Fork in the Road

The MLB has taken a chisel to its diamond. Only time will tell whether the result is two diamonds or a pile of fragments.

Or to paraphrase Yogi, it has come to a fork in the road, and taken it.

The pennant race will now be concluded on cable for one or the other of the Major League Baseball leagues. The American and National leagues will alternate their championship series (LCS) on cable's TBS for the next 7 years.

That means if you don't have cable, or are not in one of the two home cities, you will only see one half of the pennant race's checkered flag, to mix sports metaphors.

Sports siphoning to cable used to be a big issue in Washington.

Not anymore, although the flap over carriage of the Washington Nationals did recall the knicker-twist that legislators used to get in when faced with the possibility that sports would migrate to pay TV, stripping the hard-working, non-cable voter of their slice of Apple Pie, their Hot Dog, their Chevrolet.

Now, it is just a fact of life and economics. Monday Night Football, All-Star games, baseball playoffs. From TBS to ESPN to CSTV, cable's got game, and it looks like there's no going back.

By John Eggerton