Baseball Brokers a deal, cable gets out-of-market games

[TayTay]

Thanks Senator.

Noted on aDKos diary at: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/4/5/92948/04603

This is very good news. Diplomacy, it seems, even in baseball negotiations, works very well when you try it.

[beachmom]

1. Cool -- so you lose some (Fox), you win some (baseball)

In reality, the baseball outcome is going to actually affect regular people whereas the Fox thing won't. That is why Kerry himself was not going to fight the Fox nomination -- all he wanted was transparency and a real hearing. I sincerely think he is not part of the effort to fight this recess appointment. That's all Dodd's doing. God bless 'em.

(Anyone else think that Dodd is courting the Kerry supporter vote? I really think he is, and I am flattered by that, that we're actually a real constituency to be wooed)

[karynnj]

3. Definately courting and I'm listening

I think it may be broader than the "Kerry supporters" - to the projected Kerry supporters had he run. We all saw Kerry's place as the being the experienced anti-war anti-Hillary.

[wisteria]

2. What a wonderful surprise! And, everyone said it couldn't be done.

Thank you for posting this.

As for the Fox issue. I still hold out a little hope that we will prevail in the end.

[blm]

6. Where's the Kerry saves baseball for the little guy thread in GD?

.

[MBS]

4. the man's a Jedi knight,

fighting darkness everywhere.

[TayTay]

8. Someone (Oh who?) agrees with you

DKos: the man's a Jedi knight, (1+ / 0-)
Recommended by:TayTay
fighting darkness on all fronts. Yeah, he should be president , and our country is paying big-time for the outcome of the 2004 election. But he's continuing to fight fearlessly, for all that matters, and that cheers me no end.

by gettowork on Thu Apr 05, 2007 at 08:28:44 AM PDT

< Parent | Reply to This |Recommend Troll >

We need to save this for Dwazon. I like that. A Jedi Knight.

[wisteria]

5. This should be posted at DU-G if it hasn't already.

Even if it links to KOS.

[karynnj]

7. Last Saturday's NYT article is fun to read

knowing he won - I love Ross's comment about how unusual it was seeing a Senator trying to broker a deal in public. (Funny people here seemed to think it was standard Kerry)


"“It was just amazing,” marveled Stephen F. Ross, a sports law expert at Pennsylvania State University. “You had a United States senator trying to broker a deal in public.”

The senator in question, however, wasn’t trying to solve the trouble in the Middle East or the health care mess. No, Senator John Kerry was trying to figure out how to get more baseball on television. And he wasn’t having much success.

<snip>
What’s the possibility of having a face-to-face meeting in the next 48 hours?” Senator Kerry pressed.

<snip>
And supposedly that’s what they’re doing even as you read this, with baseball season starting tomorrow. Which is not to say there’s a high likelihood of any kind of breakthrough. That would be the smart play. And let’s face it: the men who run baseball have a history of not making the smart play."


http://select.nytimes.com/2007/03/31/business/31nocera.html?_r=1

[whometense]

9. King Kaufman at Salon

is very ungracious. http://www.salon.com/sports/col/kaufman/2007/04/05/thursday/

Most of the time when politicians, particularly members of Congress, get involved in baseball, they're grandstanding, getting some ink, some C-SPAN face time. This time, though, it looks as though Sen. John Kerry's complaints about the DirecTV deal had some influence on the situation -- which is not to say Kerry wasn't grandstanding.

It would be too strong to say that Kerry shamed MLB into keeping the door open for a nonexclusive deal because the idea of MLB having shame is just too far-fetched. But Kerry, with his letter to the Federal Communications Commission and his comments in the media, helped give the fan backlash some weight. Baseball fans need all the help they can get in having their voices heard by baseball.

It would be nice if Selig and his minions would next hear the fans on the issue of MLB's insane, insulting blackout rules, the intentions of which are to protect the revenues of local broadcasters with rights to the games of the various teams.

In practice, this leads to vast swaths of our country being prevented from seeing the games of up to six "local" teams -- sometimes hundreds of miles away -- without being able to see those teams on local stations, because the local stations know a lot more about what "local" means than baseball seems to.

I wrote him a note.

[wisteria]

10. Some people just can't stand to see others succeed when they have already written the issue off.

Good that you wrote him a note. I may just do that myself-after I can get past calling this man out as a jerk.

[karynnj]

11. that is pretty ungracious

as he concedes that Kerry helped give fan blacklash some weight. Given that even at the end of last week, the story was that it was futile and that it was a done deal, it is clear that something caused the change to occur. Also, unlike the McCain steroid hearings that got endless coverage, I don't recall Kerry speaking about this even though he has done a huge number of interviews.

[beachmom]

12. "Grandstanding"???? WTF???

Sorry, but this isn't exactly the sexy issue which is going to be talked about by all the pundits on Sunday. It has only gotten publicity mostly in the Sports World, for which it is not really a partisan outlet or voting outlet that will bring him accolades.

Ungracious is right. Glad you wrote a note.

Given what all of our research has garnered, we know that Sen. Kerry, for a politician anyway, is not much of a grandstander. Every time he has spoken out on the issues of our day, it has been of substance and thoughtfulness. Perhaps this writer needs to be reminded that the Iraq bill passed in the Senate was HIS plan, yet it doesn't even bear his name.

Idiot.