(And as we use that title, we realize that there is a whole generation who wouldn't necessarily get the reference. Yikes.)These are dark days for baseball fans in Canada. While any given sportscast in this country can find a way to cram in an extra 2000 hours per week of discussion Brian Burke - and seriously, Christ's return wouldn't get this much coverage - there's precious little out there for us fans of the finer things in life.
One of the more depressing moments we've had recently happened when we searched for "baseball" through our TV's program guide, and the answer came back starkly: "None". Groan.
Which is why we find some hope in the last paragraph of this article from the Sporting News on the launch of the MLB Network. The article suggests that maybe, possibly, if we all are good boys and girls and do our homework and floss and stop picking on our siblings and lay of the MILF porn, then maybe Rogers will bring the MLB Network to Canada. Says the article:
"There are no concrete plans yet to take MLB Network international, but (Tony Petitti, MLB Network's president and CEO) says Canada would be the first country into which the channel would expand. Rogers Communication (sic), Canada's largest cable distributor, happens to own the Toronto Blue Jays, and Petitti noted there have been discussions with Rogers about bringing MLB Network to Canada."
The launch of the MLB Network in Canada could go a long way towards offsetting our Seasonal Affective Disorder this winter. Just listening to folks talk about baseball (even those that talk absolute shite) is like a nice warm sweater and a cup of cocoa with extra marshmallows for our soul.
Of course, Rogers already holds a license in Canada for an all-baseball-all-the-time diginet, but they haven't moved on it, likely because they were waiting to follow MLB's lead on this. We're just hoping that they'll see fit to shelve their verions in favour of what will undoubtedly be a superior and readily available product from the U.S. (with bonus Canadian Content in the delightful form of Hazel Mae!)
Surely, if Rogers can include CBS College Sports TV in their channel lineup, they can find some room for the MLB Network.
So we implore the execs: Tony Viner, Rael Merson, or whoever has the capacity to make this happen, please please please please pretty please add the MLB Network this winter. We'll be forever grateful.
(Wow...that was kinda pathetic, wasn't it? But seriously, we could lower ourselves further to make this happen.)
Well, on the plus side Tao, congrats on being named one of the 101 Reasons why Big League Stew in thankful!
ReplyDeleteLove the (title) reference. As I was purchasing the long-awaited opus "Chinese Democracy" on Sunday, I came to the realization that the 20 year old flunkie working the counter at HMV wasn't even born when Appetite for Destruction was released. That gets a big JFC from me.
ReplyDelete(as you can see, I don't have anything baseball related to discuss. Should make for a terrific post on the weekend.)
Hey, I'm 20 and I own both Appetite for Destruction and Brothers in Arms, so I got the reference.
ReplyDeleteI will mainline MLBtv 365 days a year. Excited.
ReplyDeleteHow can the kids not get the reference? Dire Straits even used it as the first line of Money For Nothing. Unless the kids are Canadian and never got their MTV until there was no M left in it.
ReplyDeleteBrothers in Arms came out 23 years ago...You see what we're saying?
ReplyDeleteWell obviously I didn't buy it on the day it came out..or even the decade it came out, but I have owned it for some time now.
ReplyDeleteAn entire generation is a bit harsh. Perhaps people born after 1995, but anyone born in the 80's who would have been a teenager during the 90's surely, without any question, knows Money For Nothing.
ReplyDeleteI love how people assume "the newer generations" aren't with it. Don't paint everyone with the same brush. I was born in 1983, and I've known MFN since I was 10, at least.
this has no meaning to a Shaw subscriber....years from getting mlbtv....especially with shaw having to go through Rogers for rights and apparently there being no baseball fans in Mr. Shaw's backyard.
ReplyDelete