Column: Federal lawsuit may finally bring some justice to Dodgers’ botched television situation

This could be a save the size of Kenley Jansen.

This could be a walk-off homer that sounds like Charlie Culberson.

After enduring three years of suffering at the hands of battling billionaires, Dodgers fans might have found someone even more powerful to finally put their favorite baseball team back on their television sets.

Now batting, the U.S. Justice Department.

In a compelling action that could ultimately force local pay-TV companies to finally play ball, the Justice Department is suing AT&T, alleging that its DirecTV property colluded with other pay-TV companies to keep the Dodgers off the air.

A lawsuit filed in Los Angeles on Wednesday alleges that four companies — AT&T, Charter, Cox and DirecTV — huddled up and held tight against carrying the Dodgers channel SportsNet LA in an effort to reduce the price.

This doesn’t mean the Dodgers, who have consistently taken the blame for the issue in this column, were not at fault for foolishly setting a high price that the market would not bear.

But they may not be the only villains here.

The 57-page lawsuit is a wretched depiction of how a few of our favorite local cable companies allegedly decided they were going to stick together and fight the “outrageous’’ price as one single business unit, therefore eliminating the competitive market so important to consumers.

While the Dodgers’ greed kept the pay-TV companies from jumping at the new channel — analysts agree the nearly $5 per month cost is high — corporate greed allegedly prevented the carriers from ever considering it individually.

Under the direction of alleged ringleader Dan York, DirecTV’s programming chief at the time, the four companies allegedly exchanged all sorts of communication aimed at blowing off the Dodgers and their fans.

Some of it is not only arrogant, but giddily arrogant, like the one text from an unnamed AT&T official to York after one of the Dodgers’ sales efforts.

The official wrote, “Forget to tell you but we got a (##)-mph pitch yesterday.’’

York replied, “Hope u hit it out!’’

The pay-TV companies allegedly felt burned by overpaying for the Lakers channel several years ago and were not going to make the same mistake again. Even as their marketing officials allegedly pushed them to accept the Dodgers’ offer, the pay-TV operators held firm with the hope that their savings would outweigh the loss of customers.

As for those customers, it was probably not a coincidence that the phrase, “Dodger fans’’ was mentioned only in the first paragraph of the complaint and not again.

While the billionaires fought, those fans suffered, and nobody cared. While the Dodgers continued to rake in payments on the $8.3-billion deal it cut with Time Warner Cable, those fans were blacked out, and nobody seemed to mind.

During the three dark seasons, many Dodgers fans missed three consecutive division championships, the prime of Clayton Kershaw, the rise and fall of Yasiel Puig, the emergence of Justin Turner, the record dominance of closer Jansen, and the discovery of Manager Dave Roberts. More than anything, they missed most of the final three seasons of Vin Scully and, no, allowing a free TV network to show him singing after the Dodgers’ final home game doesn’t make it all better.

While Scully was singing, “The Wind Beneath My Wings,’’ Dodgers fans watching at home were ending another season of complete abandonment by their team and their pay-TV operators.

With the filing of this suit, because they constantly claimed that DirecTV would not negotiate in good faith, the Dodgers can crow, “I told you so!’’ But this will forever represent a sullied mark on Guggenheim Baseball Management’s stewardship, because there can be no victory in creating and maintaining a television agreement that prevents most of your fans from watching your games on television.

Meanwhile, the defendants in this suit claim the Dodgers price was so “outrageous’’ — a word that appears several times in the filing — that it didn’t take a group effort to spurn it.

It has taken way too long, but Dodgers fans could be winners in the end. With AT&T requiring Justice Department approval for the completion of a current $85.4-billion deal to buy Time Warner Inc., it seems like the company would want to get its act together and satisfy the government and put the Dodgers on television to get this lawsuit off its plate.

“We hope today’s action leads to all Dodger fans finally being able to view all Dodger games everywhere in the market,’’ Dodgers President Stan Kasten wrote on Twitter.

There is real hope here. But believe it only when you can turn on your television and see it. There has been hope here before and it has always been crushed by the greed and hubris of the giants who own and surround Los Angeles’ neighborhood baseball team

Vin Scully is gone, and most of you can barely remember him saying goodbye, and even the Department of Justice can bring no justice to that.

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Get more of Bill Plaschke’s work and follow him on Twitter @BillPlaschke

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