I’m starting to care less, which is bad for the Dodgers

After they swept a doubleheader against the Twins last night, the Dodgers have played 29 games. That’s almost twenty percent of the season (to be fair, about 18 percent).

This year was supposed to be about a team taking the next step. It was supposed to be about a team that last year became a group I could be proud to root for again. It was maybe the most anticipated season the franchise has ever had. What it’s turned into, I’m not sure — because I cannot watch the games. I’m not allowed to.

I live in San Luis Obispo, and the Dodgers are only available on a network I can’t get. Our cable option here on the Central Coast is Charter, but the Dodgers station, Time Warner Cable SportsNet is only available on Time Warner Cable. Neither DirecTV nor Dish Network carry the Dodgers’ station either, so a dish isn’t a viable option.

I have MLBTV, which is a solid product. Of course, all the Dodger games are blacked out where I live, 3 1/2 hours away from Los Angeles.

The whole thing is ridiculous. The situation smells like a soiled diaper at the top of a mountain of month-old garbage and refuse and I’m about fed-up.

Look online and you’ll find articles like this one, where (hilariously) the CEO of Time Warner Cable, Rob Marcus is described as “upbeat.” I’m glad someone is… . Everyone involved including Marcus, other cable executives, and (importantly) Dodgers executives are all to blame. Maybe this is the price we have to pay to be able to have the highest payroll in baseball. Unfortunately, not being able to see the games is probably the only price we aren’t willing to pay.

As all of these leaders from cable companies and satellite providers continue to hold Dodger fans hostage, I’m reduced to watching games with something that looks like this:

A screen shot of last night’s Twins/Dodgers game from the “GameTracker” on MLB.com.

How exciting can it get?!

This season, I’ve been following baseball as though I lived in 1950, when Vin Scully began his career — via the radio and box scores. In the age of HDTV’s, and advanced statistics, this time machine of a season has been quite exhilarating.

In all seriousness though, I lost patience a long time ago. At this point, I’ve missed a fifth of the season and every day that goes by where I have no option to watch the team, I care about this season less and less.

Two years ago, my grandmother bought an HDTV. It was a few years after my grandfather had passed and she wanted to be able to watch the Dodgers games. Over the past few years, it’s become her main source of summer entertainment.

Well into her 80’s, she would pay much more than the $4 per customer Time Warner is said to be demanding of other providers to watch the Dodgers. I think she would pay $100-$200 per year. Too bad she lives in the far reaches of the “territory” the Dodgers call their own.

Options

If I want to watch the Dodgers, I could move about an hour North to Monterey County — a place closer to me than Dodger Stadium. From there, Dodgers games on MLBTV would not be blacked-out.

I could also move to a place where Time Warner Cable is an option. At this point though, I would move away from a Time Warner area just on principle.

I have a friend who has gone to the trouble of masking his IP address and, with his MLBTV access, can watch the games with his rigged-up system and a little extra cost. This is something I’ve considered, but seems like a lot of work just to watch a team that has been complicit at-best in the current standstill.

The truth is that I haven’t had cable or satellite service in almost two years. My household saves over $100 per month, still gets all the shows via Netflix and Hulu Plus, and I pay for any sports packages I want — the MLB package for instance, on my terms.

I get to watch a lot of baseball still. I watch almost all of my fantasy players on a regular basis and probably enjoy baseball itself as much as I ever have while basically having to act like the Dodgers don’t exist. It’s basically as if Major League Baseball liquidated my favorite team. It’s as if the Dodgers don’t exist anymore for millions of fans who should be rooting now harder than ever for ‘dem Bums.

Major League Baseball is already losing young fans, and If I was a kid still, I’m pretty sure I’d be thinking about rooting for a different team right about now. I’m well into my 30’s and I’m taking applications.

I guess the alternative is to find something healthier than sitting on my couch. There are a lot of other fun things to do in this part of the country. The Dodgers and their new cable network shouldn’t forget that.