Paul Sassone

It was heart-warming and heart-burning all at the same time.

There they sat in their wheelchairs smiling into the TV camera. Each of them wore a Cubs cap and a Cubs T-shirt.

These nursing home residents had been Cubs fans for, well, forever.

Trouble was these lifelong fans would not be able to watch the Cubs playoff games on TV. The nursing home was not rigged with cable.

But a day after the story was aired an anonymous benefactor paid to have cable installed at the nursing home so the residents could watch the Cubs in postseason play. Happy ending.

That was the heart-warming part.

The heart-burning part is that a benefactor shouldn’t have been necessary in the first place.

Watching baseball on television should be something available to all Americans. After all, doesn’t baseball bill itself as the national pastime. It’s time it starts acting the part.

As it stands now fans must purchase cable in order to watch baseball postseason games, except —thankfully — the World Series.

Why?

Just follow the money.

Major League Baseball’s TV contract, which runs through 2021, brings into Major League Baseball $1.5 billion a year. And this buys TV companies a major say in how postseason play is broadcast. The preference, of course, is to charge for it.

But there shouldn’t be an economic threshold baseball fans must cross in order to watch their team in postseason action.

Many Americans can’t afford to buy cable TV. Must they, in effect, be banned from the sport?

How many Cubs fans — who weren’t lucky enough to be on TV — were unable to share the joy and excitement of Cubs postseason play because they couldn’t afford cable?

Somehow the TV companies have messed up and we are now watching the Cubs in their first World Series since 1945.

Is it unduly pessimistic of me to wonder if future World Series will be available only to fans who can afford cable TV?

But even if that is a far-fetched worry, the Cubs are good enough that they most likely will be in postseason play again next year.

Since the TV contract runs through 2021, it looks as if cable-less fans will be shut out again next year, too.

Is there a remedy?

Only thing I can think of is to complain to Major League Baseball and to Major League teams.

Perhaps if enough fans complain something might be done.

In the meantime, enjoy the World Series.

It’s on free TV, where you would expect the national pastime to be.

–MLB cheats some fans in postseason–