Since TBS has cancelled Braves’ broadcasts after thirty uninterrupted years of wonderful sports entertainment — not that I’m bitter — I had to bite the bullet and buy MLB’s internet TV, which allows me to watch just about any game on my computer.

So far, I like it. It’s not idealized for Macintosh, but it works and it gives me something to watch in the early hours of my observing run. TBS has been shrinking its coverage for a while and MLB TV is a wonderful improvement over little dots on a screen (although MLB’s gameday is outstanding).

That having been said, I’ve now encountered the biggest complaint — blackouts. The entire nation has been divided into fiefdoms and assigned to certain teams. And those teams are blacked out in those regions in order to protect cable TV coverage — whether said coverage exists or not. So tonight, while Mark Buehrle was tossing a no-hitter, I was unable to watch because I’m in a Texas Rangers blackout zone.

This is insane. In the first place, there is no accounting for the fact that I simply can’t watch a cable broadcast because there is no cable on the mountain and I’m in a fucking dome. Second, this represents the common way of entertainment ventures these days — protect copyright by pissing all over your fans. Whether its music downloading, movie pirating or baseball, they have decided to slap the fans in the face repeatedly.

Allowing me to watch a Texas Rangers game on the internet in no way hurts the cable company. But denying me the opportunity to watch baseball history makes me want to cancel the whole thing.