More of the Same Rhetoric with Comcast

Matt Dominguez, Chris Carter, and catcher Cody Clark (Steven Bisig-USA TODAY Sports)

Unless something changes, Houston Astros fans will be in the dark once again for 2014.

Spring Training games have begun in earnest, the Astros have five games under their belts, but it doesn’t mean fans are any closer to watching their local nine. The thought was that with a whole off-season for the Comcast saga to play out in the boardrooms, we would have a resolution by the time Jason Castro and company stepped on the field.

The fact that Houston Rockets fans are in the dark also has not been an impetus for change. There was the assumption that the addition of Dwight Howard would help to move things along, but that has not been the case.

While the main objective here is to watch the actual regular season games, Astros’ fans are missing more than that. There is all of the coverage of the team, the pregame, the postgame, and also the ability to watch the Spring Training games.

At this point, it seems like there has not been any progress regarding Comcast. In fact there actually has been, but it doesn’t seem like that. In reality, there is no such thing as progress in a situation like this. You either can watch the games or you can’t. And right now, most cannot.

I am not going to repeat any news and rumors associated with this debacle, because we are here to follow baseball, not business news. The bottom line is this, something needs to change. And Astros fans do not care how it happens. Quite frankly, it should not be a concern of theirs.

To that end, Jim Crane is still diligently working to find some way for Astros’ fans to watch the games.

"“We’re still working with baseball and trying to look at an alternative to either stream the games in some form or fashion,” Crane said. “The way it’s set up right now, they still have our rights fees in the deal and we’re going to try to resolve something that will be able to stream the games or do something on a handheld, which is available and already being done.”"

While his intentions are in the right place, quite honestly none of this will matter if Astros fans cannot watch Scott Feldman throw the first pitch of the season.