Done deal?

The Los Angeles Times’ Larry Stewart is reporting that Major League Baseball’s exclusive and controversial deal with DirecTV is pretty much a done deal, and could be announced as soon as today.

Stewart also has some interesting tidbits on how the negotiations played out.

“Another source close to the negotiations said a recent counteroffer by In Demand — the cable pay package provider that shared the rights to Extra Innings for the last five seasons — plus one by satellite provider EchoStar, which owns Dish Network, “came too late in the game.”

In Demand’s counteroffer, which did not ask for exclusivity, matched DirecTV’s offer.

Too late in the game? Since when does baseball consider itself ahead of the times? I mean, we all know how they acted on the steroid thing right from the get-go in a timely fashion, but…

Oh, right.