Or cable, for that matter.

You will all remember that when said deal was announced, many of us cried foul. Some doubted our conviction, yet our resolve would not be undermined until we got results. And results we got. MLB was publicly scorned and vilified into including poor-ol’ cable into their deal.

All was well with the world, fans could again watch their MLB Extra Innings packages through Cable or DirecTV. Oh, uhm, well not all fans. Certainly not those with Dish satellite service in their living rooms.

Curious that nobody raised their arms in protest because the other satellite provider was not invited to the MLB Extra Innings party. Curious also that Echo Star, the parent company of said Sat Service Provider just announced that it had acquired Sling Media.

So the conspiracy nut in me has to wonder…

But if you’re just joining us, let’s recap:

Sling Media is a tiny little compnay (not really, but it makes for great Drama) that makes the Sling Player. This brick-shaped device allows you to connect it to your home internet connection and television service (be it Satellite or Cable or UHF). Once you hit the road, you’ll be able to connect remotely to your Sling Player to watch your home’s TV service using those series of tubes we call the Internets.

You will also remember that just this summer, the MLB New Media Goons, née MLB Advance Media hinted at suing (then backed off) Sling Media for putting a huge obstacle into their Geotracking scheme. What is GEO Tracking you ask? Well, you should know that you can watch baseball games through MLB.tv, a concoction brought to you by MLB owners and Bud Selig.

Though it resides on the Web, this service has a peculiar distinction from other Video streaming services. MLB managed to impose a TV-style restriction system on it, where you cannot watch your local team due to Blackout restrictions. This means you’re stuck, and they’re stuck with all the cash for the local TV deals.

How was this possible? Yes, Virginia, GEO Tracking would be the correct answer. They know where you are from the IP address your computer is using while online.

Naturally, that small device known as the Sling Player would flush that model down the toilet, eliminating any and all trace of GEO Tracking, because, as you remember, you’d technically be using the cable or sat signal from your home, allowing you to watch local market baseball gratis.

So back to the conspiracy nut in me. Now that Echo Star, aka Dish network, aka the other satellite service provider that was not, I repeat, WAS NOT, included in the MLB Extra Innings Deal, has acquired Sling Media, they own the Sling Player and anything and everything you do with it.

Again, the winner of the MLB Extra Innings deal is not MLB, is not DirecTV, is not Cable. It is Dish, who silently understood who really has the heft to pull some leverage.

That’d be Us. Or as Time put it, “you.”

A belated thank you to Forager for the WSJ info. Hit us up with an email and we’ll get you that umpbump.com sticker.

Endgadget is reporting that MLB Advance Media, AKA MLB New Media Goons are not going to sue the hell out of Sling Media.

Major League Baseball may not be happy about Sling Media enabling fans to stream out of market baseball games over the internet, but it is apparently backing off of plans to sue the company into oblivion, RIAA-style. Bob Bowman, president of Major League Baseball Advanced Media said in an interview that winning could be done with “good technology and good content, not lawyers”.

The interview in question in which Mr. Bowman alias Captian New Media Goon said what he said is in the Wall Street Journal, meaning you won’t be able to read the article unless you’re a paid subscriber.

[For an umpbump.com sticker, which WSJ subscriber is going to share the good stuff from that column in our comments?]

Here’s a quick primer about the issue: Sling Media is a company that makes this little gizmo that allows you to hook it up to your TV (which in turn can be connected to your cable or sat service) and then broadcast said TV’s signal through a broadband Internet connection to wherever you are. Could be your office downtown, or your hotel room across the country. A loyal Pirates fan from Pittsburgh, who also happens to own a Sling Player can watch his Bucs from L.A. gratis. Unlike some of us who ponyed up the cash for MLB.TV, Baseball’s service that… aw hell you know what it does.

Naturally, Baseball didn’t like this, and was threatening to sue Sling.

Frankly, it doesn’t surprise me. We all saw what kind of backlash Baseball had to endure after they made a “dumb” decision. So now they’re backing off Sling in order to avoid alienating fans (aka costumers) who use their service to watch games from their home markets through the Internet.

That’s right. Back off.

A recent post in my favorite technology blog, engadget.com, dealt with the convergence of Media and baseball.

MLB is upset that a new service, Sling Media, is offering a product (the Slingbox) that will allow you to watch your TV’s signal from anywhere in the world through a PC or a web-enabled phone.

Apparently, they don’t like the fact that folks are catching “free” games on their phones and laptops in local markets were they otherwise would’ve been forced to watch the game on the local TV station, or through the MLB.TV subscription service.

That’s so not how it used to be.

During the 2000 season, I was able to listen to all of the ChiSox’ games through espnradio1000.com’s live web-streaming.

Back then we didn’t have the goodness of MLB Extra Innings or MLB.TV, so I had to use my instincts as a young web wiz (not) to listen to the games through Chicago’s ESPN affiliate.

Well; Bud Selig must’ve been very attuned to the fact that I, and presumably, many others, were consuming a Major League game without technically someone paying for it.

In 2001, the free web-streaming was gone; now I was forced to pay for a radio subscription ($79.99) if I wanted to catch every game live.

Fast forward a few years – eons in Web/technology time – and now I watch most of the Sox games on my desktop.

Baseball also introduced MLB Mosaic this year, which is a (beta) program for Windows that allows you to watch six games all at once.

To be quite honest, I think MLB is using technology to squeeze every penny out of our pockets.

MLB Extra innings for your cable/satellite is $150. MLB.TV can be as much as $100 (not to mention the radio package - $14.95 for the rest of the season).

They also offer the ability to download individual games for $3.95 each.

But Selig and his henchmen have not been able to catch up with the 12-to-6 curve; the technology curve that is.

This year, MLB.TV is only using Windows Media Player; as opposed to offering both WMA and Real Player streams like last year.

It just so happens that Windows dropped support for their media player in Macs and as a result, I’ve had to use a pluggin for Quicktime, Apple’s own media player.

Since I have Quicktime Pro, I am able to save the game file if I’ve watched it on its entirety.

Much like the Slingbox issue, this is something that MLB cannot prevent unless they force a legitimate service or product to stop working simply because MLB Advanced Media executive VP George Kliavkoff wants to tap new sources of revenue.

The services that MLB Media are, in my opinion, great; but if they don’t reconsider their excessive rates, fans will just tune out and resort to the good ol’ box score.