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Twins Beat Angels 1-0 In 10 Innings On Danny Valencia Single

May 29, 2011, 2:16 AM UTC

Twins Vs. Angels: Anthony Swarzak No-Hitter Broken Up In Eighth, Twins Win In 10

The Minnesota Twins defeated the Los Angeles Angels 1-0 Saturday night in 10 innings; it took four consecutive Minnesota singles to advance the winning run, in the person of pinch-runner Jason Repko, to home plate for the victory. It was only the Twins' fifth win in their last 20 games.

The two teams combined for only six hits, just one from the Angels, and therein lies one of the big stories of the game. Anthony Swarzak of the Twins, pressed into service as an emergency starter due to a minor injury to scheduled hurler Francisco Liriano, no-hit the Angels until one out in the eighth inning, when Peter Bourjos doubled down the left field line.

Normally, this would be a big national story, as are most no-hitters in progress, with cut-ins on ESPN and/or the MLB Network. But since this was a magical Fox Saturday time period, where the network keeps ironclad control over what region of the USA sees which teams, only a select few got to see this close, tightly-played game. Originally, the Angels and Twins were only scheduled to be seen in Minnesota, parts of the Dakotas, Iowa and Nebraska, Montana and Wyoming, and much of central and southern California. Except for the Los Angeles and Minneapolis markets, there just aren’t a lot of TV’s in those areas.

When the Red Sox/Tigers game was rained out, the Angels and Twins got sent to much of that region -- but they still weren't seen everywhere, and even when the game got interesting no-hitterwise in the middle innings, Fox resolutely stayed with its regional games.

Except then, the Rockies decided to put a number on the Cardinals Saturday night. When the score in that game got to 12-0 Colorado, Fox announced it was sending many of that region's viewers (likely all but the home markets of St. Louis and Denver) to "a more compelling game".

“Great!” I thought, watching from my home in Chicago. “I’ll get to see the no-no in progress!”

Unfortunately, the geniuses at Fox decided that "compelling" for viewers in Chicago was a 5-5 tie in the sixth inning between the Reds and Braves. Worse, I had to listen to Thom Brennaman.

Can we fix this issue once and for all, please, MLB? The technology exists to insert local station commercials into MLB.TV or MLB Extra Innings. Why won’t you allow people to choose the Fox regional game they want to see? This isn’t 1974, when most cities have three network TV stations and maybe an independent channel and if you have a real tall outside antenna on your roof you can possibly see a TV channel from a city 90 miles away. Baseball fans don’t necessarily live in the city where their team resides, and Fox executives in New York or Los Angeles deciding which game local viewers get to see don’t usually understand the desire of the modern baseball fan, who has a large plasma screen, 500+ channels, a laptop, a smartphone and an iPad and can watch or listen to just about anything in the world.

Except during the three Fox hours every Saturday. I realize Fox-TV pays a lot of money to MLB and that Bud Selig and his MLB Advanced Media minions have developed a large number of arcane blackout rules that they’re very proud of -- but that are turning a large number of fans off. What other business prevents its customers from buying its product?

It’s time to end the blackouts. If a baseball fan wants to watch a game and is willing to pay the price set for it, he or she should be able to, whether in Chicago, New York, Las Vegas, Iowa or on Mars.

Finally, to add insult to insult, the Red Sox/Tigers rainout is being made up Sunday night as part of a split doubleheader. Since ESPN has exclusivity on Sunday nights, that game will be completely blacked out. No one except the fans at Comerica Park will get to see it.

Bud, let our people watch. Most of us would have been blacked out of history Saturday night, if Anthony Swarzak had been able to complete his no-hitter.

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