Freddie P's Blog

October 29, 2010 @ 07:10

I did it again last night. For about the sixth time in the past three years I ordered Leafs TV.

It's actually cheap therapy for me. It's one way that I can strike back at the Leafs when they piss me off, and that's happened a few times over the past couple of years.

The season starts and I order Leafs TV. The Leafs start to blow, so I cancel Leafs TV. They usually have a mid-season resurgence, so I re-order Leafs TV. However by the end of the season I'm usually pissed off again so I go into a tirade about the entire organization and cancel Leafs TV as a protest.

Several people have said to me, what's the big deal? It's only five bucks a month, why cancel it?

It's the principle people. It's one way I can control cash flow to the MLSE. Granted, it's an insignificant amount of money, but I love the power of picking up the phone and dialing Shaw Direct and cutting off the five bucks that some way might contribute to this mess.

It's interesting; when Leafs TV first started in 2001 I think it was 99 cents a month. Nine years later it's 4.99 a month, and this represents something else that bugs me. A 500 percent increase in nine years.

Leave it to MLSE to come up with that.

Last night was the usual scenario. It's early in the season, the Leafs are doing OK, they just came off a victory over Florida, it was a Thursday night with nothing else to do, I was in my apartment and the Leafs were in Boston. I flipped on the tube only to find the game was on Leafs TV.

I picked up the phone and made the call.

Crazy shit. By the end of the second period, although the Leafs were actually playing pretty well, I started to get buyers remorse.

It's becoming abundantly clear that this team has a pop-gun offence that is going to be a significant issue this year. They're going to have a big problem scoring goals and excuse me if I say so, but watching the home team score goals is one of the things that attracts me to the game.

It's going to be a wild and crazy month. Once you commit to Leafs TV you're on the hook for at least 30 days or until the next billing period. So we'll see what happens.

I happen to think that on top of their various other problems, the Leafs have a serious coaching problem. If this continues I'll pick up the phone at the end of November, I'll call Shaw Direct, I'll unload on the poor person who answers the phone, and once again I'll end my association with Leafs TV.

And that will be five less bucks the Leafs can pay Ron Wilson.