Quote Originally Posted by Genedoc View Post
Given their ridiculous blackout policy and their enforcement of it, I refuse to support the Nats. Hot young phenom pitcher hurling on ESPN tonight? Not if you live in the Triangle...it's blacked out. Way to build a customer base - make sure they never get to see you play.

The Triangle is the blackest of black holes for MLB coverage, which has turned me into a hockey fan. We're in Nats territory, so minimal Braves coverage. And the Nats black everything out, so we get minimal Nats coverage, too. Infuriating.
I really don't know about the specific 'blackout policy' to which you refer, but to be fair to the Nats, it is probably MASN that is establishing the blackout policies. And MASN, much to Nats' fans chagrin, is about 80% owned by one Peter Angelos - resident of Baltimore and owner of the low-salaried, low-performing Orioles. MASN controls the broadcast rights for the O's and Nats together, and in 2005 Selig, in order to placate his upset buddy PA (upset that MLB was moving another team into "his" market), gave Angelos a 90% ownership of the joint TV entity, MASN. The ownership percentage declines by 1-2% per year, I think, but bottoms out at 60% in, like, 15 years. Bottom line: please save your ire for Angelos and his O's.