If MLB streams it, baseball fans won’t watch

Game 1 of the Wild Card round is in the books, and Chicago, we have some serious problems. The Cubs' vaunted offense did nothing against Padres pitching, narrowly avoiding being no-hit in the first of the three-game series. Admittedly, Michael King dominated, throwing pitches that looked out of the zone only to dart back in to an unhittable corner of the plate. It completely disrupted a Cubs offense that is defined by taking walks, forcing pitchers to the big part of the zone and then doing damage. If Nick Pivetta is able to execute a similar strategy tonight the Cubs' Postseason will end unceremoniously tonight.

It's also unclear how many people in Chicago actually were able to watch the game (whether you think that's a blessing or a curse is debatable). The Wild Card round was hosted on NBC, which decided to put both of the Chicago games on its streaming platform Peacock and a lesser carried channel, NBC Sports Network. If you subscribe to Comcast/Xfinity, YouTube TV or Fubo, you had the game via those services. If you subscribe to Peacock (more on that in a second) you had the game. If you either get cable through Astound (previously RCN) or DirecTV, you were out of luck, as they don't carry NBCSN. This was also true if you use a live TV streaming option other than YouTube or Fubo. As reported in the Sun-Times: