MLB Blackouts Will Continue as Baseball Strives for Goal of Limiting Viewership

Major League Baseball is well-known for its annoying blackout policy and they have no intention of doing anything differently in a pandemic-shortened season. Buster Olney reported that even though fans will not be allowed in the stands, MLB will still black out local games on streaming services. It is truly amazing how many opportunities the sport is willing to throw away during this unprecedented time.

You would think that MLB would want to make the best of a bad situation. People are desperate for sports right now and instead of making baseball available to every possible person, they are just doing more of the same. We already know that every practice and scrimmage should be on local television. This could be their chance to make people fans again, but they don't care.

If they cared they'd have games spread out for maximum exposure. Just look at opening day(s). The first baseball game of the season is a 7:08 p.m start. The second game is 10:08 p.m Eastern. They might as well schedule that Giants - Dodgers game at the same time as one of the KBO broadcasts.

The second day of the season will feature ONE day game. A 4:10 p.m start. Why isn't there a noon game? Were they too busy arguing over prorated salaries to hear the news that like 40 million people are out of work and another large swath of the country is working from home? There are plenty of weekdays where there isn't a baseball game before 6 p.m. It seems the league's only competition right now is their own bad decisions.