Every year about this time, no matter what place the Los Angeles Dodgers are in, many Dodgers fans begin speculating if Vin Scully will be returning to the announcer’s booth the following season. This past Friday, Vin Scully gave the good news that everyone wanted to hear: that he’ll be returning to the booth in 2016 for his 67th season.
While everyone was certainly happy and relieved that Scully would be returning the next year, a harsh dose of reality came yesterday when Scully announced at his official press conference that next year’s return would be his last.
“I would say, realistically — I don’t want any headlines — but next year would be the last one,” Scully said in his announcement.
While this news is sad for Dodgers fans, and any baseball fan that has enjoyed Vin Scully calling a game at any point in their life, the unfortunate truth is that if you’re in the Dodgers TV viewing territory, Vin Scully unofficially retired when Time Warner bought the Dodgers TV viewing rights two years ago.
Fans in the Dodgers TV territory can get three simulcast innings of Scully on the radio when he’s announcing games on TV, and that’s about it. Their only option is to subscribe to Time Warner Cable or Charter. While this may seem to be a simple solution, it’s not. The Dodgers viewing territory, so large an area that it even includes Las Vegas, NV, has multiple TV providers, and depending on where you live you may not have the option to get either Time Warner or Charter.
The Dodgers, who own part of SportsNet LA, need to take responsibility. They should restructure their ridiculous $8.35 billion, 25 year deal. With cord-cutting on the rise, one can expect that Time Warner will eventually try to get out of the deal on their own. Cable subscribers are dropping steadily on a quarterly basis, and cable TV as we know it is going the way of CDs and DVDs.
If the Dodgers can’t take a cut to force Time Warner to drop the subscriber fees for SportsNet LA, and if MLB won’t get involved (MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred has stated before that he’s not interested in getting involved), then it’s time start making amends in other ways, like simulcasting Scully for more than three innings on the radio broadcasts.
In-market Dodges fans can only hope a new deal will be reached, but shouldn’t hold their collective breath.
If you’re outside of the Dodgers TV market, do yourself a favor and get an MLB.TV subscription. You won’t want to miss what’s left of Scully’s career as a broadcaster, because there will never be another baseball announcer like him again.
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