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O'Donnell: Marquee-Comcast deal ends a tedious TV stakes race

ROOTING FOR A WINNER in the Marquee-Comcast match race was like rooting for a winner in a “Favorite Mitch McConnell Anecdote” contest.

In one gate was Comcast, one of the most despised corporations in the history of modern electronica-tranced man.

In the other, the Chicago Cubs, a multi-flanged business carnivore in its current iteration thanks to the trickle-down money of a 19th century-eyed entrepreneur from Nebraska.

Quite a choice, like — pick one — Ivanka or Donald Jr.? Lester Holt or David Muir?

All “Cubs win! Cubs win!” tweets sent out by team bobos should have been accompanied by an Alfred E. Neuman emoji.

What, them worry?

Cubs business boss Crane Kenney said that it would likely take “a catalyzing event” to get the TV carriage deal done.

Since Pearl Harbor and 9/11 were already gone, the Marq-Com marriage had to settle for the surrealism of Opening Night 2020.

Still, as the late Tip O'Neill meant to say, most baseball fandom begins in the family room. So now, close to 1.5 million Comcast subscribers in the Chicago region will have their Cubs TV.

The most notable residual regarding Tom Ricketts and The Tardies may be the organization's profound clunkiness in getting the deal done.

At point of entry in the negotiations, Comcast had significant leverage to set terms, enough that the keenest students of Teddy Roosevelt might have been Belushi-coughing, “anti-trust!”

But the charade played on and on and over and out.

Now the arms race between the Cubs/Marquee against the White Sox/NBCSCH over which can clutter up the screen with more annoying video subnutia can begin.

And the laborious Marquee-Comcast stakes race is thankfully done.

AS EXPECTED, ARLINGTON PARK opened its 2020 mini-meet to little fanfare and even less public attention this week.

Official paid attendance was “zero,” or about 2,500 fewer than might have been expected at the dying oval on a comparable July Thursday of recent vintage.

Informed insiders reported a Day One handle of $1.3 million, something roughly comparable to what the “secret” midnight Pai Gow games down in Chinatown allegedly attract.

Ace Anthony Petrillo and other lonely AP sham bakers caught a break when TVG spokesman Chip Tuttle confirmed that the niched network will be airing almost all races live on its TVG2.

TVG2 has a reach of approximately 15 million households across the nation. TVG's main network can be viewed in close to 45 million American homes.

Befitting a 30-matinee season that should feature short fields and creative results, perennial training champ Larry “High Strike” Rivelli had a 1-9 shot run third in the season opener.

STREET-BEATIN': Bonus thoughts on that Marq-Com deal: David Ross may be one of the best dugout minds in MLB and a commendably no-nonsense diamond presence. But for a TV startup that desperately needs flair, Joe Maddon would have been a godsend for wit, charisma and that immeasurable Pa.-bred positivism. ...

The new baseball betrothal is also a rough hit for free falling WSCR-AM (670). Tiger pod Mitch Rosen and Co. would have been the exclusive broadcast outlet for many Cubs fans if the Comcast no-show had continued. ...

Bob Sirott and Dave Eanet caught a laughably “dead” interview on WGN-AM (720) during a morning tooth-pull with Jeremy Colliton. The Blackhawks coach answered like he hadn't had his daily oxygen yet; he will not be playing any comedy corrals in Edmonton. ...

David J. Halberstam of Sports Broadcast Journal suggested a compelling superfecta of “classic wordsmiths” in the TV era consisting of Howard Cosell, Vin Scully, Jack Whitaker and Bob Costas. (But he left out Vince McMahon.) ...

Kevin Garnett — whose one-and-done at Farragut Academy remains the stuff of Illinois prep legend — is trying to put together a $1 billion-plus consortium to bid on the Minnesota Timberwolves. (In the wake of George Floyd, MPS civic leaders would be foolish to let the passionate “KG” get away.) ...

The Big Ten Network spotlights Pat Fitzgerald, Gary Barnett and the amazing 1995 Northwestern Wildcats with a seven-hour game-by-game retrospective Sunday starting at 1 p.m. (With excessive loyalty his biggest fault, Fitzgerald deserves two statues on The Enchanted Lakefront when he hangs up his coach's iPad.) ...

And ESPN's Paul Pierce, on why teams like the Lakers and the Celtics historically net quality free agents: “Players want to be part of tradition.” (Which is exactly what Jerry Reinsdorf said when he re-signed Michael Jordan for a crack at title No. 7 back in 1998.)

• Jim O'Donnell's Sports & Media column appears Thursday and Sunday. Reach him at jimodonnelldh@yahoo.com.

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