Today for my birthday, Joyce cooked my favorite meal, Pot Roast.  Daniel got me a card, drew me a picture, and gave me his “I’m 4 years old” ribbon that he wore on his 4th birthday.  Savannah texted me a birthday wish.  And my parents send me a birthday card with some money.

But then I got an unexpected surprise.  My first cousin, Jimmy, got a job in Atlanta and will be moving near me from Florida.  His son and Daniel are the same age and, though they only met at a recent family reunion in New York, they seem to get along well.

I am very excited as I haven’t had a relative live in the same city as me since I was a kid, and never anyone from my Father’s side of the family.

I have wanted Daniel to play baseball for years, but he hasn’t really been that interested, so I didn’t push the issue.  At the family reunion, however, he played baseball with Dominic, who is very good at it. 

When I say Dominic is very good at baseball, I don’t mean he’s good at it for a five year old, I mean he’s very good at it for a seven or eight year old, despite the fact that he’s five.  This kid can switch hit standard sized baseballs pitched overhand.  It is no surprise that Dominic is good at baseball.  His father and his uncle, Michael, both excelled at the game.  Jimmy won a baseball scholarship.

Since playing with Dominic, Daniel has been very interested in baseball.  Now that they will be living in the Atlanta area, not only can they be playmates, but Daniel can learn some baseball from him.

And there you have it.

Joe.

I am huge fan of Major League Baseball and as a fan I decided that, this year, instead of just watching what was available on cable and following online, I would purchase Comcast’s MLB Extra Innings.

I started looking for this option on their website towards the end of January.  I even called them to inquire about it only to find out that the representatives that answer the phone know no more information (and probably less) than the website offers.  To my delight, on the first day of Spring Training, Comcast’s site provided information on purchasing this package and offered a $50 discount for signing up before the season started!  I called immediately.  Although the Comcast rep didn’t know about the promotion or the availability of the package, he was able to look up the details.  This, of course, was after several back-and-forth’s of me telling him that I could see the “Sign up today” statements on their site, and him trying to convince me that I didn’t.  All-in-all it wasn’t a terrible experience signing up… yet!

Since I called from work, I had to wait until after to verify that I had been setup correctly.  I don’t think waiting until I had gotten home to sign up would’ve had any affect on the outcome.  Once home, I discovered that I couldn’t find any baseball games on my TV.  I consulted the TV listings on Comcast’s site to find out that MLB Extra Innings games should reside on channels 771-784.  Interestingly enough, NHL Center Ice should also reside on channels 771-784.  Of course, I found only hockey on my TV.

DAY ONE

I called Comcast’s support to remedy the mistake.  Surely, someone accidentally gave me hockey instead of baseball.  After some amount of time on hold, I spent the better part of an hour troubleshooting the problem with the support technician (I use that term quite loosely).  I was eventually promised a call-back in an hour.

DAY TWO

So I called back the next day.  Incidentally I didn’t expect my promised call-back to ever take place.  I still have hockey.  The new “technician” removes MLB from my account and asks me, “What do you see?”

“I see the ‘You don’t have this subscription’ message”, I replied.

“How about now?”

“Hockey.”

“And now?”

“Call Comcast to order this subscription”

“And now?”

“Hockey, again.”

This repeated meander took place for about 30 minutes.  I started recounting the many times I have heard Benjamin Franklin’s definition of insanity:  Doing the same thing over and over expecting different results.  I wasn’t surprised to eventually be offered a call-back and was even less surprised to not receive one.

DAY THREE

I called back and spoke to a semi-competent service agent who explained to me that Comcast offers NHL Center Ice and MLB Extra Innings on the same channels.  There will be no coverage for spring training games, but once the regular season is underway, the games will be available.  Without any significant rebuttal to offer, I was forced to accept the explanation given to me and wait to the end of the month to verify it.

DAY TWENTY-THREE

Opening day for Boston in Japan.  I consult my listings.  Hockey and no Baseball.  Remembering the lady on the phone told me that it would be April, I decided to wait until then.  Maybe the all-intelligent sports reps at Comcast didn’t know that opening day would be in March.

DAY TWENTY-NINE

Today was the New York Yankees 2008 season home opener.  April 1st.  Today was the day that the hockey listings would be replaced with baseball. 

Results: Hockey.

DAY THIRTY

I started thinking about it and wondered if I had missed something.  I consulted the listings once again.  Hockey…AND baseball!  Ok, I get it now.  They are intermingling to the two packages.  I discovered this a bit too late to catch opening day, but now I can watch my Yankees.  All is well.

DAY THIRTY-TWO

At $40 dollars discount, the $159 dollar price tag on MLB Extra Innings is worth it to me.  Especially since it can be broken up into three easy payments of $53 dollars.  Even the frustration of spending three, or so, hours (excluding hold times) on the phone with Comcast trying to resolve the issue weren’t enough to break the deal now that I can watch baseball.

However, discovering that I am being charged 3 counts of MLB Extra Innings and 1 count of NHL Center Ice totaling $526 dollars on top of my regularly monthly payment makes me start thinking strongly about changing to DirecTV.

Obviously, I will not pay these erroneous charges, but the thought of having to call Comcast and spend another 30+ minutes on hold, only to try to convince the resulting customer service representative that I should not be charged for these things makes me want to jab ice-picks into my ears.  Not to mention that they are surely going to suggest that I pay the bill now and will be credited the amount next month to avoid late penalties. 

I switched to Comcast from DirecTV because, at the time, they had a more HD channels than DirecTV and DISH and better prices.  I sacrificed many things that I loved about DirecTV for HD/Comcast, but the for switching back may be at hand.

It will, however, have to wait until baseball season is over!

</rant>

Can you believe it?  The 2008 schedule has been announced, spring training is less than a month away and I have to endure another season where my Yankees don’t play in Atlanta during inter-league play. 

On the bright side, we may have missed out on the Santana deal, but at least he went to a National League team and not the Redsox!  I am looking forward to the new rotation.  I really like Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy and I don’t think there is any Yankee fan that could dislike Joba.

I am getting anxious…after Sunday’s game, it is all downhill.

If you know me well, you know that I am not much of a Football fan, but I have to pay attention to this Super Bowl, growing up in a Yankees/Rangers/Giants household requires me to.