We write letters...

October 4, 2010

Allan H. (Bud) Selig, Commissioner
Address: 245 Park Avenue, 31st Floor
New York, NY  10167

Dear Commissioner Selig:

For decades before I was born, baseball has been “America’s Pastime.” I have been a baseball fan for many of my forty-nine years.  I have been a Tampa Bay Rays fan since before the franchise actually started playing baseball.

I was delighted that my beloved Rays won the AL East.  I was looking forward to watching them beat the Rangers.  Imagine my dismay when I discovered that all the postseason games were to be held on TBS, a channel that my cable provider  (Comcast) refuses to provide in their digital economy service. 

We are in the middle of a recession.  I am myself out of work.  The only reason that we have any cable at all is because it is the only way to get broadcast channels such as ABC and CBS, etc. with any real sort of clarity.  We have had to cut back and economize, with the result that we now need to purchase the most basic package Comcast has to offer.  As a result, we are frozen out of watching all of the postseason play before the World Series. 

So many of us struggle with finances these days.  Eighty dollars a month (which is what the lowest cable package ComCast offers which has TBS on it) is a problem.  And my family is weathering this economic storm better than many – we are not in danger of losing our home, and we have food to eat.

Across the country, average everyday people support baseball in a whole myriad of ways.  And now they are being rewarded by being deprived of seeing the most important month of games in the baseball year.  So much for baseball being “America’s Pastime.”

It is too late for this year.  Please make changes next year and thereafter so postseason games can be available to everyone, and not place fans at the mercy of cable providers. 

Please put the good of the game – and loyalty to its fans – above mercenary considerations.  Thank you.

Sincerely,


[Me]