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Despite The Pandemic, MLB Will Continue To Blackout Local Games On Its Streaming Services Because Fans Watching Their Teams Isn't Important I Guess

It's the year 2020 and Major League Baseball is still blacking out games for local teams. Now the original purpose of the blackout rule really has nothing to do with getting fans in the stands. It's about you calling your local cable provider to get your team's channel on the network. Great. That was a nice thought 20 years ago, but it makes absolutely no sense now. 

We are in the midst of a global pandemic. People want to watch any sports they can get their hands on. I watched MLS soccer last night for the love of god. Why not lift the blackout restriction rules for 2020 so that you can get the most amount of people watching from home and create some good PR? You know why? It would make too much fucking sense. Look at this dumb map. I mean this is insane!

MLB_Blackout_Areas.png

If you pay for MLB TV you should be able to watch whatever team you want. It's that simple. Hey baseball! People want to pay you to watch their team! They are willing to give you United States Dollars to let them watch your product and you're just saying no. You know that thing money that you obsess over? Yeah that thing, you can get more of that. More and more people are cutting the cord these days. Watching games on cable is becoming a thing of the past unless you're at a bar which currently is not a thing because we are in the middle of a GLOBAL PANDEMIC for fucks sake! This is just so tone dead by MLB. They can't help but get in their own way time and time again. 

Bryan over here sums it up pretty good. 

or Andrew

Why make it harder for your fans to watch their teams? Why? Because Rob Manfred hates this sport and wants it to crumble. That's the only reasonable explanation. Our only hope for the future is that Rob word vomits some more down the stretch, helps lose the owners' side of the upcoming grievance that the players will file, and the owners vote him out as commissioner as a result. 

For now, everyone who gets fucked with restrictions will just have to scour Reddit and get their fix that way. Your loss MLB.