Until I left for college three years ago, I had lived in Los Angeles my whole life. Before I could even understand the game of baseball, I spent my summer nights tuning in as Vin Scully called Dodger games. Although never a die-hard fan, I still remember watching many great Dodgers moments–Shawn Green’s four homeruns, Alex Cora’s twenty pitch at bat, Eric Gagne closing the ninth for his 84th consecutive save, Lima Time in 2004. It has always been nice to flip on the Dodgers game when not much else is on TV; Vin Scully is a legend. I reminisce about those lazy summer nights, just me, Vin and my Dodgers.
A couple of months ago I returned home from college for one of my final summers before entering the “real world.” Being one of the more exciting clubs in the MLB and the best Dodgers team compiled in my lifetime, I decided to embrace it, and spend my final, lazy summer nights watching Yasiel Puig, Clayton Kershaw, and the rest of the squad with Vin. Intrigued by the group of talented stars, I had followed the Dodgers online with MLB.TV back at school. I was ready for my couch and the big screen, but when I turned on the TV (it was a Tuesday night in June), nothing was on.
The Dodgers were playing the Rockies. I kept flipping through the channels, scanning program titles in vain. Something was strange. I couldn’t find the game on TV. They weren’t on Fox Sports West (where they had always aired), and not on KCAL 9 (another local channel on which they appeared occasionally). Confused, I checked the box score online and found out that the Dodgers have their own brand new network channel. Sportsnet LA! Sounds great, right?
Wrong. After a little bit of research, it turns out my cable provider, DirecTV, doesn’t offer the new channel. Resigned to the computer screen, I loaded MLB.TV–only to find that the game was blacked out. What is going on? I just want to watch the game! Not only did I quickly discover that I couldn’t, but also that I wasn’t alone: about two-thirds of Los Angeles households have not been able to watch the Dodgers at all this entire season. How could this be? Why can’t I watch my home team play?
It all started back in 2012, when a group led by Magic Johnson bought the Dodgers for an astounding $2.15 billion and subsequently signed a 25-year broadcasting deal with Time Warner Cable (TWC) worth $8.3 billion. Before the start of the 2014 season, TWC launched a new channel offering non-stop Dodgers programming called SportsNet LA (SNLA). TWC added the channel to its basic package, but subscribers to competitors like DirecTV could only watch if their provider struck a very expensive deal to carry the exclusive Dodgers network. TWC is reportedly demanding $4-$5 per subscriber per month for SNLA. That would be the highest rate of any American regional sports network, even though most air multiple teams’ games instead of just one.
With these outlandish asking prices, TWC is holding the distribution rights for the Dodgers’ channel hostage. DirecTV, Cox Communications, Dish Network and other distributors have passed on carrying SportsNet LA because of the absurd asking price, saying the anticipated rate hikes could lead some people to cancel their service. The standoff has left about 70% of all pay-TV homes in the Los Angeles market without access except for the few that have been on national television. (It wasn’t until late June, weeks after I returned home, that I was finally able to catch a game on ESPN.) It wasn’t long before I found myself drawn into the Mike Trout show, which aired nightly.
As I sit in front of the TV in late August, now nearing the end of my final summer, it’s just me. No Vin, no Dodgers. I, like many other Los Angelino Dodgers fans, find myself locked out, missing the moments leading up to the Dodgers latest pennant race. It was just a few weeks ago that I had to resort to the SportsCenter bottom line and Twitter for updates on Kershaw’s epic no hitter, and was left imagining Vin Skully’s undoubtedly epic accompaniment. Or missing Yasiel Puig’s dominant season along with his no-care attitude. Or, saddest of all, the voice of the Dodgers, Vin Scully, call a game in what could potentially be his penultimate go around. It pains me to say that these are moments that I will not remember 10, 20 years down the road. Instead, I will remember watching a young MVP-worthy Mike Trout instead of Yasiel Puig; the Angels instead of the Dodgers gearing up to make a run for the World Series. I spent my ‘final’ summer in search of Dodger Blue, but was left with the Dodger blues.
-Jason Garfinkel
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