If a Dodger pitcher throws a no-hitter and 70% of Dodger fans can’t watch it on TV, does is still count as a great day for Dodger baseball?

Dodger pitcher Josh Beckett threw his first career no-hitter in Philadelphia.

So call me superstitious! I don’t like to mention a no-hitter when the no-hitter is in progress. I don’t like to amend what I’m doing for it or call anyone to say, “Hey, turn on the TV!” (That doesn’t matter anyway, because hardly anyone I know has Time Warner Cable.)

So yesterday, I had to drive out to the Valley. I turned on my radio and discovered there was a game on. (I forget when I’m not looking forward to seeing it on TV.) I hear Rick Monday saying, “The Phillies are still looking for their first hit,” and I’m thinking, “Yikes! Don’t think no-hitter, don’t say anything about it. Thank god Charley Steiner isn’t on the radio for this game.” (If he says, “The Dodgers are one strike away from winning the game,” my boys in blue are invariably going to lose said game.)

So as I drove to Northridge, I listened to the 7th inning, then the 8th. My heart was beating just a little faster, I felt adrenaline surging through me. I got to my first destination just as the 9th was about to start.

Big decision: Sit in the car and listen, or go do the business I had come to do.

I have been down this road before. I’ve delayed entering Ralph’s so I can listen as one or another of my Dodgers has a no-no into the fifth or sixth, and invariably, the second or third batter breaks it up. So this time, I said, “No. I will act as if nothing is happening.”

I get out of the car, do my business, and when I get back to my Saturn, I turn on the radio, and there’s a guy going to second on defensive indifference. “Shit!” I thought. “It didn’t happen. One of those damn Phillies broke it up while I was away. Oh well.”

Now, I knew that my ultimate destination has TWC, so I waited to see what happened when I got to the place with the TV. Nomar Garciaparra and the other guy are talking about Josh Beckett’s first career no-hitter, the first in 18 years for the Blue Crew, the 11th for the L.A. Dodgers, the 21st in Dodger history. It was awesome to know it was possible, and it felt like a turning point for this team that has been struggling to find itself.

Charley Steiner

Then SportsNet LA ran a montage of TV play-by-play announcer, the aforementioned Charley Steiner, saying after every inning, “Josh Beckett has a no-hitter through 6…Josh Beckett has a no-hitter through 7, etc., etc.” And I thought, “Geez, I’m glad I wasn’t watching this on TV.”

Maybe Charley Steiner is only a jinx on the radio.

I don’t know about you guys, but I’m sick and tired of not seeing the Dodgers on TV. I will be joining other Dodger fans at a peaceful but noisy rally to raise a stink about Dodger management’s apparent lack of interest in us.

This should NOT be happening. Kershaw was awesome yesterday as the Dodgers shut out the Phillies, 2-0, but only a few of us got to see it, and I wasn’t one of them.

The greed and insensitivity of $tan Ka$ten, Mark Walter, Magic Johnson, Peter Guber and Guggenheim Partners for signing this obviously bad deal (for us) with Time Warner Cable boggles the mind. They are talking right out of their asses when they say they have the fans’ best interests at heart. A few statues of World Series rings and a scary bobblehead mascot do not come close to making up for losing the ability for regular folks to watch the games on TV.

The Dodgers, “Dem Bums,” the people’s team — working class underdogs who occasionally make magic happen. I know they are all millionaires now, but that’s not the point. They stand for the regular guy, and that’s why I love them and have loved them since I was a kid.

This management team is the antithesis of that. They want one thing and one thing only: cold, hard cash. The colder the harder the better. To match their hearts.

Come and make your voices heard on Sun., June 1, at 3 p.m. We’re gathering at the Short Stop, 1445 Sunset Blvd. in Echo Park. If you want, you can help us rally more forces by printing out the flyer at the top of this post and handing it out to people who might be interested.

Mad as hell, not gonna take it anymore… You know the drill.

Brandon League

On one hand, we can’t watch games on TV. On the other, why would we want to? The Blue Crew are doing terribly in nearly every field of the game.

The starting pitchers are inconsistent. Greinke goes eight innings in a 7-0 shutout one day, and the next, Kershaw — our ace — gives up seven runs in ⅔ of an inning, a meltdown of epic proportions that led to an 18-7 defeat at the hands of the lowly D’backs.

Other than Yasiel Puig being on a hitting streak, our bats cannot bring home the bacon. I think Kevin Kennedy on AM570 said we were 3 for 33 (or something ridiculous like that) with the bases loaded. C’mon!

And fielding? So many errors, so little time.

It is a sad state of affairs when the only good news is Brandon League. He has gone from being booed to being brilliant, and I’m happy for him. It’s not enough to bring the team back from the brink of destruction, but I can’t watch them anyway, so who cares?

That’s really the thing, isn’t it? If the Dodgers suck on TV and no one is able to watch it, does the check from Time Warner to Guggenheim still go through?

Don’t ask $tan Ka$ten. He hasn’t been seen or heard from since Opening Day.

Dodger Fan Rally on June 1
My friend, L.A. Times columnist Chris Erskine, appeared on Dodger Fan Weekly recently to discuss the upcoming Fan Rally at the Short Stop on Sun., June 1.

If you want to be able to watch the Dodgers on TV (even if they suck right now), come down and make your voice heard. Sign the petition here. RSVP for the rally here.