Wasn't sure which tags to go with, since this is #baseball, #sports, #radio, and a #goodlongread. But the two I went with seemed most apt.
Vin Scully has been one of the privileges of moving to Los Angeles. My wife and I moved from New England, where there hasn't been a National League team since the Braves moved to Milwaukee. We started watching Dodger games and listening to Vin Scully announce. One night he suddenly says, "ever been to Curaçao?" He was talking about Kenley Jansen's home country. He began talking about the country between his clean descriptions of the action. It just struck us as the weirdest yet fully researched thing to talk about in the middle of a televised ball game. We noticed that Vin would get looser and have what we took to calling Curaçao moments after the sixth inning in each game. They've come to be our favorite part of following the Dodgers: that someone that ice skated against Jackie Robinson is still the single best announcer in all of baseball. It takes five other people to fill in when the team isn't playing in California. None of them have the focus and background. Together, they start watching players in the dugout knock the salt off their sunflower seeds. As Vin says, "let's get back to the action in this game."
One of the big problems right now is that the Dodgers sold an exclusive TV deal to Time Warner Cable. TWC wants $4 per subscriber per month from non-TWC vendors to take the single channel. This is why only 30% of the Los Angeles market has seen a Dodgers game when it isn't also on TBS this year (except for the last week of the regular season): DirecTv, AT&T, Charter, Cox, and Dish Network all balked. If you want Vin and don't get cable in Los Angeles County, you have to tune into AM 570 (KLAC), which still has the radio rights. However he only covers the first three innings over the radio.
That's messed up. You clever bastard.One of the big problems right now is that the Dodgers sold an exclusive TV deal to Time Warner Cable. TWC wants $4 per subscriber per month from non-TWC vendors to take the single channel. This is why only 30% of the Los Angeles market has seen a Dodgers game when it isn't also on TBS this year (except for the last week of the regular season): DirecTv, AT&T, Charter, Cox, and Dish Network all balked.
balked.
I don't blame the Dodgers for that. They got a gorgeous offer, so they took it. TWC, in contrast, made a foolish game from it. Now they want Comcast to buy them out. Could it have been that expensive? Yeah, possibly. Could they wind up with serious problems if the nation's scariest buyout doesn't happen (and I really don't want it to happen)? Yup. However they still provide the "fastest" internet in the second largest city in America, so they shouldn't be bankrupt.
"The lights are now starting to come out, like thousands and thousands of fireflies, starting deep in center field, glittering to left, and slowly the entire ballpark. A sea of lights at the Coliseum. Let there be a prayer for every light, and wherever you are, maybe you in silent tribute to Roy Campanella can also say a prayer for his well-being. Campanella, for thousands of times, made the trip to the mound to help somebody out: a tired pitcher, a disgusted youngster, a boy perhaps who had his heart broken in the game of baseball. And tonight, on his last trip to the mound, the city of Los Angeles says hello."