Who's paying attention?

I was watching "Baseball Tonight" on ESPN on Sunday (April 12) when during a commercial break the local Comcast Cable commercials were running. On came a promo for the free preview of the Extra Innings package.

On paper, that sounds like good placement for Comcast to run a baseball on TV spot during ESPN's primary baseball show. However, this commercial happened to air 20 minutes AFTER the final out of the last game available during the free preview which ran all week.

Thus, a baseball fan who did not know about the free preview and who tuned over to see which games were on would have then found out that they missed everything. In other words, careless scheduling of a spot, even if it was for a free offering from Comcast.

By the way, I am again NOT purchasing the Extra Innings package. They continue to black out local games. Their argument is that I can see them anyway. My argument is, as a Chicago White Sox fan, that I would pay the fee for the season to be able to watch the OTHER team telecasts against the White Sox in order to escape the horrible announcing that White Sox fans are subjected to on the local telecasts.

For that matter, I don't think that cable telecasts of local teams should be blacked out either, such as when on ESPN, TBS, and starting this year on the MLB Network. I am also paying an exhorbitant fee to my cable company just to watch TV. The cable companies pay these networks to carry the programming based on the number of subscribers. The networks showing the games (except for MLB Network) pay millions to MLB to carry the games.

Thus, I feel that I should get everything available for the amount I am paying and the cable companies and leagues have no right to black anything out.