“BETTER STAY AWAKE, HOUSTON! – GO TO SLEEP FOR A SECOND AND YOU COULD GO BACK TO COMCAST AS YOUR ONLY LOCAL SPORTS CHOICE FOR ASTROS AND ROCKETS!”
Irony is a wondrous bird, whenever and wherever it lands. David Barron’s article on the possible breakthrough in the legal dissolution of Comcast’s CSN Houston, the network plan that has blocked 60% of the Houston market from watching either the baseball Astros or basketball Rockets for two whole seasons each, may now be near its completion. The irony is in the fact that the old-fashioned ink print version of David’s story did not reach publication until Halloween morning, October 31, 2014. Here are the salient lines, but you still need to read David Barron’s whole article at
__________
“A federal bankruptcy judge approved Thursday a Chapter 11 reorganization plan that will allow AT&T and DirecTV to purchase Comcast SportsNet Houston and relaunch it in November as Root Sports Houston.
There was no immediate indication, in the wake of Judge Marvin Isgur’s ruling, when the new network will launch with expanded carriage on DirecTV and AT&T U-verse in addition to Comcast.
However, CSN Houston has posted a broadcast schedule through Nov. 9, so the new network is not likely to launch until after that period.
Judge Isgur’s ruling does not mean that the case is concluded. Comcast, in fact, filed notice of appeal late Thursday night, alleging the judge erred on six grounds in his decision.”
~ David Barron, Houston Chronicle (Chron.Com version), October 30, 2014
__________
The whole thing has been the sports fan horror equivalent of a horror movie classic that will be easily recognizable by the parody title we chose to assign to this piece and the featured photo of Freddie Krueger. It truly has been Houston fans’ and team owners’ bad dream and easiest remembered horror that we choose to think of now as “The Nightmare on Crawford Street.” For you out-of-towners who don’t know, “Crawford Street” is the physical address for both our baseball and basketball venues, Minute Maid Park and Toyota Center.
Unless you want to strain your brain beyond all hope for reason, caring, or creativity, it is best to not wade into the details of what this whole struggle is all about. When matters are all about greed in the first place, the only homes for the grief produced are always either war or the courts. In this case, the litigants need to be confined to the combatant lawyers who feed their own soulless pie-holes on the fallen follies of greed put in motion earlier by the pride and avarice of the high and mighty forces that long ago took control of our entire economic culture – including the presentation and marketing of all sports with any television appeal.
Hopefully, we Houston fans who have been denied access to the televised home team games of the Astros and Rockets will soon be able to resume or restore our former viewing addictions and exposure to all the items the sponsors of these telecasts wish to sell us!
Note on Yesterday. Thanks to all of you too who responded privately and positively by e-mail that you enjoyed yesterday’s presentation of the starting nine for “The Ghoulville Goblins!” And thank you, especially, Rick B., for suggesting we should add Al “The Mad Hungarian” Hrabosky to the club as an ace reliever – and without a direct invitation from here to do so!
Ten players alone do not a whole team make.
C’mon, people! – This is still Halloween Weekend – and we put a lot of work into that holiday piece! If you have any suggestions for horror figures, real players or not, animal, vegetable or mineral, living or dead, whomever or whatever, – that we should add to the roster – … please go back to yesterday’s column and post your suggestions there as public comments in the easy entry space that follows each publication of The Pecan Park Eagle.
Here’s the link to the Ghoulville Goblin column:
https://thepecanparkeagle.wordpress.com/2014/10/31/the-ghoulville-halloween-baseball-all-stars/
Have a great weekend, everybody! _ And don’t forget to roll your clocks back for an extra hour of sleep before you go to bed this Saturday night!
Houston, Baseball, & Other Musings.
The Pecan Park Eagle 