Iowa Highway Ends (etc.)

The good thing about Des Moines is that it’s two hours from Omaha, three hours from Kansas City, four hours from the Twin Cities, six hours from St. Louis, and six hours from Chicago. The bad thing about Des Moines is that it’s two hours from Omaha, three hours from Kansas City, four hours from the Twin Cities, six hours from St. Louis, and six hours from Chicago.

In Major League Baseball’s blackout rules, this centralized location is a huge disadvantage. From Yahoo Sports:

The arbitrariness of MLB’s territories – seriously, six teams want to claim Iowa as their own? – lends a sense of unfairness to the system.

The map is pretty interesting. Iowa is one of two regions to be claimed by six teams — the Brewers, Cardinals, Cubs, Royals, Twins, and White Sox. The other is southern Nevada — but what’s up with that piece of the middle of the state with a special four-team overlap? Meanwhile, the Cincinnati Reds are sharing territory all the way down to northern Mississippi. Even the Royals claim six states.

The writer discusses a lawsuit about the antitrust exemption that baseball has and no other sports does. It’s an interesting read.

Although the blackout rules prevent many Iowans from watching Midwest baseball games (the next Brewers fan I see from Iowa will be the first), it’s kind of nice to be wanted for a change.