
...”Can anyone think of a good or service other than MLB, where customers chase a vendor around with $, yet the vendor goes to such great lengths to restrict the distribution of its own product?”...
Who owns TWC? Ted Turner? He’s a jerk for this.
Even if he doesn’t own it he’s still a jerk.
It’s an MLB deal.
They actually turn down money from individual fans who want to watch broadcasts, instead counting on disgruntled fans to pressure their local cable/sat to pay for MLB regional networks.
The result? A lot of locations are blacked out from multiple teams that are hundreds or even thousands of miles away, even if they’re willing to pay for them.
The real intent is to promote teams like Yankees at the expense of ‘smaller markets’.
Dodgers were 6 outs away from a perfect game last I heard
I watched it on my MLB TV app.
You can get the MLB Extra Innings package and get any game you like.
Well, here’s what Directv says about that:
...If you live in a ZIP code that is within a Major League Baseball team’s territory, that team’s games will be blacked out from the MLB EXTRA INNINGS® game package, but will generally be available as part of your local regional sports, cable or over–the–air affiliate station. Blackouts protect the local rights holders who arrange separate distribution agreements for their exclusive territories.
In addition, because of the national exclusivity of both ESPN and FOX, there are no games available for distribution via this package on Saturday during the day or Sunday at night...
Same situation happens to a friend of mine. She lives in the Dallas area, pays for the MLB Extra Innings package on DirecTV, and has every Houston Astros game blacked out. And the Astros games are not even broadcast on her regional sports networks. Only Texas Rangers games are shown on the regional sports networks in her area.
Is there more rationality to hockey viewing?
All sports have similar blackout policies. I signed up for the NHL Gamecenter Live package one year and found out that due to my area I was blacked out from watching any NY Rangers, NY Islanders, NJ Devils, and Buffalo Sabres games.
Very little. For example, Milwaukee is in the Minnesota Wild territory, even though we are only 80 miles from the Blackhawks arena.
At least we get Wild games on our regional network, but no one cares. Every NHL fan I know in the Milwaukee area is either an Blackhawks or Redwings fan. No one cares about the Wild.
Sounds nuts and therefore believable. I couldn’t get games for months once Big Cable had bought our local utility.
Yikes. It happens everywhere, I guess. It still seems arbitrary and senseless.
I used to work with Josh Beckett’s dad years ago. That kid could throw the baseball very well back then. His dad invited me to a couple of HS games, but I always had conflicts.
I’m the wrong guy to ask. Here in the NYC market we have three different NHL teams and they all play on cable stations with the same parent company. I couldn’t even begin to explain how they assign games to the different variations of MSG. LOL.
I hve Extra Innings. I get pretty much every game. The only thing I can’t get is the other team’s broadcast of a local game. (I even get our local broadcasts in the Extra Innings channels.)
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