For all the fighting and grumbling I did before and during the first week of the season regarding that pesky Extra Innings deal, it strikes me as ironic that I’ve stopped watching games because my favorite team sucks (stupid White Sox). I guess I could watch Bonds every night on my mlb.tv, or I could get the extra innings deal now that I moved into my new apartment and enjoy the wonders of Comcast cable (nothing ever happened with Dish, ya know). But for what?

I’d rather read the box score. I mean, that’s what espn.com and those SportsCenter minutes are for. Besides, what I think fans were lobbying for in scowling at the DirecTV deal was choice, and that’s precisely what I’m exercising.

On a semi-related matter, the New York Times reported this week that our favorite MLB New Media Goons, aka, Baseball’s Advance Media division, signed a deal with StubHub, an online ticket broker (itself acquired by Ebay in January).

By BRAD STONE and MATT RICHTEL

Published: August 2, 2007

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 1 — Major League Baseball once frowned on scalping, the resale of tickets among fans and sidewalk entrepreneurs. On Thursday, professional baseball will announce plans to get into the business.

In a nod to the growing strength of Internet ticket exchanges, the league has entered into a revenue-sharing agreement with StubHub, an online market owned by eBay that acts as a middleman in the resale of tickets to entertainment events. Under the five-year deal, all 30 baseball team Web sites and MLB.com will direct fans who want to sell their tickets or buy tickets from other fans to Stubhub.com.

You may remember that Stubhub is owned by Ebay, meaning that whenever you go to the auction site to put up tickets for this weekend’s ballgame, there’s a good chance you’ll end up paying more “fees” on your sale.

But, as the Times reports, teams don’t like Stubhub because it really just is scalping, only it’s done in the comfort of your home or office and not in the street corner. But, as the Bites blog reminds us, it pays to have a daddy with fat pockets:

StubHub, by itself, was a troublemaker, challenging established teams, concert promoters and venues as well as its giant rival, TicketMaster. Ebay, now a grown up member of the corporate establishment, is less likely to do something radical and risky.

The issue for fans is a moot point. But the concept of the League mandating (or “making the option available” if you will) that teams make Stubhub the place for the resale of tickets makes for some interesting fodder.

But Mr. Carter said that the deal is likely to exacerbate the tension between some teams and the league over who has control of marketing and e-commerce in the digital age. He said that some team managements think they can do a better job of making money from their own efforts and entrepreneurship, rather than ceding it to the league.

“It’s part of a bigger issue as technology moves forward,” said Mr. Carter. “There’s a push and pull between teams and leagues.” Individual teams were not going to be officially informed of the deal until Thursday, league officials said.

Baseball’s New Media goons have created a State’s-rights scenario out of thin air. And if we take the Cleveland Cavalier’s recent suit and counter suit with Ticketmaster as precedent, this might lead to a showdown of Federal proportions. Not because the Feds would get involved, but because Baseball Franchises would want control over those newly legit “secondary market” dollars.

(Full disclosure: Umpbump.com advertises ticket resellers, and makes a tiny percentage from the sale of some those tickets).

What could possibly be more American than baseball?

The list of candidates is short indeed, but one of the leading contenders would have to be the all-you-can-eat buffet.

Next spring, these two Titans of Americana will come together in joyous union at Dodger Stadium, where the entire right field pavilion will be turned into an all-you-can-eat buffet.

There are limitations though.  The food booths will open 90 minutes before the game and close 2 hours after it begins, and in order to “promote health,” fattening foods such as beer and ice cream will not be included in the buffet.  Meanwhile, the ticket price will be $35 instead of the $10 it costs to sit in the identical left field pavilion.

Sounds like a bad deal to me.  If beer and sweets are not included, you are pretty much just left with hot dogs, and at last year’s price of $4 per dog, you’d have to eat 6 1/4 hot dogs just to earn your money back.

In other, terrible news, the top deck seats at Dodger Stadium, have almost doubled in price to $10.  Sure, last years price of $6 was just about the cheapest in the entire major leagues, but deservedly so, as those seats are some of the farthest away from the field of any I have ever seen.  When you are up there the players look like busted pixels and you live in constant fear of being run over by the Goodyear blimp.

This week’s Metro column, in which I alternately fume, lament, seethe, weep, stew, rail, and ululate over getting priced out of our family’s weekend ticket package, which I have enjoyed lo these many years, by the evil sharks swimming slimily through Fenway Park’s front office, who spend their days tearing at all that is good and decent in the world with their insatiable rows of glinting teeth.

Braves GM John Schuerholz is telling Atlanta fans to be patient. The team is still going to make improvements. They’re just not going to rush.

“We’re going to operate in the same way we’ve operated and feel comfortable doing it,” Schuerholz said by phone from his vacation home in Naples, Fla. “We feel like we can continue to make good choices and good moves.”

He wouldn’t discuss specifics or refute rumors, as usual. Schuerholz doesn’t operate like that. But he did indicate the Braves would not be involved in the posting process for Japanese left-hander Kei Igewa, whose Hanshin Tigers team will review blind bids posted by major league teams this week.

Translation: The market is blowing up. Free agents are signing for way more than they’re worth. And, at the going rate, the Braves (an organization that has been up for sale for over a year) can’t afford to sign anybody who’s any good. So they’re going to try to trade for what they need. Or, they’re going to just cross their fingers and hope that some of their young guys step up big next season. That’s right, we’re looking at you, Jeff Francoeur, you turkey.

Oh, one last thing. If you’re a Braves fan and you died a little inside watching your team miss the playoffs for the first time in 14 years last season, and you’re frustrated that the team doesn’t seem to be making any improvements this offseason, and you’re terrified of the prospect of a 2007 starting rotation that is dependent on aging John Smoltz and recovering Mike Hampton, then you probably won’t be thrilled to hear that the Braves are raising ticket prices.