Thoughts for the Day: DirecTV and the Return of the OTHER Billy Bean

For as much of a public-relations flogging as Major League Baseball has taken over its rumored decision to offer the Extra Innings Package exclusively through DirecTV this season, you have to give Bud Selig and his staff a certain perverse credit: they’re STILL finding a way to make it worse. I guess it's just what they do well.

The league hasn’t officially acknowledged anything about the deal yet; no denial of the rumor, no confirmation of the deal, not even a “no comment at this time.” Still, journalists around the country, including Richard Sandomir of the New York Times, who originally broke the story, continue to report that it’s a done deal just waiting for some dotted I’s and crossed T’s. Columnists have protested, fans nationwide have expressed outrage, and Senator John Kerry has even called for government action. Meanwhile, in absolute classic Selig Administration style, Major League Baseball has said nothing. Just like with the steroid issue, they pretend there’s no elephant in the room while the public throws its collective hands up in disgust.

The effect: We’re six weeks from the start of the season, and nobody knows yet whether they’ll have to get DirecTV if they want to get the Extra Innings package. We THINK we’ll have to, but we don’t know for sure, because MLB won’t say anything about it. And the thing is, the story has to be true, because if it wasn’t, MLB would be scrambling to the nearest microphones, cameras, and keyboards to ensure fans that, not to worry, the package will be available through all traditional outlets this season and you should hurry up and subscribe because Steve Trachsel is still unsigned and could still probably get a $75-million deal if we fans could shell out a few more bucks (or something like that).

On MLB.com, the official Web site of Major League Baseball, a search for the Extra Innings package returns one hit that indicates that the package is still available to all subscribers of both satellite and digital cable (screen shot here). This appears, however, to be old information that was never deleted from the site’s index; when you click on “More information”, the link simply bumps you back to the MLB.com home page instead of actually offering more information. Major League Baseball at its user-friendly best: Delete all info indicating that you’re screwing your most loyal, hard-core fan base, but forget to delete it all.

One would think that if MLB was committed to its decision to abandon cable subscribers and go exclusively to DirecTV, it would at least want to offer fans enough time to plan a switch before the start of the season. One might even think that a truly business-savvy organization might organize a Public Relations campaign around the switch, offering messaging and incentives that at least attempt to paint the move in a positive light and convince fans to switch to DirecTV. But instead, they say nothing as the clock ticks to six weeks until opening day and fans like me wonder whether or not they need to switch.

Of course, the possibility exists that MLB negotiated the deal with DirecTV to the point of near completion and now, upon hearing the public backlash, is trying wriggle free of it while DirecTV stands its legal ground and refuses to yield. We’ve seen this sort of idiocy before from Selig and Friends, most notably when they contracted with Sony Pictures to print Spiderman promotional logos on the bases at Major League games during the 2002 season, only to renege on the deal upon realizing that fans found it to be a cheesy, ham-handed money grab. That single incident is more than enough evidence to remind us that Bud Selig’s ability to be out-of-touch with his own audience knows no bounds.

Another possibility is that Baseball wants to de-emphasize television and steer users to the World Wide Web for the Extra Innings Package. (This column argues persuasively that this mess is tied to a larger effort eventually offer public stock in MLB Interactive). It does seem rather plausible that some slick dot-com marketing whiz from MLB Interactive made a nice case to the MLB stiffs as to why fans would be better off subscribing to games over the Web instead of on television anyway, and Bud bought it hook, line, and sinker because, truth be told, he doesn’t use a computer and really doesn’t even watch too many baseball games in the first place. At this point, Selig seems so oblivious to so many things that I think Barry Bonds could walk into his Manhattan office on a Monday morning, take a massive, parasitic, growth-hormone-ridden shit all over the floor, pick up a handful and whip it at the window, cackle ravenously, and walk out, and Selig would work right through it and not acknowledge the smell or mess until the cleaning crew arrived on Friday afternoon.

Vile images aside, as this situation continues to fester, the ill-fated Spiderman deal doesn’t just offer a previous example of Selig’s time-honored penchant for inviting public criticism; it’s also an example of his willingness to relent when he realizes he’s made the wrong decision. Let's hope that wasn't just a one-time occurrence. There’s still time to get this right. But for God's sake at least acknowledge that it's an issue for a lot of good baseball fans across the country and tell us what to expect.

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I mean, seriously…is there any chance that Oakland A’s GM Billy Beane DIDN’T yell “Jesus effing Christ, not again!” and gun a cup of coffee at the wall when he saw this? I wonder if anyone has ever approached him with a copy of "Moneyball" in one hand and a copy of "Going the Other Way: Lessons From a Life in and out of Major League Baseball" in another, seeking the Bean(e) stamp of approval on the two most important texts to the modern gay baseball stat junkie.

The New York Post's Jay Greenberg this weekend declared Bobby Abreu the most overrated pro athlete in the New York market, trotting out the ridiculous, Philadelphia-made criticism that Abreu is afraid to run into the outfield wall as the reason to believe he's not as good a player as his statistics indicate. "Rotisserie numbers are helped by his sharp eye at the plate, almost as keen as his eye for the right-field wall. Stays clear of it while wearing a glove. Doesn't clear it often enough with his bat," wrote Greenberg. It was an abruptly curious and unprovoked end to Abreu's grace period in New York, which for most of last season seemed like a honeymoon. One could argue that Abreu may not exactly be worth $16-plus million a year, or perhaps even argue that he's a bit overrated as a right fielder. But does his willingness to run into the wall really overshadow 10 out of11 years of .400-plus On-Base Percentage and four straight seasons of 100-plus RBIs? Those numbers would somehow be more valid if he threw himself into the front row a couple of times a month? If your financial advisor brought thirty percent annual returns on your money, would you criticize him for not doing it aggressively enough? And what metric is used to measure "willingness to run into the right field wall," anway? Is it the same stat that's used to measure the size of David Eckstein's heart and the absence of J.D. Drew's passion?

Three head-scratchers from Nick Cafardo’s 2007 National League Preview in this past Sunday’s Boston Globe: In assessing the Atlanta Braves' '07 outlook, after the obligatory “these guys just know how to win” filler, Cafardo says, “All eyes will be on Scott Thorman, replacing Adam LaRoche at first base”; in St. Louis, Cafardo feels that “All eyes will be on Adam Kennedy’s return to second base”; and in Cincinnati, the prediction is that “All eyes will be on righty Gary Majewski, who had a sore arm when he was acquired from Washington last season.” It’s bad enough to fall in love with this “All eyes will be on…” nonsense; but there may not be three players in the entire Major Leagues to whom LESS attention will be paid this season than Scott Thorman, Adam Kennedy, and Gary Majewski. If all eyes are really going to be on them this year, I’ll be ordering the WNBA Season Pass, thanks, because it’s not shaping up to be a terribly interesting year. Cafardo is normally a reliable baseball writer in a bland, “at-least-he’s-not-Jayson-Stark” kind of way, but this work does NOT represent the long legacy of superior Globe baseball coverage very well.