An open letter to MLB Network and YOUTUBE TV

Well guys, you did it. You managed to get together and rob baseball fans of an entire season’s worth of content. YouTube TV took MLB Network off their channel lineup on February 1, 2023 in a dispute over carrier fees and it has not returned. I guess congratulations are in order for your stubbornness and the level of pettiness you both rose to is simply amazing.

If either of you cared to respond (and I know you don’t) my guess is you would issue platitudes like, “These are complex negotiations…” and “I know your frustrated, we are too…” and “There are a lot of moving parts…” and there may be some truth to that. But here’s the thing: From the perspective of me and virtually every other baseball fan, this is a dispute between two multi-billion-dollar entities over pennies per subscriber.

If you had simply renewed your existing contract, I find it very hard to believe that either of you would have truly “lost” money. But you didn’t care.

I did everything I could on my end. I started a Go Fund Me page, I offered to buy you eggs (remember when eggs were $5 a dozen), but none it of it helped. There is plenty of blame to go around. Google, you are a corporate entity concerned with nothing but money. But to be honest, that doesn’t differentiate you from nearly any other global corporation. You likely lost some subscribers over this, but perhaps you used some of the “money saved” by not renewing the contract and used it to help secure the rights to the NFL Sunday Ticket. I don’t expect much from you, Google, and you delivered.

As for Major League Baseball, this is another in a LONG LINE of missteps by you, a business seemingly doing everything you can think of to alienate your biggest fans. I am a 55-year-old man. In that time, I have endured the following:

• 1972: player strike
• 1973 lockout
• 1976: lockout (spring training)
• 1980: player strike (spring training)
• 1981: player strike
• 1985: player strike
• 1985: Collusion I (you lost)
• 1986: Collusion II (you lost)
• 1987: Collusion III (you lost)
• 1990: lockout
• 1992: Fay Vincent ousted
• 1994: player strike resulting in the cancellation of the World Series. Not even two World Wars could do this, but Bud and his minions managed to pull it off.
• 1995: player strike (opening day delayed)
• 2018: MLB embraces sports gambling
• 2020: Dispute over service time during COVID reduces the season to 60 games
• 2022: lockout

Those are just the highlights, there have been hundreds of other times Major League Baseball has stepped in it. I’ll be completely upfront in where I place the blame. It stands squarely on the shoulders of the owners. Every work stoppage has come about because baseball owners want baseball players to protect baseball owners from baseball owners. In the 1980s, MLB owners actively worked to make their teams less competitive. MLB owners ousted Fay Vincent because he actually thought the players had a point in 1990. MLB banned Pete Rose for life because of gambling, yet they now have daily betting odds on their programming, and the city where Rose made his name has a casino INSIDE THE MLB STADIUM. 

The reasoning for all of this is simple: Money. 

I stated earlier that Google deserves some of the blame but there is a huge difference between Google and MLB. Google doesn’t pepper me with ads called “Google Zen” where they show slow-motion video of people coding. Google doesn’t send me emails telling me about sales on jerseys of people who code for them. Google does not have a trophy that they award every year that the CEO calls “a piece of metal.” Google doesn’t have a system in which they grossly underpay people in their talent pipeline, the literal future of their business, and calls it fair. But Major League Baseball, you do. You constantly ask the fans for love and, of course, more money.

Then, in addition to work stoppages that come nearly as often as presidential elections, you also pull content near and dear to your base. The absolute core of your fan base. You just didn’t care. I watched MLB Network every day before work, all year round. I found it comforting. I loved watching highlights, but I also loved seeing Jim Thome break down someone’s swing. I loved Mark DeRosa’s passion for everything about the game. I loved watching and rewatching the MLB Seasons specials. I loved watching and rewatching the MLB Seasons specials. I loved hot stove coverage, winter meeting coverage. Anything baseball, even in the offseason, was a reminder that the game would soon return. Since February 1, I have been reduced to watching Sportscenter. SPORTSCENTER!

I certainly saw college lacrosse highlights and became well-versed on everything Lebron James and Aaron Rodgers, but it wasn’t baseball. You didn’t care. You care about money and nothing else.  Again, that would be fine if you didn’t constantly ask us for more while reducing the things you offer. Lots of companies just want our money and we accept that because they don’t sell us on the romanticism of being involved with them.

Proctor and Gamble doesn’t run ads asking us if we remember the time our Dad introduced us to Charmin. Best Buy doesn’t ask us about the first time we entered one of their stores and prompt us to remember what that was like. 

I could go on and on, but, again, I know you don’t care. I’ll just finish with this. The relationship between Major League Baseball and their most ardent fans is irreparably damaged and MLB, it is 100% your fault. .