I Admit It: I Was Wrong About the Pitch Clock Ruining Baseball

The pitch clock is actually SAVING baseball.

As San Francisco Chronicle columnist Scott Ostler wrote this weekend, “Also recognized as a major advance in Western civilization: The pitch clock. Even San Francisco Giants broadcaster Mike Krukow, who is so old-school he brings an apple for the teacher, loves the clock.”

I readily admit I was clinging to the fact that only baseball among the major sports had no clock (and no cheerleaders). ‘Nuff said.

Now, back to my proposed ROTO rule. Keep reading below.

If you want excitement, you want more runs, more action – (ROTO) 'would certainly bring more action, because nothing is more exciting than a play at the plate on a sac fly.’

The headline above quotes Ron Wotus, former San Francisco Giants bench and third base coach, when baseball savant Marty Lurie asked him about my proposed Run On Third Out (ROTO) rule.

I had emailed Lurie last week to promote ROTO. His reply said he was interested and would talk with Wotus about ROTO on Lurie’s “Talking Baseball” show on Giants flagship station KNBR before Sunday’s Giants game. (Their conversation is transcribed below.)

 

Both Lurie and Wotus opined that ROTO seems a bit radical and would take some getting used to if it were implemented, but the fact that ROTO had an airing on 50,000-watt KNBR – “THE Sports Leader” – was greatly encouraging. 

 

Wotus zeroed in on ROTO’s essence – more action, more scoring, more strategy in a game that has become so boring that CLOCKS are now a core component of the game, which until this year was the only major sport free of all time constraints for the past 150 years! And that was a good thing.

 

New Rules Are a Travesty!

 

In my opinion, the pitcher and batter clocks are the worst thing that has ever happened to baseball and may in the long run ruin the sport. As TV play-by-play man Duane Kuiper said on KNBR last week, he's heard no complaints about longer game times from fans who actually attend games!

 

The view here is that MLB’s new time-constraining rules are fatally flawed and more radical by far than ROTO. With open minds and fertile imaginations, baseball can continue to evolve, but it will take more imagination that MLB’s leadership has heretofore revealed. 

 

Ron Wotus had it exactly right: ROTO would introduce more action, more scoring, more throws, more excitement, and more strategy into a game – "a thinking man's game" – badly in need of all of that.

 

March 5 segment on Marty Lurie’s pregame show:

 

LURIE: Well, the fans love sending me emails with ideas. We respect them because they think through these things. I have a very passionate fan, Doug Carlson, who sent me an email, and I shared it with you (Ron Wotus), and he calls his proposal Run On Third Out.

 

Essentially what it would be is, when a fly ball is caught for the third out, if there’s a runner on third, he could tag up and score on the third out, because it gives you more runs in the game, there’s more action, more throws, all of that kind of stuff. If you have a guy on second and third, they both could tag up and try to score.

 

I threw this at you (Wotus) and I wanted to get your thoughts about it. I told Doug that this is a little radical, you know, it’s a little different, but in this world of baseball changing every 30 seconds, here we go.

 

WOTUS: That’s the point, and I appreciate Doug’s thought on this, as a lot of fans have, because the rules have changed so much. I’m telling you, the experience I have in the game, and with all these new rules, you have to study like you’re studying for a final exam. And as these nuances change and change, but back to Doug’s point. I think it would be very very difficult obviously to do. I think that it’s really kinda extreme in my opinion to let the guy tag up on the third out, but if you want excitement, you want more runs, more action – that would certainly bring more action, because nothing is more exciting than a play at the plate on a sac fly.

 

LURIE: Well, the way he has it, on a play at the plate, it’s more like a play at first base, so all you have to do is catch the ball and tag home plate before the guy gets there. 

 

WOTUS: Well, that’s the way we used to play wiffelball, right?  When you were in Brooklyn and we were hitting on the streets in pickup games, those were the types of things that we did.     

 

LURIE: Exactly right, I did it in softball in San Francisco. All you have to do is tag the plate before the guys’ there, so that’s Doug’s idea. And I appreciate when people send me thoughts, because they’re very passionate. They’re baseball fans.

 

WOTUS: Well, they are, they are, you know baseball for me has always been a thinking man’s game, and this is where you’re getting people with these ideas. They see the rules being tweaked and changed, and people have opinions, so it’s great that he has a voice to go ahead and reach out to you, send you the email, and hear you talk about it.

 

LURIE: This would have driven you nuts as a third base coach.

 

WOTUS: Oh yeah, oh yeah. I would have been running off the field when the guy caught the ball. It’s not easy for me to adjust, so I’d have to have a rules packet in my back pocket to make sure I don’t screw that one up.

 

LURIE: Not only could he score with one out, he’s scoring with two outs. Keep you busy, let’s put it that way. Alright, Douglas, thank you for the thought, we do appreciate it.

And here my March 3 email to Marty Lurie that prompted his conversation with Ron Wotus:

 

Marty, the interest you've shown in my proposed Run On Third Out (ROTO) rule is the most encouraging development in all my outreach efforts going back to the 1970s. I'm sincerely grateful for your interest and would gladly participate in Sunday’s on-air discussion on ROTO with Ron Wotus as a resource to address questions and comments.

 

People who don't like my ROTO rule seem to think it would be too radical a change to existing rules, but my response is that ROTO is not radical at all. ROTO simply applies the same tag-up rule to all outs made by caught fly balls, a relatively minor addition that barely moves the change needle. What ROTO does do is introduce a new way to score, along with increased on-field action and excitement. That's what baseball needs. 

 

The most radical thing that has ever happened to baseball is the introduction of the clock. The new timing rules show just how unimaginative MLB's leadership has been in addressing baseball's so-called "boring problem." To their credit, the elimination of radical shifts may prove to be a good change, but increasing the size of the bases is a gimmick that smacks of desperation. That change actually reduces the distance between bases, doesn't it? That seems less like an improvement and more like another gimmick (like the "gift runner" on second in extra innings) and radical stab at the game’s integrity.

 

Here again are ROTO’s key features:

·       When a fly ball is caught for the third out in a half-inning, runners on base can tag up after the catch and attempt to score by running to home plate.

·       The team in the field can prevent the run(s) from scoring by throwing and/or relaying the ball to the catcher, who touches the plate with his foot, which is how outs are recorded at first base and other bases on force plays.

·       All runners on base when a third out is made by a caught fly ball can attempt to score after they tag up. (Baseball’s current rules allow runners on base to score on ground balls if they reach home without a third out being made at one of the bases.)

·       Runner/catcher collisions at home plate would not be a factor, as tagging the runner would not be how the run is prevented.

·       An at-bat team that unsuccessfully attempts to score using the ROTO rule would begin its next at-bat inning with one out already recorded against it.

Again, Marty, I’d welcome facing slings and arrows in a ROTO discussion on this or any other Sunday. I think even traditionalists might be open to ROTO now that Old Man Time is baseball's chief executive -- a radical shift like no other.

MLB’s Experiment To Increase Action Falls Flat; Strikeouts Were Up, Action Remained Stagnant. Will Baseball Execs Finally Take Note of Proposal To Dramatically Increase Action and Excitement? It’s Called ROTO!

Baseball is in trouble. Is boring too strong a word?

MLB experimented with an “action-inducing” proposal in the independent Atlantic League in 2021 by moving the pitching mound 12 inches further from home plate to 61 feet 6 inches.

 

So what happened? Did fans see more exciting action, more hitting, more base running?

 

Nope. So said Atlantic League President Rick White in an NPR Interview:

 

“We didn’t notice a material change in offensive statistics. While strikeouts went up, we didn’t see a corresponding increase with any dynamic action relative to batted balls.”

 

Pause for a moment on the “strikeouts went up” comment. More strikeouts?

 

In fewer words, the experiment flopped! Action did not increase, but strikeouts did. How exciting!

 

Into the breech we step with our rule proposal called ROTO – Run On Third Out. It’s detailed in several posts below, but the most recent one dated April 18, 2021 is a basic primer.

 

I aimed the following Tweet yesterday at five MLB executives and Mr. White:

 

The Atlantic League’s mound move added no excitement. Try something different – my proposed Run On Third Out (ROTO) rule. Take 1 minute to read commaaina.blogspot.com & you’ll agree ROTO = FAN EXCITEMENT. Thanks. @karintimpone @MLB_PR @AtlanticLg @TD_Reagins @chrismarinak

 

You’re invited to read about ROTO and embrace this proposed rule change, which isn’t as radical as moving the pitching mound! 

 

And if you know how to directly communicate with Theo Epstein, please let me know. As the Washington Post noted in a 2021 article, Epstein may be the key. 

 

Tweet recipients: 

 

(Clockwise from top left): Chris Marinak, MLB’s Chief Operations and Strategy Officer; Tony Reagins, Chief Baseball Development Officer; Karin Timpone, Executive Vice President, Chief Marketing Officer; Pat Courtney, Chief Communications Officer; Rick White, Atlantic League President; and (indirectly) Rob Manfred, Commissioner of Baseball

April 18 Update — Will Another Round of Outreach to Influencers (such as MLB Rules Consultant Theo Epstein) about My Proposed ‘Run on Third Out’ (ROTO) Rule Produce any Responses?

What’s the adage? “If your first dozen attempts don’t succeed, try try again.” 

I’ve been batting .000 across the board in my attempts over the past several years to solicit a response from “influencers” who care about making baseball a more exciting and action-packed game. My slugging percentage also is zip, because slugging the wall doesn’t count.

Undaunted, our email today went to an address at Major League Baseball with a request that it be delivered to MLB’s rules consultant Theo Epstein, an influencer of the first order. Here’s the entire email, including what I sent just yesterday to SF Chronicle writer John Shea.

Please forward to Rules Consultant Theo Epstein.  This is my slightly modified email that I sent April 17 to baseball writer John Shea at the San Francisco Chronicle. 

Begin forwarded message:

From: Doug Carlson <dougcarlson2@comcast.net>
Date: April 17, 2021 at 9:15:01 AM HST
To: jshea@sfchronicle.com
Subject: Run On Third Out (ROTO) rule

John, I’ve been a reader for years. Friday’s column suggests you’re open to rules evolution in baseball, so I’m submitting my proposal for your consideration and (perhaps) comment:

The “Run On Third Out” (ROTO) rule allows men on base to tag up and attempt to score after an outfielder catches a fly ball for the third out in an inning. 

A man on third with two outs waits for the fly ball to be caught, tags up, then races for home. The outfielder throws, and the catcher makes the catch and touches the plate with his foot to record the out — just as outs are routinely recorded at first base. The no-tag element at home (think Posey) avoids collisions and injuries. Inning over.

Imagine men on second and third with two outs and a fly ball to Triples Alley in Oracle Park. Both men tag and run when the outfielder makes the catch for the third out and throws to the cut-off man near second base. The man on third makes it home easily and scores, but whether the man running from second scores is still in doubt depending on the play at home. If it’s the bottom of the 9th with the Giants trailing by a run or two, the game’s outcome hangs on the quality of the two throws. (Shallow fly balls would simply end the inning if the on-base team chooses not to ROTO.)

ROTO would emphasize the importance of developing outfielders with strong and accurate arms, a new major consideration for the annual baseball draft. That’s just one probability, and many more would become obvious, such as inserting fast men as pinch runners late in a game. Stealing third with two outs might make sense depending on who’s at bat, game status, etc.

Imagine the difference in game situations between ROTO and the current rule. Today, a fly ball with the bases loaded with two outs ends the inning or game without a whimper. Under ROTO, all hell is about to break loose when the ball leaves the bat on a trajectory to a deep outfielder.

This is a rough approximation of ROTO, which I conceived in the 1970s and submitted to Charlie Finley when the Oakland A’s owner asked fans to send him their suggestions to improve baseball. Nothing came of it, but I’ve written occasionally about ROTO at my baseball blog a few times, each time making refinements. ROTO is a work in progress: http://commaaina.blogspot.com 

If fans want more action, ROTO delivers much more action, excitement, and strategic thinking. ROTO would be a big change — just like other big changes in baseball, such as the “gift” runner at second base in extra innings and moving back the pitching rubber. Test ROTO in the minors (the Atlantic League, for instance), and I can guarantee the younger generation will embrace it. Thanks for reading.

Let’s see what happens. If it’s nothing, I’ll try and try again. Eventually, someone will focus on how the ROTO rule would add more excitement than tweaking how far the pitching rubber is from home plate! ROTO would be a huge crowd pleaser.

3/20/21 Update -- Let's run the ROTO rule past Tyler Kepner of The NY Times again and see what happens

Call it Strike 1 -- my 2018 email to Tyler Kepner, national baseball writer at the New York Times. I didn't hear back, but now that even he is writing about improving baseball's rules, maybe he'll warm to my proposed Run On Third Out (ROTO) rule. I've been pushing it since the 1970s. Is the time finally right in the 2020s?

Here's the email I sent to Kepner today after reading his Q&A piece under the headline More Steals, No Shifts and Robot Umps: 'Our Fans Want the Action'

I’m no genius, but I think my suggested rule change has potential. The “Run On Third Out” (ROTO) rule allows men on base to tag up and attempt to score after an outfielder catches a fly ball for the third out in an inning. 

A man on third with two outs waits for the fly ball to be caught, tags up, then races for home. The outfielder throws home, and the catcher makes the catch and touches the plate with his foot to record the out — just as first base outs are routinely recorded. The no-tag element at home avoids collisions and injuries. Inning over.

Imagine men on second and third with two outs and a long fly ball to the deepest reaches of a ballpark, like Triples Alley in San Francisco. Both men tag up and run when the outfielder makes an over the shoulder catch, whirls, and throws to the cut-off man near second base. The man on third makes it home easily, but whether the man running from second scores is still in doubt depending on how the bang-bang play at home turns out. If it’s the bottom of the 9th with the home team trailing by a run or two, the game’s outcome hangs on the quality of the two throws. (ROTO would emphasize the importance of developing outfielders with accurate and strong arms.)

This is a rough approximation of ROTO, which I conceived in the 1970s and submitted to Charlie Finley when the Oakland A’s owner asked fans to send him their suggestions to improve baseball. Nothing came of it, but I’ve written occasionally about ROTO at my baseball blog a few times, each time making refinements. ROTO is a work in progress.

The subhead under the More Steals piece: Raul Ibanez, Michael Hill and Morgan Sword discuss the changes baseball is implementing in the minors in hopes of spicing up things in the majors.

Even baseball purists wed to the "traditional game" with no changes would have to admit ROTO would spice up baseball. I believe the younger generations would love it.

One more thing is certain: I don't give up easily. ROTO deserves serious consideration, and I'll keep looking for somebody or some group to give it.

8/19/18 Update — My Email to Tyler Kepner, National Baseball Writer at the NY Times, on My ‘Run on Third Out’ Rule

Mr. Kepler, I just read your piece on Ks vs. hits in the Sacramento Bee, so I’m writing to advance an idea I’ve been peddling since the ‘70s when Charlie Finley openly asked fans to send him ideas to “improve’ baseball. He didn’t write back.

But I’ve kept at it, minimally. My “End the Infamous Hawaii MLB Blackout” blog is where I’ve most recently pushed the idea. Please have a look, especially the February 27, 2017 post, the longest and most “evolved” treatment of my idea at the blog.

My proposed rule change would allow runners to tag and attempt to advance to the next base when the third out is made on a fly ball to the outfield. I.E., a man on third could attempt to reach home after the catch and tag, but the outfielder could prevent the run from scoring by throwing home to the catcher before the runner hits the plate. No tag would be necessary — just a foot on home. All runners on base would be obligated after the catch and tag to try to reach the base in front of them. With multiple men on base, the outfielder could throw to the nearest base to prevent the runner on third from scoring. Again, no tag necessary, just as there’s no tag required on outs made at first base. And a new thought this morning: With men on second and third when the third out is made, an errant throw to the plate could score both runners if the ball goes to the backstop before the ball is retrieved and thrown to whomever is covering home.

It would be a radical rule change, but it undeniably would energize baseball, a game that must be in trouble judging by all the journalism about the problem. Erik Neander might agree that the entertainment value would be high. And as noted at the blog, outfielders with strong arms would be prized players capable of changing the game as significantly as do power hitters and pitchers.

I’d welcome your reaction to my “Run on Third Out” rule.

Second Call to Jody McDonald Show on CBS Sports Radio Nets Positive Feedback from the Host on my "Run on 3rd Out" Rule

As teams get down to business in Spring Training, Major League Baseball's leaders are reacting to the widely held concern that the game is too slow to attract younger fans.

My "run on third out" rule would address that concern by speeding up the game as it simultaneously increases scoring and improves defense. You can read about this fascinating rule change as described in earlier posts below, especially the February 12, 2017 post.

Jody McDonald, long-time CBS Sports Radio host, took my call today for a second consecutive Sunday discussion on this proposed rule. He again offered enouragement, but MLB is still taking a pass on my proposed speed-up-the-game rule. What are the New York suits waiting for -- another season with dwindling interest among the younger generation(s)? Set your honored traditions aside for the sake of the game, and while you're at it, end the Infamous Hawaii MLB blackout!

My Plan To Improve Baseball Gets an Airing on National Sports Talk Radio; Host Liked Idea, Suggests another Call on February 19th

SACRAMENTO, CA (Feb. 12, 2017) -- Driving to Safeway this afternoon and listening to the Jody McDonald Show on CBS Sports Radio, I turned up the volume when he invited caller comments on MLB's idea to speed up games by putting a man on second base at the start of each half inning in extra innings to increase chances a run would score. I called, got through and pitched my idea, which is detailed (up to a point) in the post immediately below.

Quick review: My idea would make baseball more exciting by increasing scoring and improving defense at the same time. With men on base and two outs, a fly ball that's caught in the outfield under current rules ends the batting team's scoring threat by ending the inning. No drama. My rule would allow a runner on third to tag and try to score once the fly ball is caught. To prevent that from happening, the outfielder would have to throw him out at home. To avoid injurious collisions at the plate, the catcher would only have to step on home with the ball in his glove -- just like the first baseman records outs there.

I had only thought my rule through to the point that the throw would go to home. After about a minute of me explaining my new rule, Jody stopped me and said (paraphrasing), "Once the outfielder catches the ball, where does he throw it?" After a pause, I said "Home." And that energized him to ask "Why home?" Why not, he suggested, to the runner's next base? For example, with men on first and third and a deep fly ball to the right fielder with two outs, why couldn't the fielder throw to second instead of home? He was suggesting that a throw to second that beats the runner would end the inning and negate whatever happened at home when the man on third ran there after the catch. I.E., a fast runner on third could presumably easily beat the throw from the outfield, but a slow runner on first (think catcher) could more easily be thrown out at second than a fast runner heading for home. For one thing, it's a shorter throw.

A Better Idea

Jody asked a great question! I've been pushing this idea (not aggressively I admit) just to get some kind of positive response without thinking through nuances of the proposed "run on third out" rule. I never had focused on anything more than getting the ball to home to prevent the run from scoring from third or even second on a deep fly ball. But it would make sense and increase the potential for crucial plays at one base or another if the defenders had options on which bases to throw to. 

Jody set up this scenario: Man on second, two outs, fly ball to deep right near the foul pole that is caught. With the option of throwing to any base AHEAD OF THE RUNNER, the fielder might choose to throw home instead of to third, which -- if my geometry is correct -- probably is a longer throw than a throw to home for balls hit down the line and caught. So under this modification, the fielder would have the option of throwing to any base ahead of any runner to end the inning.

Another scenario: Dodgers-Giants at AT&T Park in San Francisco. Top of the 9th, Dodgers trail by one run but have the bases loaded with two outs. Batter hits a fly ball to Triple's Alley that is caught. All runners tag and head to the base in front of them. Everybody is on their feet, cheering wildly because they know what's coming -- a throw to second base to get the man at first advancing on the catch. With baseball's current rule, game over, Giants win. But with my rule in place, the outcome hangs on what happens with the Giants center fielder's throw. If it beats the sliding runner (no tag necessary...just the receiving player's foot on the bag), game over, Giants win. But if the runner gets to the bag before the throw, game tied, Giants coming to bat.

Excitement City

Imagine this happening several times a game! The Wow Factor would be huge; excitement would build with numerous scenarios. Instead of innings ending predictably and unexcitedly with fly balls to the outfield even with a man on third, nothing would be decided until the ball is returned to the infield  -- to one base or another.
 Another positive: Outfielders with cannons for arms would be HUGE. This proposal ramps up excitement by increasing scoring opportunities while simultaneously improving defense.

I got a national radio audience to hear the bare bones of this  proposed rule today, and depending on how this proceeds, maybe more will hear it next week. I'm searching now for a way to email Jody and/or CBS Sports Radio. Stay tuned. Literally, stay tuned.

My Plan To Energize Baeeball: Men on Base when Third Out Is Made on Fly Ball Can Tag, Run for Home; If they Beat the Throw, the Runs Score

Everybody complains about the weather, but nobody does anything about it. Mark Twain allegedly said that more than a century ago, and people have been complaining about baseball almost as long.

Well, I'm proposing to do something about improving the game for young fans. The biggest worry in baseball circles is that the game's slow pace is turning off the two youngest generations of Americans. The Wall Street Journal reported in its 8/20/16 edition that 59% of viewers of national baseball broadcasts in 2015 were over 50. Only 36% of the TV audience of NFL telecasts were that age. Baseball is losing the race to capture and hold the interest of younger baseball fans.

I have an idea to speed up the game. I first proposed it to Charlie Finley, baseball's renegade owner in the 1970s after he challenged fans to come up with ideas to improve the game. So I sent him my idea for the "Third Out and Run Rule." Charlie never acknowledged my letter -- maybe because my idea was too radical even for him.

But now, four decades later, baseball needs an infusion of energy to avoid a slow, shriveled decline that mirrors what's happening to its old fan base. Here's the idea:

When the third out is made in a half inning on a fly ball to the outfield or popup anywhere on the field, runners on base can tag after the catch is made and try to make it to home. Their run(s) would count if they can tag or slide into home plate before the catcher either tags them out or touches the plate with his foot after catching the ball thrown to him either on the fly or by relay. The catch-and-step play would be preferred to avoid injuries.

TWO CONTRASTING SITUATIONS

Scenario 1 under existing baseball rules: Two outs in the bottom of the 9th, the home team San Francisco Giants have the bases loaded trailing by two runs. The field, of course, is expansive AT&T Park with its Triples Alley wall 421 feet from home plate at its deepest point.  Every fan is up and shouting as Buster Posey connects with "a high drive to center field" in Duane Kuiper's call. The runners take off at the crack of Posey's bat. If no catch is made, the Giants likely tie the game but might even win if the runner at first can make it home. But the catch IS made, the stadium deflates, game over and fans go home disappointed, and the Giants get no payoff for having loaded the bases. It's just another fly out to end an inning or, in this case, the game. There's no drama whatsoever in this routine play.

Scenario 2 under my Third Out and Run Rule: Instead of running when Posey connects, the runners hold at their bags and tag up when the catch is made. Posey is out, but the runner at third makes it home easily after the catch, and the runner coming from second has rounded third by the time the shortstop relays the throw from shallow center field. The ball is above the mound as the runner begins his slide, then successfully touches home before the catcher can step on the plate with the ball in his glove. Game tied!! The crowd goes crazy!! But if the relay throw is bad and completely misses the catcher, that runner streaking for home all the way from first base might just make it. GIANTS WIN!!!! FANS GO CRAZY!!! BEDLAM!!!!

But not a crazy rule if modernizing and infusing the game with energy is the goal. My rule could come into play several times a game -- and every time the inning's third out is recorded in the outfield with a runner on third. Every such catch made in shallow or middle outfield would produce a close play at the plate to finally retire the side.

Will today's Titans of baseball be more receptive to change  than Charlie Finley was in the early '70s -- especially if it might just save the game from fading away? With the rule now posted and linkable on the Internet, let's see if it has a chance. 

I kinda think Mark Twain would approve.

Sent from my

Columnist Has Had It with Blackout: 'Major League Money Grab Keeps Hawaii Fans in Dark'

Honolulu Star-Bulletin sports columnist Ferd Lewis wrote the piece reproduced below for the April 9, 2016 edition of the paper. He has written other columns on this same subject over the past seven baseball seasons -- and as we've done on those occasions, we beg the newspaper's indulgence for plucking the column from behind its pay wall. San Francisco Chronicle sports reporter and columnist Scott Ostler also has taken notice of Major League Baseball's tolerance of the television blackout inflicted on Hawaii baseball fans -- especially those of the San Francisco Giants and other West Coast teams whose games are not available to the vast majority of TV sets in the Islands. Ostler has written of the MLB "knuckleheads"  who have turned a blind eye to the blackout (see his 9/12/09 column below). Truth be told, Southern California fans of the Dodgers and New Jersey followers of the Yankees apparently are having similar problems in watching their favorite teams -- all because the "suits" put their own financial interests above the fans. Here's Lewis's column:

 By Ferd Lewis

April 9, 2016 -- In Hawaii it isn’t the call of “Play Ball!” that heralds the opening of the Major League Baseball season, it is the forbidding words “not available in your area” across the TV screen.

Yes, another season is upon us and so, too, is the lengthening scourge of the MLB blackout.

In an effort to pry more dollars from fans, MLB teams have staked out what they term “television territory” far beyond their own ballparks. Never mind that Hawaii is 2,500 miles removed from the nearest MLB home plate and fans couln’t drive there if they wanted to, five teams — the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, San Diego Padres, San Francisco Giants and Oakland Athletics — have declared the 50th State part of their empires.

Why the Minnesota Twins didn’t jump on this multi-time-zone money grab isn’t known.

That doesn’t mean that any of them will actually play any games on our shores, you understand. It just means that fans must ante up for regional TV packages serving (and enriching) those teams if they are to watch them outside of national TV games. And, even then, as was demonstrated by the blacking out of ESPN’s Dodgers-Padres season opener, MLB can kidnap a designated number of so-called national broadcasts.

Hawaii is among the most aggrieved markets in the nation on this score. Only Las Vegas, which is staked by the Arizona Diamondbacks in addition to the five teams that claim Hawaii, has more teams attempting to pick its pockets at one time.

Parts of Iowa are claimed by the Chicago White Sox, St. Louis Cardinals, Twins, Chicago Cubs and Milwaukee Brewers.

The impact is that on some days, as local fans noted on Monday’s openers, you could click on one game to find it was blacked out and then flip to another channel to find a similar message. “Based on trying to watch various games on Sunday and (Monday), seems like a carbon copy of last year’s situation so far,” said Honolulu fan Phil Kinnicutt.

So you know just whose TV colony you are, MLB has a place on its website where you can type in your zip code and find a listing of the teams you will be required to pay for.

MLB’s policy states, “home television territory blackout restrictions apply regardless of whether a club is home or away and regardless of whether or not a game is televised in a club’s television territory.”

This form of hijacking has been going on for more than five years, but this year is the most egregious coming after the settlement of a court case that had the potential to blow up the whole model.

Not long after MLB instituted its territorial blackout policy it became the subject of a federal antitrust class action suit, Garber v. Office of the Commissioner of Baseball, challenging some of its broadcast policies.

But minutes before the trial was to begin on the lawsuit in January, MLB and the plaintiffs announced a settlement agreement. The deal had some rewards for fans in terms of pricing but did little for those of us in the far-flung TV territories.

Another season but same old baseball avarice.

———

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820. 

2016 Season about To Begin with Blackout Intact; Will Comcast Takeover of Time-Warner End Their Disregard for Giants, A’s Fans in Hawaii?

What will make the knuckleheads running these companies do the right thing?

JANUARY 26, 2016 UPDATE with this news: http://bit.ly/1RLA1ZN
Boiled down to a peanut shell, the great majority of San Francisco Giants and Oakland A’s fans in Hawaii can’t watch those teams’ games on TV or the Internet (MLB.com, etc.) because broadcast rights holder Comcast and Hawaii's dominant cable system, Time-Warner, have refused to cut a deal, and MLB stands to the side without lifting a finger for Hawaii fans.

The blackout has been in place for SEVEN seasons and seems unbroken on the eve of MLB’s 2016 season. The only cracks in the blackout wall are the 15 games Honolulu station KITV brings in each year and the deal Comast made with satellite providers, which probably account for 10 percent of the Hawaii market if they’re lucky. 

Honolulu Star-Advertiser sports columnist Ferd Lewis wrote about the blackout  July 3, 2012, and San Francisco Chronicle columnist Scott Ostler called out the knuckleheads (his word) behind the blackout in 2010.

If Comcast’s takeover of Time-Warner goes through despite the monopoly critics fear it would create, the impasse over cable-casting Bay Area teams’ games in Hawaii presumably would end. How could it not end? The companies would be on the same side of the table, not at odds across it.

But that conclusion probably is too logical. This seven-season blackout has been without a scrap of goodwill toward Hawaii’s baseball fans from Major League Baseball, Comcast, Time-Warner and the teams themselves.

If there’s a will to keep screwing Hawaii’s fans, this cabal will find a way.

Here's the Ferd Lewis column that explains why fans in Hawaii of every MLB team are affected by this blackout:

Greed traps Hawaii’s Giants fans in sad squeeze play

By Ferd Lewis
Honolulu Star-Advertiser

POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Mar 02, 2014
It hasn't been easy to be a San Francisco Giants fan in Hawaii these past few seasons, even with two World Series banners.

But this year it is getting more frustrating for the enduring faithful.

The 2014 season will mark the sixth year that Major League Baseball's absurd blackout policy restricts the number of games that fans can watch on TV or via the Internet. It is a greedy dodge that has affected Giants games more than others here, where San Francisco has historically had a strong following.
 
Now, not only will the blackout continue, it comes as the Giants' division rivals, the Padres and Dodgers, have networks debuting here.

Last week, Oceanic Time Warner Cable inaugurated SportsNetLA, the all-Dodgers-all-the-time network, on channels 217 and 319. The Padres' Fox Sports San Diego debuts March 30 on channel 227, Oceanic said.

If that isn't enough to make Giants fans, well, Dodger Blue in the face, then consider that those over-the-top salaries the Dodgers are paying (Clayton
Kershaw's seven-year, $215 million, for instance), are enabled by the $8.35 billion, 25-year rights fees deal Los Angeles has with Time Warner.

That's a four-fold increase over last year and it is being subsidized, in part, by guess who?

KITV's MeTVHawaii (Oceanic channel 126 and over-the-air 4.2), has stepped up to offer a 15-game selection of Giants games between March 15 and Sept. 12, but it is only part of the games that MLB's gluttony takes away.

MLB's scam goes like this: Teams claim territories in which to peddle their product. The Giants, A's, Dodgers, Angels, Mariners and Padres all grabbed our state even though it isn't like local residents can drive to any of their games. What this has allowed the teams and their rights holders to do is use blackouts to leverage cable carriers to ante up for their packages. Some, like the Mariners, have occasionally relented.

But most, notably the Giants and rights holder Comcast, won't budge, even in the case of games on MLB Extra Innings and MLB.com. The height of ridiculousness is that even when the Giants are playing on the East Coast, their games can be blacked out here.

"It makes me really angry ... really, really angry since Time Warner and Comcast have been unable to reach a deal to broadcast the Giants games for five years," fan Phil Kinnicutt wrote in an email. "According to Oceanic, Comcast was asking too much and that it was a Time Warner 'headquarters' decision. This corporate impasse has been going on for five years now while the interests of the fans are ignored and MLB refuses to step in."

The hope is that if Comcast's acquisition of Time Warner goes through, it will eventually provide the kind of change that common sense, the FCC and some political pressures have so far been unable to force.

Meanwhile, don't expect the arrival of Dodgers and Padres networks to soothe too many aggrieved Giants fans.  

Congrats to the Giants, NL West Champions; SF Is Creating a Dynasty, but it Goes Unseen in Hawaii; Almost Forgot: Giants Took Care of WS Business!

What a year 2012 has been for Hawaii’s favorite MLB team, the San Francisco Giants. Matt Cain throws a Perfect Game; Barry Zito rebounds for his best season as a Giant; Buster Posey is favored to win MVP honors, and a handful of late-season additions produced winning streaks that built an 11-game lead over the Los Angeles Dodgers with only 10 to play. That spells DIVISION CHAMPIONSHIP!

Newly situated in Sacramento after our permanent move from Honolulu, we have the luxury of watching the Giants on Comcast’s cable system any time we want. Attending the games is easy, too, if you’re willing to pay the scratch via StubHub for good tickets. We had two nice ones in early September  for a Dodgers-Giants game (that's Posey legging out a double in the photo).

But the games are STILL BLACKED OUT IN HAWAII! It’s a travesty that Giants fans in the islands are suffering – corporate and MLB indifference to a blackout solely because Hawaii is considered to be in the Giants’ “home TV territory.” What a joke.

So enjoy the Playoffs while you can, Hawaii friends. If the 2010 season is a guide, you’ll be able to watch all Division, League and World Series games, and we hope the Giants are winners of the final baseball game of the year in early November. But unless the suits can reach an agreement over the winter, you’ll be back in Giants Blackout Hell come 2013. 

When you fill out your Christmas Gift List for Santa, ask him to drop off some compassion for Giants fans when he visits their homes around Hawaii. And you know what he can leave the executives at Comcast, Time-Warner and MLB – that proverbial lump of coal.

Sports Columnist Rips Giants for Tolerating TV Blackout in Hawaii, and That’s Really Bad PR

The San Francisco Giants organization is a pretty thick-skinned bunch. They’ve shown no aloha whatsoever for their loyal fans in Hawaii as they tolerate the Infamous MLB Blackout of their games in the state.

Honolulu Star-Advertiser sports columnist Ferd Lewis calls out the Giants suits today, and although the newspaper has installed a pretty impenetrable firewall to keep non-subscribers out, we don’t think they'll mind if we quote Ferd’s column in its entirety today. After all, “it’s for the good of the game.”

Giants get their jollies holding Hawaii hostage

By Ferd Lewis
POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Jul 03, 2012

For San Francisco Giants fans in Hawaii, the team's first-place success can be a little bittersweet these days.

That's when it isn't just plain head-banging maddening.

While they relish the Giants' standing atop the National League West Division and what it might portend for this season, they say there is the continuing disappointment with not being able to see much of it firsthand.

We're going on four years now of Major League Baseball's curious blackout, one that has Hawaii fans caught in a rundown between the clubs' greed and the inflexibility to work out deals with cable partners.

This notion that Hawaii is "home television territory" for the Giants, some 2,500 miles distant and therefore subject to blackout, would almost be funny if it hadn't been so ham-handedly drawn up and tight-fistedly enforced.

It is one thing to black out Giants' home games in Northern or Central California, where fans are within driving — or rail — distance of AT&T Park. It is quite another to impose it on the 50th State, where the commute is more arduous.

The shakedown works like this: MLB teams are allowed to declare "home television territories" that need not be based on any geographic common sense. Profit motive is enough. Which is why at various times as many as six teams — Giants, A's, Angels, Dodgers, Padres and Mariners — have all staked their claim to these islands.

Not to actually play any games here, you understand, but to strong-arm local fans and their cable operators to sign on and pay up or forgo the opportunity to watch them on a regular basis.

Unless local cable operators come to terms with the team's designated regional sports network, there is a blackout of non-ESPN national games and DirecTV. In this, even subscribers to MLB.com, MLB Extra Innings and others outlets have found themselves in the dark.

Some clubs, the Mariners and Padres, for instance, have relented and granted so-called "temporary waivers." Others, such as the Dodgers and Angels, have managed to work out deals with Oceanic Time Warner Cable.

Meanwhile, the Giants have dug in the way Willie McCovey once did and aren't budging. Even testimony to the Federal Communications Commission in Washington and a letter from some concerned U. S. senators earlier this year have yet to back the Giants away from the plate.

Which is why fans here didn't get to see Matt Cain's perfect game until the final innings, when ESPN and others finally cut in.

Give KITV's MeTV Hawaii, available on digital cable Ch. 126, credit for bringing in a 12-game package. But that still leaves more than 90 percent of the Giants games up to the whims of the TV market. At least fans can catch their team on the radio on KKEA, 1420-AM.

Giants fan and rail public relations operative Doug Carlson was so enraged he started a blog dedicated to the blackout, www.commaaina.blogspot.com.

When that didn't work, Carlson took perhaps the ultimate step: He moved to Sacramento. "I can't say the Infamous MLB Blackout of Hawaii was all of the motivation, but it definitely was a sweet part of the transition," Carlson wrote in an email.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com.

PERFECTION!!!

MATT CAIN pitches the first perfect game tonight in Giants franchise history! What a thrill to watch it on television -- in California. Unfortunately, Giants fans in the 50th State didn't see the game. The Giants and most other West Coast teams are blacked out in Hawaii for reasons described in the posts below.

MLB Hawaii Blackout Continues; Giants Fans Move to Sacramento, Can Now Watch Every Game

Angel Pagan stretches to snag liner into left-center at AT&T Park today.

It's Saturday afternoon, the Giants are beating Texas 5 to 1 in the 8th and the game is on TV -- just like last night's game was and tomorrow's will be. We're watching it, which means we aren't in Honolulu anymore. We're in Sacramento, which is in the Giants' home television territory. So is Honolulu, but Honolulu is virtually blacked out from viewing West Coast baseball. 

The suits who control the rights and the local cable system(s) in NorCal have made deals that allow Giants fans here the enjoyment of watching their favorite team. That hasn't happened among the executives at Time-Warner Cable in Hawaii and those who own the broadcast rights for four of the six West Coast MLB teams -- Giants, A's, Mariners and Padres. Fans of those teams are out of luck, and so are fans of their opponents. Only a handful of those games are available in Hawaii on the dominate cable systems in the state.

The suits -- including those in MLB headquarters -- have allowed this blackout to continue into a fourth straight season, and there's no sign of a deal to let Hawaii pass GO.  THIS is in the best interests of the game?  

Here's a New Rule we can live with: 

"Major League Baseball teams are prohibited from claiming a community as 'Home Television Territory' if it's outside a 154.5-mile radius from the team's ballpark."

That's the straight-line distance from the middle of AT&T Park to the nearest point on the California-Nevada border -- which happens to be in the middle of Lake Tahoe (the lake itself) where the border turns north after its long diagonal sweep.  Everything beyond the green circle below is a reasonably long slog-of-a-drive to the park, so all communities outside the circle should be considered beyond the Giants' home TV territory. That would mean fans in those communities -- including Hawaii, obviously -- could watch games streamed on MLB.com even if there's no deal among cable and TV executives.

So how 'bout it, MLB? Get out your map and start drawing your own circles. End the Blackout!

Happy Ending of Giants’ 1-0 Win over Phillies:

What a Tease; Blackout of Coast Teams Means It
Was 1 of Only 17 SF Games on HI TV in 2012

At least the wait was worth it, but the classic pitchers’ duel (Matt Cain, 2 hits, no runs in 9 innings) and walk-off RBI in the 11th makes the blackout seem all the crueler. THAT’s the kind of Bay Area baseball Hawaii fans are denied watching due to the incomprehensible ruling by Major League Baseball that Hawaii is in the “home television territory” of the Giants, A’s, Padres, and Mariners. We’re still banking on the group of United States senators putting an anti-trust fear into Selig and Company.

Cain Throws Gem in Home Opener, but We Didn’t See It in Honolulu, 2,387 Miles from San Francisco; We’re in the Giants’ ‘Home TV Territory’ – IYCBI

Matt Cain had a perfect game through 6.2 innings in his 1-hitter.

If You Can Believe It, baseball fans in Hawaii have started a fourth season of "prevention baseball" -- prevented from watching nearly all games played by West Coast baseball teams and their opponents. Are you playing attention, Red Sox fans? The state out here in the middle of the Pacific is designated as in the home TV territory of covetous TV rights holders for the West Coast teams.

Comcast blames Time-Warner for not making the Giants and A’s games available, and Time-Warner says Comcast wants too much money. The Giants organization shrugs, and Major League Baseball says nothing about it at all.

For several years through the 2008 season, the best way to end the work day was to pull out the laptop, head for the lanai and watch the Giants game begin in Pac Bell Park at pau hana and cocktail time in Honolulu. That ended without warning at the start of the 2009 season, and despite dozens of complaints and inquiries since then by baseball fans throughout Hawaii, nobody inside baseball is showing even a smidgen of interest in ending the blackout.

Can DKI Fix It?

Senator Daniel K. Inouye of Hawaii has been a member of Congress since Statehood in 1959. The senator has “delivered” time and again for this isolated and often overlooked state, and some say he saves on travel expenses by walking instead of flying to the mainland.

Senator Dan is one of several senators looking into the blackout, and we’re putting our faith in them to wake up Bud Selig and the rest of the profiteers who seemingly have forgotten the fans.

So until the suits get out of the way and let us subscribe to MLB.com again to watch Giants games as they’re streamed “live,” the only action we’ll see is on SportsCenter and video replays at SFGiants.com, including Matt Cain’s 1-hitter today, and that sucks.