Relief for the shut-out Phillies fan?
Can't anyone help Mrs. Jessie Foyle, the 94-year-old Phillies fan who can't watch the games anymore because her retirement home can't get Comcast SportsNet?
I spent 10 minutes on WIP-AM this morning, talking about Mrs. Jessie Foyle, 94, the Phillies fan who can't watch most of her team's games anymore because her retirement home can't get Comcast SportsNet. She's caught in a squeeze play between Comcast and DirecTV
I mentioned all the suggestions from readers at the end of my column in Thursday's paper. Well-intentioned, but they weren't going to solve her problems.
DirecTV doesn't carry most games because Comcast won't sell it the feed, citing a loophole in federal law. Dish has that problem, too.
MLB.com won't let her watch the games live in the Internet. It delays home-team games, and if you think that is not fair, write to Major League Baseball, the majority owner, as well as partners DirecTV, Comcast and Time-Warner. Hmm.
Verizon FIOS isn't in Philly yet.
That leaves Slingbox, a clever suggestion made by a couple of readers. After listening to my pitch on WIP this morning, listener Tristram Consoli offered to give Mrs. Foyle his unopened Slingbox unit.
Which would let her watch games live as long as one of her grandsons, say, hook up the device in his place and set up a laptop in her apartment that she could connect to.
A real solution. But there's a catch: "Mom-mom," as her kids call her is "technologically challenged," says the Rev. Lin Crowe, her son-in-law. Big time. But the family will look into Consoli's generous offer. He's a 22-year-old college student who acquired Slingbox in hopes of watching Phillies games in Tampa, where he's in college.
He felt for the woman, who's been called Cape Lady for the three garments she owns that are stitched with World Series ticket stubs. She went to every game over 44 years, until the first game in Tampa last fall.