Before the days of broadcast television and modern internet, there was cable television.

And one of the advantages of cable television is that all summer long, you could get usually two baseball games.

But the downside was they were the baseball games of only two particular teams.

If you had a local team you liked,

you'd have to hope to get that on a broadcast or maybe catch them in a game of the week kind of thing.

I think ABC had a game of the week or maybe a couple of those. But if you happen to like the

Chicago Cubs or Atlanta Braves and you had cable TV, every single one of their games was

available to you, regardless of where you lived in the country. And Cubs games were fun. They got

Ivy on their outfield fence. It's a historic stadium. It looks like everybody's having fun there,

whether they win or lose. Cubs games are pretty cool, even if you're not a Cubs fan, and I'm not.

But the Braves games over on WTBS that Ted Turner owned, those were not as much fun.

They had AstroTurf.

It never looked like people were having as much fun.

The Braves weren't really lovable losers like the Cubs. They weren't really lovable winners either. I just nothinged the Braves all the way through my childhood, despite their games being readily available. Well, we didn't have cable, but if I went over to a friend's house, I could always watch the Braves. Well, I don't want to watch the Braves. Games are boring. Again, I don't dislike the Braves. I'm not bad at the Braves. Just shrug. One of the things, though, that I thought was interesting about the Braves as a kid, is they would brand themselves as America's team. They said it all the time on that broadcast. Braves are America's team.

And as a kid, I remember thinking, no, you're not.

I get why you would want to be.

It would be really cool if there were an America's team

that transcended all the local markets

and everybody rooted for this team.

I'd feel really bad for all the other teams

that are being ganged up on by the rest of

America. But I, you know, I get why they went for it. I get the promotional effort there.

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