Sports on TV

No, not the actual production of sports on TV, jackass.

This annoyed me to the point of threatening to blow up Rogers Cable. Seriously.

The World Series and Baseball playoffs are on last October in Kelowna.  So, naturally, I'm excited to watch all the action. After all, the Yankees/Rangers series promises to be a classic.

I settle in 20 minutes before gametime with the beer, chips, and other salt free snacks (yeah, sure) and turn on the TV.  No pregame is on any channel.

I frantically begin surfing every known channel including the Gay/Lesbian channel (after all San Francisco is also in the playoffs) trying to find the game.

Nothing.

I go through the channel guide and internet; then when nothing is found I call Rogers Cable, the local cable system.  What the fuck? I say to them.

"Oh," the operator tells me, "we've had quite a few calls about this"  No kidding.

"Yes the game will be on AFTER the Hockey Game."  she says.  Oh, great - maybe at best we can watch a couple of later innings.

OK, Rogers, so lemme get this straight.  We gotta watch the fifth game of the NHL season, a classic matchup between Nashville and Buffalo, instead of a baseball playoff game?

"Yep," she says.  "Thats the rules".  Yeah, what rules??

Without debating this issue, (after all, the operator moron is not about to go "just a minute sir, I'll get that game on right away") I frantically get myself together and bolt out to watch the game at the closest bar.  Let me list this so you can understand better:

1st Bar:      Nope we don't have the game in our dish package
2nd Bar:    Same as above.
3rd Bar:     "Yeah, we got the game on our system but theres a hockey game on."

Me:            Killer Stare, followed by "are you ab-so-fucking-lutely- serious?
Them:        "Yeah, we got a hockey game on and we can only run one channel at a time."

4th Bar:     "Yeah, we had a few calls about this, but there's a hockey game on." He sees in my face I'm       gonna launch a tirade on him so he says, "Hey Man, it's a hockey town, and people will leave if I turn on baseball"

5th Bar:      They at least TRY.  After 10 minutes of fiddling with the satellite, and people staring at me like I'm a crazed lunatic, they say no luck.  I throw the guy $20 for his effort and carry on.

6th Bar:       SUCCESS!  But, I have to buy all the morons watching curling or some other shit each a beer as a bribe.  No problem.  One of them actually asks who is playing.  I ask the bartender to turn up the sound.  He gives me a "don't push your luck" look.

All this to watch a baseball game in Kelowna.  I mean, I'm gonna write the Rangers and Yankees to let them know what I went through to watch this game.  Perhaps they will fly me out to throw out the first pitch or something.

It annoys me that a city of 150,000 plus can't figure out what MILLIONS already have: when a big sporting event is on, show the fucking thing!!

It annoys me more that Rogers Cable regularly fucks their customers on a regular basis.

P.S.  I ended up trading about 2,000 emails with Rogers until they blocked me from their system.  Without going into their "local broadcasting commitment policy" in detail, their explanation still made no sense.