Tuesday: Trump Card "O! Say Can You See the Lin-sanity? Many Knicks Fans Could Not"

New York Knicks point guard Jeremy Lin has become a global phenomenon and the most discussed person on the planet for two weeks. He shoots baskets just twenty blocks from my midtown apartment but I cannot see him. The New York Rangers are the leaders of the National Hockey League's Eastern Conference. The team laces up their skates only three stops on the Q, N, or R from my corner yet I cannot watch them.

Such was life as a Time Warner Cable subscriber who, unlike someone ordering Chinese takeout, wants their MSG. MSG, of course, is Madison Square Garden Co.'s MSG Network. They own the broadcast rights to the New York Knicks and the New York Rangers.

This sports-crazed New Yorker normally finds the Knicks and Rangers at the two-week intersection between the Super Bowl and spring training reporting dates for baseball’s pitchers and catchers. Just a quick drink at the conclusion of 19 weeks of the NFL before the start of the wonderful grind of six months of our National Pastime begins. However; the recent phenomenon that is Lin and the stellar play of the Broadway Blue Shirts has changed the game a bit this mild February. Basketball and hockey, the NBA and the NHL, have hijacked my attention.

Thanks to a nasty dispute over fees that Time Warner Cable Inc. should pay to continue carrying MSG it was harder to keep your eye on the ball, or puck, and follow the action. MSG wasn't available to Time Warner Cable Inc.'s 2.5 million subscribers since Dec. 31 as the two sides continue to haggle leaving fans in the dark without the regional sports network.

“Linsanity”, “Super Lintendo”, “Linvinceable”: These are just a few newly created words and phrases used referring to Lin. Thirsty? Order a “Lin and Tonic.” The wonderfully captivating story of the Asian-American, undrafted Harvard graduate point guard who has single-handedly turned the Knicks season around by leading them to seven consecutive victories, was at first local, then graduated to international within days. If you haven’t heard of Jeremy Lin this is a good time to Google him.

Lin and his teammates are being discussed on the streets of Beijing, China but due to the Time Warner/MSG dispute, Knicks’ fans on Baxter Street in Chinatown weren't able to witness the guard’s amazing play and the team’s hot-streak firsthand. 

If Lin is the quick-hitting unexpected thundershower then the Rangers are the slow-moving front that starts as a tropical storm, intensifies, and finally arrives as a Category 5 hurricane. Winners of six of their last seven, they currently sit atop the Eastern Conference seven points north of the defending Stanley Cup Champion Boston Bruins.

Lead by standout goaltender Henrik Lundquist, newly acquired Brad Richards, veteran Marian Gaborick and a stable of young forwards and defensemen the Blue Shirts – who were one of the teams that received national attention when they were profiled on HBO’s “24/7: The Road To The Winter Classic” documentary series in December - could not even be seen on TV in the many blue-collar drinking establishments that surround the Garden.  

I am accustomed to the pain that cable TV is capable of inflicting. As a child and teenager I grew up a victim. I lived in the very last neighborhood within the five boroughs to be wired for cable. I can remember the first night that a cable television signal found its way into my home. It was glorious. A welcomed and honored guest. What a wonderful feeling. Finally connected. So may options. A universe of choices. Movies, sports, news, cartoons, educational programs. Free to roam.

I remember the first night receiving cable the way you recall a first kiss. October 1990. It was in the middle of the Cincinnati Reds-Oakland A’s World Series. So after a lifetime of waiting, the first program I watched on my new system was ironically available on “free-TV” anyway. 

On a Tuesday night last week both teams were in action. The Knicks were at Toronto, the Rangers visiting Boston. My New York Post informed me that the Knicks would be televised on MSG and the Rangers available on MSGPlus. (This is common practice: Basketball is the more popular sport so no matter which team is playing better or which match is more compelling roundball sits first class and hockey is demoted to coach. This topic is worthy of its own post but I will pass for now.)

Despite the $115 automatically deducted from my Capital One checking account by Time Warner Inc. monthly, due to the broadcast dispute, I was blacked out. Instead of setting the DVR to record one game while I watch the other live or flipping back and forth between the two in real time – old school – I found myself sitting at my kitchen table, Radio Shack transistor at my side, racing up, down and across the dial listening to both games simultaneously. I am not 100 percent analog though. I use ESPN’s Gamecast and my Twitter feed as a seeing-eye dog. This night is another victorious one for both teams as Lin hits a three-pointer at the buzzer to lift the Knicks and Lundquist pitches a shutout for the Rangers. It certainly sounded exciting.

To be honest I have found this process most enjoyable. It was like listening to the song before the music video or reading the book before the film. Or seeing the play before it becomes a movie then converted back to a show again.   

As with most uncomfortable situations the misery that Knicks and Ranger fans experienced was temporary. The global interest and media storm generated by Lin was too great to bear. The missed TV ratings too lucrative to take a pass on any longer. Time Warner Inc. and Madison Square Garden reached an agreement and settled the dispute.

We were permitted to return from the dark ages, just in time to witness Lin turn the ball over nine times and see the Knicks winning streak ended at seven games.