baseball returns

Dodgers pitchers and catchers report tomorrow. I’m ready to once again follow the team of my childhood. I’m not happy that I most likely won’t be able to watch the games on television due to the greed of the current Dodger ownership group. Only those who have Time-Warner Cable or Charter Cable will see the games, barring a business miracle very soon. We have Verizon Fios. We could have gotten Time-Warner, but when we moved here we were warned to go nowhere near them.

It’s especially distressing given that this will be Vin Scully’s last year broadcasting Dodger games. Yes, we can hear him for the first three innings of home games on the radio, but fans deserve better.

I spent a number of years as a Giants fan. I warmed up to the Giants one year in the mid-1990’s when they were in contention and we were living in Mountain View. At our rental house there was plenty of yard work to do, and Hank Greenwald’s radio play-by-play was a great companion while trimming the hedge. Terry and I loved the television team of Duane Kuiper and Mike Krukow when they emerged, and we were delighted when Jon Miller took over the radio duties in 1997.

But we are no longer in the Bay Area and hearkening back there only causes me emotional distress. So the Dodgers it is.

Given the Dodgers television situation, however, we’ll leave plenty of bandwidth for the Los Angels Angeles of Anaheim as well. Besides, that’s Terry’s team. Their pitchers and catchers reported today.

And so the season begins.