Shifting Extra Innings package to DirecTV? MLB whiffs again

Baseball is dangerously close to making a deal with the devil, and it's simply a coincidence that half of the country has plunged into the purple deep-freeze on the nation's weather charts this week? I don't think so.

Commissioner Bud Selig, haven't you heard about the package deal? (Getty Images)

If you think the frostbite is bad this week, wait until summer, when baseball's sellout of some of its most passionate and loyal fans becomes official with the DirecTV deal -- it's going to get even chillier.

For those who remain blissfully unaware -- there already are plenty who are mad as hell and don't want to take it anymore -- here's the deal: Baseball is on the verge of taking its Extra Innings package, the vehicle by which fans can pay to watch out-of-market games, and moving it exclusively to DirecTV.

For $100 million a year, over the next seven years.

I'll resist the temptation to expound on Judas Iscariot and the 30 silver coins here.

InDemand, the vehicle through which cable customers previously have obtained Extra Innings, reportedly offered $70 million annually to retain its share of the rights.

But a key element of DirecTV's offer is exclusivity. (Never mind that the $30 million difference a year works out to about $1 million per organization, so the best compromise obviously is for each of the 30 clubs to just shave a million bucks off of its payroll by whacking some pinch-hitter with big dreams and a weak stick.)

So Baseball, an industry awash in record revenues of $5.2 billion in 2006, nevertheless is all too eager to toss some of its most dedicated fans overboard in a brazen and naked money grab.

Commissioner Bud Selig is so out of touch on this issue that he actually told somebody last week he hadn't heard much criticism of the deal.

Hello, commissioner's office? In a time of forward progress, this is so Prohibition-era backward that some of us are waiting for the Untouchables to show up and save the day.

I'll resist the temptation to expound on moonshine here.

We're not talking about baseball suddenly being able to sell a part of its product that it hasn't been able to sell before. The Extra Innings package, since 2001, has been available only by subscription. Fans already had to buy it. It isn't like anybody was getting anything for free.

And they're still on the verge of making it less available than it was.