[Elvis]

[OldSchool]

Going to spring training! Taking vacation next week, maybe, and going to Glendale. Staying 15 minutes from Camelback Ranch and gonna see 6 games in 6 days. Vacation is oh so desperately needed, work has been beyond brutal lately and to top it all off my nephew has now run away from home. So have the trip planned but might end up heading down there to LA instead to help figure out what's going on with my high school age nephew.

[Elvis]

Going to spring training! Taking vacation next week, maybe, and going to Glendale. Staying 15 minutes from Camelback Ranch and gonna see 6 games in 6 days. Vacation is oh so desperately needed, work has been beyond brutal lately and to top it all off my nephew has now run away from home. So have the trip planned but might end up heading down there to LA instead to help figure out what's going on with my high school age nephew.

Here's hoping your nephew comes home and you get to go to spring training.

Looking forward to a report if you make it...

[Hacksaw]

I hope Kershaw's wrist band doesn't snap or he might smack his trainer in the face. Mom wouldn't be too happy with our pitcher.. lol

And so is TWC ever going to ease off?

[Elvis]

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/en ... story.html

Time Warner Cable lowers price of Dodgers channel, hoping to end stalemate

by Meg James

Time Warner Cable is floating a proposal designed to end the standoff over distribution of the sports channel owned by the Los Angeles Dodgers to allow legions of Southern California baseball fans to enjoy Hall of Fame announcer Vin Scully's final season in the broadcast booth.

Time Warner Cable said late Tuesday that it had cut by 30% the price of the sports channel offered to DirecTV and other pay-TV providers with the hope of spurring long-stalled negotiations over carriage of the channel before the new season begins April 4.

The move could provide a hoped-for breakthrough in the bitter dispute that has prevented thousands of Dodgers fans from watching their favorite team on TV for the last two seasons. Alternatively, Time Warner Cable could strike out once again, frustrating long-suffering fans.

“We owe it to Dodger fans to try to get a deal done, especially because of the historic nature of this year with it being [baseball announcer] Vin Scully's final season,” Time Warner Cable spokesman Andrew Fegyveresi said late Tuesday.

Currently only baseball fans in 1.8 million homes in Southern California served by Time Warner Cable or Charter Communications have access to the channel owned by Guggenheim Baseball Management. Time Warner Cable distributes the channel on behalf of the team.

DirecTV, AT&T, Verizon and Cox Communications have balked at the price of the channel that Time Warner had been demanding. Pay-TV providers have been under pressure to hold the line on programming costs because consumers are tired of seeing their pay-TV rates increase every year.

The stalemate between Time Warner Cable and other providers has roiled politicians and fans who receive their TV service from DirecTV, Verizon, AT&T and Cox Communications. Those companies all have refused to carry the channel, citing its high cost.

Because of the channel's limited distribution, Time Warner Cable has lost well over $100 million a year since 2014. The company is motivated to try to bring in fees from other pay-TV providers to mitigate its losses.

See the most-read stories in Entertainment this hour >>

Time Warner Cable executives late Tuesday declined to discuss the new rate for the channel but confirmed that the company was offering distributors SportsNet LA at a 30% discount compared with last season's prices. According to SNL Kagan, the channel had been offered for about $4.90 per month per subscriber home.

As part of the new proposal, Time Warner Cable has offered the channel to other providers at a cost of about $3.50 per month per subscriber home, according to two people familiar with the proposal who were not authorized to discuss deal terms.

The lower rate would bring the cost of SportsNet LA more in line with the industry average for regional sports networks. Until now, the Dodgers channel was the second-most-expensive regional sports channel, behind the YES Network, which carries New York Yankees games, according to SNL Kagan.

The team and Time Warner Cable have been trying to encourage DirecTV to take the deal, which would double the circulation of the Dodgers channel almost overnight. DirecTV declined late Tuesday to comment.

The move marks the first time that Time Warner Cable has slashed the price of the channel to try to entice other pay-TV providers to come back to the bargaining table. Last season came and went without a deal — or even substantial progress in negotiations between the various companies.

But the campaign to end the stalemate took on greater urgency in recent weeks because this will be Scully's 67th and final year as the Dodgers' television announcer. Scully plans to retire after the 2016 season.

Scully began calling the games back in 1950 when the Dodgers played in Brooklyn.

The proposal by Time Warner Cable would be a one-year deal covering the upcoming season.

So far, none of the other pay-TV providers have agreed to play ball, although talks with at least two providers are in the early stages and are expected to accelerate in the next week, said two knowledgeable people who asked not to be identified.

Time Warner Cable, in a statement, said late Tuesday that it was not sure whether the other pay-TV providers would finally drop their objections to carrying the channel — at least not before the season begins.

“We've had discussions with several providers but we don't expect any other distributors to carry SportsNet LA by opening day,” Fegyveresi said in a statement. He encouraged fans to switch to Charter or Time Warner Cable.

There already was great hope that this would be the year that the blackout would finally end because of ownership changes among pay-TV distributors. Charter Communications is close to winning federal approval for its $67-billion takeover of Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks, which also carries the Dodgers channel.

Last June, Charter agreed to finally carry
SportsNet LA in Southern California, several weeks after announcing its deal to buy Time Warner Cable. Charter Chief Executive Tom Rutledge had pledged to try to make the Dodgers channel more widely available should his company win approval to take over Time Warner Cable's operations.

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However, Charter probably won't close on its huge merger until mid-May at the earliest — more than six weeks into the new season.

In addition, Frontier Communications on April 1 is taking over Verizon's pay-TV operations and that company, which is new to the region, might have an incentive to sign up for the channel.

If a deal can't be reached, it will be the third baseball season that a majority of homes in the region would not have access to Dodgers baseball. In some areas, such as Palos Verdes, Rolling Hills Estates and southern Orange County, consumers do not have the option of receiving the channel because Cox Communications and DirecTV have declined to carry the channel.

“We hope we can come to an agreement with TWC SportsNet LA that does not burden our customers with excessive price increases,” Cox said in a statement.

[email protected]

Twitter: @MegJamesLAT

[Elvis]

http://www.latimes.com/sports/dodgers/l ... olumn.html

TWC's 30% solution for Dodgers' games isn't going to float

Bill Plaschke

This week's attempt by Time Warner Cable to end the Dodgers' blackout before its third consecutive opening day is being categorized by some as a first pitch.

If so, it was an Eephus pitch, high and looping and designed to sucker the batter into a wild swing.

It's a pitch that DirecTV and other pay-TV operators surely will refuse to engage. It's a pitch that Time Warner Cable and their blue overlords should never have tried to sell.

When one cuts through the smoke and mirrors and salutes to Vin Scully, this supposedly serious offer actually shows the Dodgers are not very serious at all.

That Time Warner Cable has offered to cut the price of SportsNet LA by 30% is admirable, but that the offer is good for only one year is ridiculous.

Would you make that deal? Buy somebody's car for one year at a deeply discounted price, then take your hands off the wheel and agree to renegotiate?

Would you expect DirecTV to make that deal? The currently misguided outrage toward them would be replaced by justified anger if they were to carry Dodgers games for an entire season and then drop the team because the price was once again too high.

If the Dodgers and Time Warner Cable really want to make their games available to the 60% of Southland households who currently don't have access, they have to act like it.

Make the cut real. Make the discount permanent. Thirty percent for 100% of the life of a contract.

The Dodgers repeatedly have complained that DirecTV won't come to the bargaining table, but it's not DirecTV's responsibility to negotiate.

Those caps seen on the heads of thousands of Angelenos do not read "DirecTV" The name emblazoned across the front of jerseys worn by generations of Southland families is not "DirecTV."

There is no color called DirecTV Blue. Nobody has ever eaten a DirecTV Dog.

The Dodgers' tradition was built on one of the strongest community connections in sports, and it is the Dodgers' civic responsibility to nurture that connection. If they want DirecTV to come to the bargaining table, then make them a better offer. If it means taking less money, then take less money.

The Dodgers didn't do their homework when taking $8.35 billion from Time Warner Cable for the rights to distribute SportsNet LA. They were blinded by the green and unable to recognize the difficulty that TWC would face in selling their product for a price that would justify the investment.

The Dodgers' claims that they will not give back any money seem increasingly silly as it becomes clear they were paid far too much of that money in the first place.

The Dodgers' ownership has done good things with their riches, using the money to refurbish the stadium and restock the farm system. But because of the blackout, the legacies of the likes of Mark Walter, Stan Kasten and Magic Johnson have been discounted far deeper than 30%, their stewardship has been badly stained, and only a new TV deal in the final year of Scully can restore their credibility.

Speaking of Scully, could the Dodgers please stop speaking of the legend when talking about TV negotiations?

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In various quotes about this week's discount deke, Scully's name and final year were cited by everyone from Kasten to Rob Manfred, the baseball commissioner who has been an empty suit while Dodger fans have endured empty television screens. Even Mayor Eric Garcetti, who has spent two seasons doing virtually nothing to fix this issue, jumped on Scully's coattails.

"If nothing else, let's do it for Vin Scully," Garcetti stated without shame.

Using the legend as a pawn in this latest ploy seemed uncomfortable for Scully, who told The Times' Bill Shaikin, "It's really kind of embarrassing for me." Scully deserves a farewell tour void of politics and gamesmanship. He didn't get the Dodgers into this mess, and it's not his responsibility to pull them out.

"There could be no better way to honor Vin in his final year than for them [pay-TV operators] to quickly accept this offer and get the games on TV," Kasten said.

Oh, there's a better way. If this offer was indeed about Scully's final season, then the Dodgers would put all of this year's games on free TV, just like they put six games on free TV at the end of the 2014 season.

But no, this is not about saving Scully, this is about saving face. This is about addressing a long-term problem with a short-term sleight of hand. This is about a sale with strings attached, a discount with an expiration date, a bait that gets switched.

This is an Eephus pitch, baseball's Shakespearean delivery, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

Follow Bill Plaschke on Twitter: @billplaschke

[Elvis]

[moklerman]

Dodgers rookie pitcher has a no-no through 8 1/3 and Roberts pulls him?!? Next batter hits a home run off of the eternally shitty middle pen. It just never ends with the Dodgers.

[OldSchool]

Dodgers rookie pitcher has a no-no through 8 1/3 and Roberts pulls him?!? Next batter hits a home run off of the eternally shitty middle pen. It just never ends with the Dodgers.

Not sure if you were watching but Stripling was done he was exhausted. The batter he walked the pitches were all over he missed his target all 5 pitches that at bat. The part that I question is why not use Jensen for a 5 out save? Also when Hatcher gives up the HR then walks the next guy he doesn't have anybody get up in the pen. It was an impressive 7 1/3 but the kid was tired in his major league debut. Also that home plate umpire was horrible.

[Elvis]