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Los Angeles Dodgers Need To Step Up

By Pablo Jacobo

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Eight days remain for the Los Angeles Dodgers to begin the 2015 season. A totally revamped L.A. squad is once again a viable title contender. Alas 70-percent of the L.A. area will not be able to see their Dodgers on T.V. because no deal has been agreed upon for the distribution of SportsNet LA.

In 2013 Time Warner signed a 25-year contract worth $8.35 billion for the rights to show Dodger games.  I don’t want to get into the economics because it will make my head spin.

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It’s disappointing to think that Dodger fans will be deprived of watching reigning NL MVP and CY Young award winner Clayton Kershaw take the mound. Fans will miss the electrifying play of Yasiel Puig who is having a fantastic spring with 5 home runs and 11 runs batted in. 22-year-old Joc Pederson who is crushing it in Spring Training, with 5 bombs and knocking in 12 RBI’s.

Worst of all, Los Angeles is being robbed of Vin Scully. He is returning for his 66th season calling Dodger games. Scully’s name is synonymous with Dodger baseball. He’s is broadcasting games on a year-to-year basis. He could be gone by next season. It’s downright criminal for the city of Los Angeles to not be able to watch the legendary broadcaster work the microphone. His wonderful storytelling during game, his cadence and smooth voice that soothes our soul as the game transpires.

This season the Dodgers announced a partnership with iHeart media and launched AM 570 LA Sports. Quite a media empire the Dodgers are building right? No disrespect to Charley Steiner and Rick Monday on the radio but they are not Vin Scully. The duo of Steiner and Monday will continue the legacy of Los Angeles broadcasting once the legendary Scully rides off into the sunset.

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Yoshinobu Yamamoto's rumored contract should convince Dodgers to spend elsewhere
Yoshinobu Yamamoto's rumored contract should convince Dodgers to spend elsewhere /

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    • Last season L.A. fans missed two perfect games from Kershaw and Josh Beckett. Also countless spectacular plays from Puig. Matt Kemp’s incredible second half and not to mention, the Dodgers had the RBI-king in Adrian Gonzalez in the ballpark.

    According to Forbes, the Dodgers are the second most valuable franchise in baseball. The boys in blue led the majors in attendance in 2014 and have already sold more than three million tickets for the 2015 season.

    What about the rest of Dodgers nation? Not everyone has the finances to make the trip to Dodger Stadium every home game. Many Dodger fans simply want to avoid the traffic in Los Angeles. Others just enjoy watching their team from the comfort of their home, and yet that option is unavailable to them.

    A few months ago, new MLB commissioner Rob Manfred spoke to ESPN reporters in regards to the Dodgers and the Time Warner mess…

    “Distribution issues are fundamentally issues between the rights holder and the distributors. I have no role or leverage in terms of inducing anybody to do anything in that process,” Manfred said. “We stay in touch with the Dodgers, the Dodgers are very concerned and obviously want to have distribution, as do we, but we just don’t really have a seat at that table.”

    Not the answer Southern California was looking for. So I got to thinking, where is Magic Johnson during this whole debacle? Magic has not been shy when it comes to the putrid play of his beloved Los Angeles Lakers. He’s being voicing his displeasure about the Lakers front office for the past few seasons. Why isn’t he doing the same with the Dodgers?

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    Let me be clear, I’m not blaming Magic for anything. I’m simply stating that his words carry so much weight. When the Hall of Famer speaks, people listen. Things may move faster if Magic begins to voice his concern.

    There was talk of mediation but nothing ever came of it. Time Warner is trying to re-engage cable companies to fork out a deal to distribute SportsNet LA but to no avail. To make matters worse, Time Warner is involved in a possible merger with Comcast, which could further delay SportsNet LA’s carriage throughout Southern California. It’s looking more and more like Dodger fans may not watch the blue crew on T.V. in 2015.

    The Dodgers organization needs to seriously step up and fix this issue. MLB Network games are blacked out in the local market. ESPN will probably show a few games here and there. It’s unfair to the local public that they will not be able to watch their favorite baseball team. It’s been over a year for Time Warner and other cable distributors to compromise on a deal, now it’s up to the Dodgers organization to step in.

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