Comcast is Evil, the Phillies are Stupid and the Eagles are Run by a Bunch of Lucky Morons

As frequent readers may have noticed, Phillyville is (somewhat) offline due to the shenangians of a certain media conglomerate named Comcast. Apparently, Comcast has attained full and complete monopoly status as evidenced by it's "we-don't-give-an-effing-damn-about-your-business" approach to customer service.

So, to spite Comcast, and to save a few bucks. I'm switching over to DirecTV for the TV and Verizon for high-speed internet access.

It was a tough bullet to bite, but a man's got to live by his principles, a line must be drawn, and whatever those principles may be and whereever that line may be drawn, I am sure that Comcast is on the wrong side of it. So, bye bye Comcast and its $466M in net income.

DirecTV arrives sometime on Saturday between 8am and 12pm.

DirecTV will come with one major drawback - no Comcast SporstNET. No Michael Barkann and Daily News Live. No John Marzano. And, most disheartening, no Phillies.

Aside from the occasional appearance on ESPN (and the obvious drawbacks Joe Morgan brings to that table) and Sunday afternoons on UPN, I'll be without the Phils for the foreseeable future. Sure, I could sign up for MLB Extra Innings package and I probably will. But then, I'll only get to see every other game or so, and always the out of town broadcast. Even if I sign up for MLB Extra Innings, I still will not be able to watch the Phils as all the Phils games get blacked out.

DirecTV carries a Sports Pack that includes just about every local sports channel in the lower 48. That includes Comcast SportsNet (Chicago), Comcast SportsNet (Mid-Atlantic), and Comcast SportsNet (West) but not Comcast SportsNet (Philadelphia). Why no Philadelphia? Because Comcast is Evil! (Didn't you read the damn title?!?!)

The FCC requires that every channel that is broadcast over the air must be made available to cable and satellite system for use in their programming packages. Comcast knows this and deviously skirts this rule by making Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia only available over its cable lines. No broadcast = no FCC and no obligation to make the channel available to non-Comcast subscribers. By keeping Comcast SportsNet Philly off the air and out of the FCC's jurisdiction, Comcast gives itself a local monopoly of Philadelphia sports, a monopoly that it deftly uses to extract higher subscriber fees and beat back the threat of competition from the likes of DirecTV.

I mean who would use Comcast if we could get the Flyers and the Phillies on satellite?

Why are we the lucky ones? Why Philadelphia? Why can't Comcast use this strategy in the other cities that it controls the broadcast rights to the local teams? Why don't D.C.'s DirecTV users get frozen out of Nationals' games? Do other cities require that their teams that get $100M+ public subsidies to build stadiums and what not require that the the games played in those stadiums don't become the exclusive content used by some company to protect its local monopoly?

Shouldn't local taxpayers get to watch Phils games for free in return for the giant hunking subsidy paid out to the Phils to build CBP? Guess not. Instead, Comcast gets a club with which it beats back the competition and holds up those same taxpayers for about another $50 per month.

Something just don't make sense.

How did we find ourselves here? Is it our incompetent politicians? Oh, c'mon we've only got a few years left of Mayor Street to kick around...

Whatever the reason, I blame the Phillies management. Why? Because the Phillies are a damn stupid bunch. And it's not just because they sign horrible players to obscenely expensive contracts for grotesquely long periods. It's not just because they have a pitching staff composed of one decent pitcher. No it goes deeper than all that.

Growing up, I'd watch the Phillies just about every night. Turn the knob to the UHF position, then twist the other knob to Channel 29 and there they'd be, in all their maroon and powder blue glory. I made it to the occasional game but it was night after summer night watching that old beat up Zenith that imprinted this team upon my soul. A deep-set affection took hold of me. Thirty odd years later, no matter how hard my right brain tries, I cannot shake it.

Which brings me to the reason why my right brain knows the Phillies are run by a damn stupid bunch of no-name hooligans.

What of the generation of sports fans who are growing up unable to twist the proverbial knob and watch the Phillies night after night? The Phillies sit by and wonder why they have become irrelevant to the majority of this city. Why? It is not because of their losing ways - they've been doing that for over a century. I posit it is because they are not on broadcast TV.

Now I don't know the percentages of Philadelphia households that have Comcast. Based on my own imperfect survey of my co-workers, 3 out of 5 people have Comcast. The other two - myself and another - have DirecTV and therefore relegated to watch the Phils only on Sunday afternoons. And to be honest, Sunday afternoons is pretty much worthless to the average viewer. It's the summertime and the weekend, unless its raining, I can't imagine everyone doesn't have something better to do than sit at home and watch the Phils on UPN. And if it's raining, the Phils ain't gonna be on anyway!!!

So, like I said, I have no idea whether my unscientific survey reflects the at-large population but I am sure of one thing, less than 100% of the population of Philly has Comcast and that's far less than the 100% who received Channel 29 in the good old days. In other words, if I was to grow up today, I would not have been able to watch the Phillies night after night. And, not watching the Phils night after night, I would have never become such a fan of the sorry franchise.

While it is a likely a good thing for the mental well-being of young Philadelphians that will now avoid the unfortunate fate of becoming a fan of the franchise, I cannot imagine that the Phillies made the decision to take all their weeknight games of the air just to spare the youth of this city. No, I imagine the Phillies took their games off broadcast TV and gave Comcast the exclusive rights over the games for one reason - money.

(Yup - brace yourself, I'm about to do it, I'm about to tie this whole thing into the whole theme thing of this whole blog.)

And guess what, I'm willing to bet, nay guarantee, that the Phillies decision to take Comcast's dollars caused the Phils to lose more dollars elsewhere. And folks, you know what that is - that's myopia, that's the kind of thinking that caused the Athletics to move to Kansas City, to allow the institution of the BPT, the list goes on and on. Around here in Phillyville, we've got a phrase for it - more of the same.

Is it a coincidence that the Phillies have become irrelevant during the period of time their games are no longer broadcast to all residents of the Delaware valley? I think not.

While Channel 29 may have not been able to beat the amount of money Comcast was willing to throw at Phillies management, Channel 29 certainly beats the amount of eyeballs that would tune in. Take all the damn flags waving on Chestnut, take dying the Phanatic red, take every damn Septa bus with Chase Utley's mug plastered to its side, roll 'em all up and they're not even close to amount of advertising and goodwill that the Phils threw away when they took their games off the air and on to Comcast.

How many seats go unfilled every night? How many beers go wanting for a pair of thirsty lips? How many caps, jerseys and plush Phanatic dolls go unsold all for the reason that another young fan will grow up unable to watch the Phils night after night on the old creaky zenith down in the basement play room?

And if you don't believe me, ask those bunch of greedy stinkin morons that call the Linc home. Ask them what being the only team with all of its game available for free week after week, Sunday after Sunday, has done for their popularity in this town? Coincidence? You may think so, Jeff Lurie may think so. He'd tell you he's so damn smart and Joe Banner is so damn smart that there's no way that all their success was just the result of some dumb historic coincidence that left them as the only Philly sports team that gets access to every damn eyeball for every one of its games. I don't think so.

The Phils shot themselves in the foot. Now they're on par with the Sixers and the Flyers in terms of popularity - two teams that have always had limited popularity because they have been only available for viewing on cable (remember Prism anyone?).

So, I'll be left watching the Phils' away broadcast at Grace's Tavern down on Gray's Ferry and South. But I'm the outlier in this whole equation. Most folks would just forget about the Phils. And my kids will grow up watching something else on the basement set. A whole generation of Phillies fans snuffed out by an imprudent decision to take Comcast's dirty monopoly money. Good for them - my misery does not love company.

And to be honest, I'm not really all that upset about not being able to watch the home broadcast. Harry the K is a Hall of Famer but can we stop shuffling him from radio to T.V. to radio and back? Only the Phillies brass would think it is a good idea to switch the guys calling the game every three innings. I mean who would ever think its a good idea to break up the flow of a game like that?

Oh yeah, the same bunch of dumbass stupid heads that took their games off broadcast TV.