Of TV and Roko and all kinds of fun stuff

All right, here’s some more on the network television schedule and I believe I can hear the howls of anger as you read it.

How’s almost half the TSN games being shipped over to TSN2 make you feel? Like 23 of 47, that’s the number I’m hearing. Which means that unless there’s some deal to get TSN2 on the Rogers service here in Toronto, fans in the city the team represents won’t be able to see more than a quarter of the regular season games.

That’s indefensible.

Now, I will point out that I’m told TSN and Rogers are working at getting TSN2 on the air in on the cable providers who so far have ignored it and the first Raptor game for the secondary network isn’t until early December but, still, that bites. Maybe they'll come to their senses and shift some more games back to the big network we can all see but right now, the number's 23 and you've got every right to be angry.

I’m not entirely sure who’s to blame for this travesty, TSN or Rogers or Maple Leaf Sports (there's enough blame to go around), but I suggest they lock ‘em all in a room sometime around noon today and don’t let ‘em leave until they get TSN2 on the air in the country’s biggest television market.

It doesn't take a genius to figure out what the real TSN will be showing week nights in the winter that would bump basketball to its sister network. How's something like Nashville-Atlanta compare to a Raptor game? Would appear the people at the network think it's better.

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Honestly, Sam was going on so much about Roko Ukic yesterday, I thought he was going to turn to all of us and say:

"If you put Roko in the gym with a chicken, he wouldn’t leave until he caught it.”

(That was his oft-used statement describing the work ethic of one Araujo, Rafael, and we all know how that worked out).

Okay, I know there’s a lot of validity to what the coach had to say about Ukic – the kid has been impressive in his short stints – but how much do you think was a shot across the bow at Solomon?

Maybe by praising the guy he’s in competition with is Sam’s way of lighting a fire under the guy who still has the job.

Sam’s not that devious, is he?

Besides, those guys don’t read the papers, right?

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Oh yeah, Joey told me yesterday he’s going to play tonight. Just letting you know in case you wanna run out and get tickets now.

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Gonna be a circus down at the old shootaround this morning.

Usually it’s a rather boring affair, the players and coaches are on the floor, hidden by curtains, while the gathered grunts sit in an ante room off the corridor waiting for pearls of wisdom from Sam and which ever players we want to talk to.

Heaven forbid we should watch (“Psst, hey, Minnesota: They’re going to throw the ball to No. 4 a lot”) but that’s okay, we’re used to the wait.

But today? Today there are going to be 13,000 kidlets in the arena watching them go through their paces. The crowd is kids who took part in the team’s reading community initiative and if the chance to see a shootaround (and, I believe, a visit from The Chicken and The Dancing Girls) is what it takes to get young ‘uns to read, I’m all for it.

Of course, I’ll avoid it like the plague, 13,000 cheering youngsters is not a 10 a.m. thing I’m interested in seeing or hearing.

And the quasi-public shootaround is taking the place of the old open practice they used to hold each year. That’s gone the way of the do-do bird.

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Quick check of the mail:

Q: Let's say the Raps win 50 during the season but are eliminated before the NBA Finals. Is it legitimately possible that O'Neal could make the ultimate sacrifice to win a championship by opting out of his current contract and signing a new multi-year deal for 13 or 14 million per year. This will free up cap space so we can sign a slashing swing man in the off-season, possibly Rip Hamilton?
And here’s one that me and my friends like to think about. If you had to choose to keep either Bryan Colangelo or Chris Bosh in the Raps organization, who would it be?
Jesse S, Thornhill

A: Legitimately possible? No. I’d say inconceivable, unless he has an MVP-type year and wants to cash in when it’s most beneficial. Will that happen? I highly doubt it.

Bosh or BC? Tough one. I’d say go with the guy who can make things better for a longer period of time. That’d be the GM.

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Here’s what’s going on with tonight’s opponents, the Timberwolves, who are destined for another long, long, long year, I suspect.

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Sam Mitchell, Mr. Tough Love, describing his back-up point guards:

"I’m not displeased with them but I can’t go over and just jump and down and kiss their butts … I’ve got to push them. That’s my job.”

And a minute or so later, he hugged Frick, or is it Frack, showing he does have some love for beat grunts.

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All right, the next time they want to send us on some wacky pre-season trip, I can look back at this year’s Oklahoma City Thunder (and that feels very weird to type) and know I could have had it worse (and that doesn’t mean because they have to be in Oklahoma City).

The Thunder, or Thunders?, just finished a seven-day road trip to Billings, Montana, Sacramento, Oakland and Tulsa.

Wow, does that suck, or what?

I’ve been to Billings and Sacramento and Oakland, that’s like the Holy Trinity of stinky cities; I can just imagine that Tulsa’s not the garden spot of the world.

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Slagging Sam in the mail:

Q: Since Sam is intent on quoting on Woden maybe he should also take note that Wooden didn't call a play for his team every time down the court! He had trust in the players on the court and just let them play basketball. What makes Sam a mediocre NBA player at best all of a sudden a expert on what plays to run? This micro-managing in all sports is ridiculous, from managers in baseball calling every pitch, to coaches in football calling every play. Peyton Manning has seemed to do okay calling his own plays, as did his brother last year by checking off the called play. So maybe Sam needs to look at why Wooden turned out all the great players he did, as he let them play and develop their own style and made them think within the team concept he laid down in practice.

Doug B, Toronto

A: Acutally, you’re wrong. He doesn’t call a play every time down the court. He trusts a three-year veteran in Jose Calderon to know which matchups to exploit, which guy needs a touch, which play is working best and should be ridden hard. He doesn’t quite trust a 30-year-old playing in the NBA for the first time in six years or a 23-year-old rookie to call the right plays. Shocking, but true.

And the Peyton Manning-Sam Mitchell, football-basketball analogy is bad.

A mediocre player at best? Thirteen seasons is far, far better than mediocrity. I have a feeling that if he called no plays, you’d be calling him out for that.

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Think we should switch things up this week? How about a regular blog thingy tomorrow off tonight's game and a weekend of mail? Sound fair?

Oh, and we'll be doing the usual in-game comedy, er, commentary, tonight so check in later on.

Comments

[Patrick]

Hi Doug,

From your perspective, it is pretty clear that they'll be going with essentially an 8-man rotation (Calderon - Parker - Moon - Bosh - O'Neal - Bargnani - Kapono - Backup point guard) with the occasional appearance by Hump and maybe Joey (instead of the currently disappointing Adams)?

Oh and I don't think Sam actually hugged Frick... it looked more like a head rub to me.

Have a good one!

[Aaron Campbell]

What's happening?

Going to the game tonight, probably going to sit in our 2nd row upper deck seats in the first half and then in the platinums for the second half as long as the man doesn't notice that I'm not wearing an expensive suit, or is that only at the Leaf games.

I can't understand why it's taking so long to get TSN 2 on Rogers?
Your right, if they don't fix it soon, there will be hell to pay.

[Jason]

You can all direct your frustrations regarding the schedule directly to TSN at the following:

audiencerelations@tsn.ca

[Sean Peacocke]

Doug: Who do we write or email to communicate our disgust with this TSN2 debacle?

Blogger's note: Check the other comments

[AK]

I've had it with this ridiculous pucks-addicted town. I thought it outdid itself when the local wannabe sports highlight shows were leading off with pre-season black-rubber chasing on ice over playoff baseball. Now they've taken their infatuation to another level.

Is it fair to assume that we'll be paying more for this TSN2? I may just watch the games on the internet. At least I won't have to be subjected to Rod Black during the time-outs.

I think it's time to re-investigate the plausability of installing a grey market satellite.

AK

[axl]

This tv thing is so unbelievably shoddy - and I can't imagine why anyone but rogers would be to blame. Obviously the channel's there to be had, Bell and Cogeco have it. It's the kind of thing I've come expect from them however...

[Josh]

Doug, I know you're not into pucks so you can be forgiven, but if you've been paying attention to the ad campaign for the NHL on TSN this season, you'll know that "every game on TSN features a Canadian team". And the TV schedule for the season on nhl.com bears that out.

There will be no Nashville-Atlanta games bumping the Raps to TSN2. Nashville-Calgary, maybe, but not Nashville-Atlanta.

[Amanda]

Um... are you pulling a mean joke on us Doug? They're really not going to show 23 Raptors games just so the puck-heads can watch a game between two teams that on most nights won't even be between Canadian teams? Obviously TSN has been asleep for the past 2 years and haven't realized how popular the Raptors have become.

[JY]

Is Doug suggesting that we cant get TSN2 in Toronto at all? I just can't see how the raptors administration/TSN would be that stupid.

Honestly, I miss one or two games a year, and now 1/4 of them wont even be available for viewing at all?

Blogger's note: If you're a Rogers cable subscriber anywhere, you cannot see TSN2 at the moment.

[JP]

Kapono for Outlaw and Rodriguez from Portland.

Would they make this trade? Would WE make this trade?

[Joe]

oh thank god. now i don't have to worry about accidentally seeing the raptors when i'm looking for the snowmobile report because I DON'T GET THE STATION!!!!!!

we can get mad at rogers and bell (and there's lots of reason for that) but the buck stops at raptor management that signed this deal. this is a fan-last deal.

is it ironic or is the proper word nefarious, that now that everyone with cable in the toronto area can see raptorstv without the extra up-charge, they shave off games to yet another channel people can't watch, and this time its beyond forcing fans to pony up yet more money.

if bell's smart, they'll mount a campaign for expressvu touting more than a quarter of the nba season only available via them, offer some super pricing and free setup, and i'd bet they'd chip away a good number of hoops fans from rogers (people that may very well go for the "illegal" us-satellite hookup. are you reading this bell? get on it.)

but someone will rig up a stream and both bell and rogers will end up losing out. all of them, mlse, bell, rogers, have the american-style fixation with immediate money that ends up coming back to bite them in the ass. it won't take people long to realize a web-stream is not the worst thing in the world, especially when it lets you catch all the games you want while saving you $50-$70-$100+/month, that adds up.

its well beyond time for the crtc to change the ownership laws. transmission carriers, satellite/cable/etc. should not be allowed to own broadcasters, radio/tv/etc. and that's even more poignant with the monopolies involved. cable/phone companies are amongst the most devious businesses in the country, always trying to screw and squeeze more and more from those with few options, regularly abusing the "public trust" parliament says that they constitute.

sadly we can't organize or do much of anything about it. it we could build a campaign that "bans" the buying of team merchandise, that'd be a simple, noninvasive way of expressing frustration. noone "needs" to have a new bosh jersey, it doesn't interfere with the enjoyment of games but it can send a message. i for one am not buying a stitch of their slave-labour import crap.

[Dave]

Doug, do you have any suggestions on how/who to contact at TSN or BellGlobe to convey my seething anger about having to miss a quarter of the season on tv? I know it won't make any difference, but I'd at least like to call them out for trading loyal sports-fans emotions for a greedy transparent cash grab.

[Tim]

Re: Doug B's comments. I think he does bring up a good point on the state of sports today and the amount of micromanaging that goes on.
Baseball, despite noises made about 5-10 years ago of speeding up the game, still remains mired in three-plus hour affairs.
Football, I think, is often quite exciting when QBs call their own plays, and the no-huddle offense is used more.
Basketball is the same. There's a better flow when they get out and run, and point guards have the innate/learned skill to freelance based on what the defense is giving them.
Hockey, though I don't watch much anymore, due to my location outside Canada, has improved in speed and excitement considerably from what I've seen over the last few years.
But, for the first three, I think one only has to look at how expansion has diluted the depth of quality on teams, which probably has led to less trust on the coaches' parts. Still, with the new generation of PGs (Calderon, Paul, Williams) coming on, it may lead to a new generation of kids to dream of playing PG, not because they handle the ball more or can dribble it to death, but because they're the QBs, able to make beautiful passes, alley oops, kill slack defenders with mid-range and running jumpers, etc. I think the NBA can hopefully look forward to the game improving in future years as up and coming kids stop dreaming of becoming the next one-on-one swingman king and instead see passing, involvement of teammates, and simple jumpshots as an exciting way to play.
My loooooong two cents.

[Tom]

Hey Doug,

How can we give Roger's an earful about putting so many games on TSN 2? I can't believe they would even try this crap! Do you have contact info. or know the best avenue to file a complaint? Would they even listen?

[rob]

Doug, what can we do about this TSN thing? This is pathetic. TSN has been a joke for a while with the all hockey crap, but this is just insane if we can't watch a quarter of the games. I bet you that TSN would even consider bumping a Raptors playoff game in favor of a NHL NY vs Florida playoff series if given the choice. Who can we write to Doug? Screw waiting to see if we can get TSN2, we need to make some noise now. Even if we get TSN2, it's an insult to be put on the secondary network. (Like bowling on ESPN4)

[Matt P]

What is with this TSN2 BS? How could they NOT air 23 games out of the season to innercity fans?! Do you think it will really get to that point and they will not work something out?

MP

Blogger's note: They've got to get something worked out, don't they?

[Philyo]

For those fans complaining about the games being on TSN2 I can understand where you are coming from, but its called business. If TSN was able to sell enough advertising at the right price, it would be on the regular TSN. Fact is, Raptor's TV numbers are not very good. That is why it is being moved to TSN 2. As some have already mentioned, the NHL games on the regular TSN channel will all feature at least 1 Canadian team. I can pretty much guarantee you that any NHL game with at least 1 Canadian team playing in it will far outdraw a Raptors game on TSN. Its called life, get over it!

[Terence]

Rogers is really really really dragging their feet on this one... ironic that I have Raps TV but will still miss a quarter of the games as it currently stands. Someone needs to give Rogers management a lesson in how to at least pretend they care about their customers.

[Terence]

Philyo... I think we understand the economy of business, and we're not disupting that particular tidbit of reality.

The point being made is that the biggest cable company in the nation doesn't offer TSN2 at all. I don't care if they broadcast the game on TSN alternate channel 17 with a feed from a guy holding a handheld camera from the stands, as long as we at least have the option of subscribing to that particular channel.

[Sean]

Heres what I dont get, I thought the Raptors had a policy in recent years of making sure their games were broadcast nationally (hence why Sportsnet was getting less and less games in the past few years since they had conflict on their regional channels.) If TSN2 isnt available nation-wide (let alone Toronto), why is MLSE not taking the games back and putting them on Raptors TV or the Score? Doesn't MLSE simply pay the networks for the air time in the first place?

[PKrazy]

Hey Doug. Once they release the television schedule and it is confirmed that a quarter of the Raptors season will not be available on TV to the citizens of Toronto who have Rogers, you should get the big wigs at the Star to let you do a story for the paper (and internet) that could rile up fans. Massive threats of boycotts and public outcry is one way to get these idiots together and work something out. I know you have to steer away from conflicts of interest (since Bell and Rogers are both competitors to Torstar) but you're a smart guy and a good writer so I'm sure you could come up with a motivational piece of writing.

[Joe T.]

Wow! Count me among those annoyed and disappointed with this TSN2 news. It'd be bad enough if you had to pay for a channel simply to watch a quarter of the Raptors games this season. But then to find out we won't even have THAT option since more than half of us can't get the channel anyway? Outrageous! And it begs the question: what's the point of Raptors TV now? Or will they be carrying a DIFFERENT set of exclusive Raptors games?...

[Colin W]

Re TSN2, I have it with my StarChoice package and it didn't cost me extra. For people still with Rogers cable, given the terrible programming for a truckload of $$$s, why???

[James]

Hey Doug,

I am a Rogers Cable subscriber, so I do not get TSN 2. However, the games that are on TSN 2 in Canada, will they also be shown on the league pass channels, so that those of us without TSN 2 can still view the games?

Blogger's note: I honestly don't know the answer to that.

[GM]

Whew! Dodged a bullet. I just checked my cable package here in Vancouver and see that I have TSN2. I turned it on for a second to make sure I got it. Guess what? It was hockey. Surprise.