If you follow Dodger baseball and live on the Central Coast, good luck. As major league baseball rolls through September and into the playoffs portion of the season, we Dodger fans who used to watch them play on television, listen in on local radio broadcasts, or absorb local newspaper reporting have clearly been struck out by the media. No televised Dodger games for DirectTV or Dish subscribers. Local ESPN Radio affiliate pre-empts Dodger broadcasts with high school and Cal Poly games. The Tribune has all but eliminated major league baseball from its sports section. It’s a new and unwelcome three-pronged assault. 

What if the Dodgers finally emerge from their 27-year slump and play their way to the World Series? Will Time Warner/Charter Communications black us out while the rest of the country watches? Will ESPN Radio “treat us” to Atascadero Greyhounds football games instead of possible dream match-up Dodgers versus Yankees? Will The Tribune report “Dodgers ahead in fourth inning of last night’s championship game” because of their new earlier publication printing initiative? It’s clearly the seventh-inning stretch for us—“one, two, three strikes you’re out at the old ballgame.”

-- Rick Cohen - Avila Beach