HOUSTON — Chicago White Sox fans trying to find their favorite baseball team in a crucial playoff game on the Peacock app can ask their grandparents how they fared back in the olden days.
The Sox — and Cubs — were back on the Peacock app Wednesday, forcing many fans to either purchase a subscription to the app or try to find a bar or neighbor that had one. (The games also aired on NBC Sports Network, which is carried by YouTube TV and part of some premium Comcast packages but not on the standard Comcast lineup.)
The Sox were trying to oust the Houston Astros in their wild-card series and advance to the American League Division Series, while the Cubs were trying to avoid being ousted by the San Diego Padres in their series.
Big games deserve big audiences, but with the cost of everything rising by the day, does the average fan want to cough up $13 for something they might not use again after Thursday?
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After the Sox’s Game 1 win Tuesday, many fans who refused to pay for the app might have changed their mind, hoping to watch the possible Game 2 clincher. It has been a beautiful and unexpected season, and the drama of the Game 1 win only whetted fans’ appetites.
But Sox fans have been in this situation before.
It was 45 years ago that former Sox co-owner Eddie Einhorn introduced a new pay-TV concept in Chicago, asking fans to pay about $22 per month for Sox, Bulls, Blackhawks and Sting games on a new network called SportsVision.
Einhorn, who was well ahead of his time as a TV visionary, was unapologetic for moving games off free TV. He referred to it as his “Godfather” principle of television: “You give them an offer they can’t refuse.”
“I’m giving people something they want,” Einhorn told the Tribune when he introduced the network in 1981. “People don’t want to hassle driving to the ballpark, getting a babysitter. I’m doing them a favor. I’m giving them a package that lets them see more than they ever have before.”
Back in the early 1980s, the Cubs and Sox fan bases were relatively equal in size, and the Sox were improving with free agents Carlton Fisk and Greg Luzinski. But when the Sox left free TV for SportsVision, the Cubs began to pull away. Cubs games were on superstation WGN-9, which was over the air and part of every cable system.
Now, of course, both teams are relatively expensive to watch on a premium cable tier or their team-owned app: Chicago Sports Network for the Sox and Marquee Sports Network for the Cubs. To watch both teams in the regular season, you likely spent about $250 for the year if you subscribed to their apps.
But at least most fans knew they could watch the playoff games — at least until MLB gave NBC/Peacock the rights to broadcast Sunday night regular-season games and the wild-card games. It’s one thing to miss a regular-season game because it was on an app you don’t have. But the playoffs?
Due to overlap, two games the first two days of the wild-card round were on NBC and Peacock, and the other two were on Peacock and NBCSN. Naturally, the New York Yankees-Boston Red Sox games were on the over-the-air network because anything with the Yankees and Red Sox involved will get the biggest audience.
Sorry, Chicago. When it comes to ratings, you just don’t rate.
According to an MLB press release, “Peacock is available to anyone in the U.S. for a modest price (only $12.99 per month) … and in addition to sports, offers extensive premium shows, blockbuster movies, etc.”
As a Peacock subscriber for Big Ten basketball games, I admit I have the app that someone in my household probably paid for. My Peacock avatar is Ron Swanson from “Parks and Recreation,” one of two TV shows I watch on the app along with “The Office.”
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So I have nothing bad to say about Peacock, which is a perfectly fine app if you like old NBC comedies or Big Ten basketball. But it’s ridiculous to put playoff baseball games on it and deprive fans of watching their teams in the games that matter most. They at least could put the Cubs and Sox playoff games on The U, like CHSN does on occasion.
After deadline Tuesday night, a group of Chicago baseball writers went out in downtown Houston to try to watch the Cubs-Padres game, only to find that no one in the city really cared about it. An ESPN reporter used his clout and persuaded one bar to put Peacock on one of the corner TVs while everyone else in the bar was participating in trivia night. The bar used one of its employees’ Peacock password to accommodate us.
I’m guessing it played out that way in many establishments in Chicago, unless most bars enjoy the wit and wisdom of Ron Swanson as much as I do.
Streaming isn’t going away, but if MLB continues to make fans pay to watch their teams play postseason games, it eventually could go the way of SportsVision.