Pay ball

Watching games on free TV is not a constitutional right

For those of us who have never quite been able to define exactly what "The Pursuit of Happiness" embraced, we are so fortunate as to have some citizens of the New York metropolitan area to explain Mr. Jefferson's words for us. It seems that this unalienable right endowed by our Creator, along with Life and Liberty, is the prerogative to enjoy baseball games, for free, on television.

Here is the situation in Yankeeland: The owner of the pinstripes, Boss George Steinbrenner, has set up his own network, for the purpose of selling Yankees games to the various cable systems in greater Gotham. Most of said systems slurped up the opportunity, raised the monthly fee of all their subscribers in order to pay the freight to the Yankees and thereby presented the Bronx Bombers to a grateful plurality of their viewers.

Only one major system, Cablevision, refused to play ball. Cablevision said that it would be delighted to present the Yankees to its 3,000,000 customers, but since -- hard as this is to believe -- not all of them were baseball fans, the Yankees games should go on a premium channel. In this scenario, only the eyeballs that wanted to watch the Yankees would pony up the bucks to pay off Steinbrenner.

Well, it has been a video firestorm. Steinbrenner, through a spokesman, has sworn that none of this is about money. Gracious, no. It is only a matter of noblesse oblige. "I cannot tolerate a situation where only people of high income get to see the Yankees on TV," his representative said before a dubious consumer protection committee. Of course, if the Yankees -- or any team -- wanted to be sure that even the most hard-pressed common folk would have free access to the games, all they had to do was keep them on an over-the-air station. Nobody made the Yankees turn to cable.

But Cablevision has held fast to its own noble principles, too, maintaining that watching baseball is but a pastime, not a constitutional given, and that, rather like pornography, fans cannot expect their neighbors to help pay for their indulgence.

Stripped to its bones, though, this is just another skirmish in the continuing debate about the place of spectator sports in our society. It's tricky. Owning a team is not just a form of commerce, but neither is it a public trust. In olden times, it was simple. A man built a stadium, put a team on the field and sold tickets. Those who wanted to, supported the owner's team, just as they chose to support a gas station or a laundry or a drug store.

But at some point, civics entered the equation. Cities found that if they did not at least help build super stadiums and improve the access to these pleasure palaces, then they would lose their team to a more benevolent metropolis. A stadium -- or an arena -- came to be looked upon as an instrument of the common municipal good. Sure, not everybody uses parks and zoos, but everybody has to pay taxes for their upkeep. Same with stadiums. They bring a diverse people together, so they might pursue happiness in togetherness. Even if owners, like Mr. Steinbrenner, profit from the public largesse, it seems to be a fair levy for a city to pay.

Television, though, is something else again. It is a private divertissement. Television does not unite us. It insulates us. If consenting adults, in the privacy of their homes, wish to watch the Yankees, fine. But I don't think the rest of us should have to pay for their intimate pleasure. There is no right to a stadium, but it's a valuable public amenity. Television may be life and liberty to many folks, but it's private and it's business, and it's just like the old days. You wanna support a team, buy your own ticket.

Sports Illustrated senior contributing writer Frank Deford is a regular contributor to CNNSI.com and appears each Wednesday on National Public Radio's Morning Edition. His new novel, The Other Adonis (Sourcebooks Landmark), is available now at bookstores everywhere.

The opinions expressed here are solely those of the writer.

 

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