Giuliani Time, Revisited

As fans know, two years go I wrote a song called “Giuliani Time.” Specifically, this song was about how I tried to go to a baseball game with a “New York Sucks” T-shirt and they wouldn’t let me in, but more generally about how as a Baltimore Orioles Baseball fan, we are consistently pooped upon (note: trying to swear less in the blog) by the ownership and management of Camden Yards.
It is now two days into the new baseball season, the Orioles have lost two in a row, but part of me is already not caring. Opening Day is one of the most revered day in sports. No matter how awful your team is (and mine’s been pretty awful for the last 9 years) there is always this magical event all throughout the baseball world where all the sins of the last years are washed away, at least for a while. It dissipates, of course, but for one brief day the world is right, my team is at .500 (0-0) and I feel good about being a fan, either attending the game, or watching it on TV.

So imagine my disappointment and disgust with the management of the Peter Angelos-run Mid Atlantic Sports Network when I discovered that Opening Day would NOT be broadcast on free TV, as it should be. Please, please give a moment to think about how utterly silly this is: Opening Day! It would be as if they put the Super Bowl on cable (which I imagine is not far off, actually). The only way I could watch my team lose to Minnesota (7-4) would be to either have cable, or go somewhere with cable. And to be honest, I don’t have the money to drink at a sports bar any time I want to watch a ballgame (loyal readers will note that I have already declared myself to be a proud cheapskate) and I sure as heck (“heck?”) don’t want to spend the money on cable just to watch baseball. So for the first day in many, many years, I missed Opening Day.

And finally, there is no relief: the TV schedule has painfully few free games I can watch. There are games on Sunday, and the occasional Saturday, but for the most part, I will be stuck listening on the radio as baseball goes the way of professional boxing (as in, the only way to follow it is to pay through the nose for special “pay-per-view” fights) That is, of course, if I still care enough to be following the O’s.

(all right, who am I kidding? I’ll still be a fan, because I love Baltimore and by now I’m used to the abuse.)

I came out to support my team but my team won't support me.