By Jesse Temple
Well baseball fans, I thought it appropriate to post an entry today on this -- the OFFICIAL Opening Day of 2008.
And if you happen to be an Atlanta Braves fan, don't count on finding any Tomahawk Chops on your digital cable provider. Braves games on TBS have gone the way of the dodo bird, as our guest speaker last week would say.
The Braves were a staple of Ted Turner's "superstation" even in the early days of cable TV, dating all the way back to 1976. But now TBS has gone big-time, landing Sunday afternoon games of the week instead. Atlanta only will appear on TBS again if it happens to land on one of those 26 Sunday afternoon games during the regular season, or if the Braves make the first round of the MLB playoffs -- which TBS now has a monopoly on. Thirty-two years, and that's what the station trades it all in for? It somehow seems un-American for what once was deemed "America's Team."
So where in the heck can you go if you're a die-hard Braves fan? There are two answers. Unfortunately, the first requires living in the sun-baked south in the summertime, where 151 of Atlanta's 162 games will be aired. Those games will only be aired regionally, and they will appear on a bevy of different networks.
SportSouth (once known as Turner South), which carried 55 games last season, will jump to 81 games this season.
It was also announced on Friday that Atlantic Broadband will carry 45 Braves games previously believed to be unavailable to the company's customers.
Fox Sports Net South will continue its Wednesday night package of 25 games. And the former WTBS, the over-the-air local station in Atlanta, which has been rebranded WPCH (or Peachtree TV), is offering a 45-game package to distributors throughout the Southeast.
Peachtree TV. Are you kidding me? I sure hope WGN doesn't part ways with the Cubs and become Windy City TV.
Anyway, option No. 2 requires the Braves fan in you to ante up and pay for MLB TV. It will cost $89.95, but right now, it's the only game in town without TBS.