MLB.COM scam

So this really pissed me off today:
If one were, for instance going to be without cable tv for the baseball playoffs because, for instance, one is in temporary housing thinking one will move to permanent housing any week and thus never got cable, and if the new permanent home where one is actually moving in a day or so can’t be wired for cable tv right away because the cable guys only come on Wednesdays and today is Thursday, one might go to the site of Major League Baseball on the Net, mlb.com. There one would see a little box with games in progress. A series of icons points to ways to follow the games: a tv icon to watch, if one is a paid subscriber, the game on mlb.tv; a speaker icon to listen to (paid subscription) audio; and a baseball diamond icon to get the free, live cartoon game representation call “GameDay.” If one is frugal, like yours truly, GameDay suffices during the regular season. If one were to think, however, “Let’s see how much it costs to see the playoff games” and then clicks on the TV icon, one is transported to a page which looks like this: View image.
The page says, “to access this content, you will need to purchase one of the subscriptions below.” The options are for “2007 MLB.TV postseason domestic package” or “2007 MLB.TV postseason international package.” If one reaches the logical conclusion that, being based in the US, the domestic option will allow one to “access,” i.e., watch (because one has just clicked the tv icon and then connected “watch” with “access”) all the games online and clicks the purchase button, one sees this: View image.
One then clicks “proceed to checkout,” and pays the $14.95. Then if one returns to the link and tried to watch, say the Cleveland-New York Game 1, one is told that the “game is blacked out in your region.” One thinks, hey, I live in California, this is a mistake. Then one notices the message that if one thinks this is a mistake, one should call such-and-such toll-free number. One does and quickly learns that the blacked-out regions for ALL the games are: the United States (all of them), Guam, Japan, Korea, and the Virgin Islands. What the are actually selling – accessed via the TV link and under the name “MLB.TV package” – is live AUDIO of the game, and delayed, “archived” video. There is, you will notice in the images, a little tiny link to more information which lays all this out, but how much more information would a normal, intelligent person need for a “2007 MLB.TV postseason domestic package”?
When one calls the number and yells five or ten versions of “WTF?”, one is quickly promised a refund “within seven to ten days” and assured – fake conspiratorially – that this confusion has happened one or two times before.
Criminy!