The Narron family has found decades of success in baseball in Eastern North Carolina and in the major leagues.

This month, the Narrons will share some of their knowledge and
experience with a free baseball clinic, family member and Texas Rangers
hitting coach Johnny Narron said Sunday.

Boys ages 9 to 14 are invited to the event at 11 a.m. Jan. 23 at
Charles B. Aycock High School, 5460 U.S. 117 N., Pikeville. There is no
advance registration.

In their recent meetings, Major League Baseball owners again stepped out of the batter's box rather than take on the sticky issue of television territories — a matter of particular relevance in this part of North Carolina, where Time Warner Cable fans have no way of viewing the designated home teams, the Baltimore Orioles and Washington Nationals.

The Mid-Atlantic Sports Network, co-owned by those two teams, has the rights to their games but hasn't been able to reach a carriage agreement with TWC. Despite losing in three separate rulings — two by independent arbitrators, one by an FCC media bureau chief — Time Warner is appealing to the full, five-member FCC.

Meanwhile, there has been discussion that MLB would start giving teams a certain amount of time to reach agreements to get their games on TV in so-called outlying areas, like the Triangle, or risk losing those territories. But any sort of deadline would complicate the existing television contracts with the various franchises, and MASN insists that any action by the owners would not be relevant in North Carolina because of MLB's "separate and inviolable" agreements with the O's and the Nationals.

So, the owners, who also had more pressing issues — like the need for a salary cap — to discuss, will take up the matter of outlying TV territories again before the start of the season, according to MLB. Unless they decide to table it again.

The Federal Communications Commission has denied an appeal by Time Warner Cable and ordered the cable television company to begin carrying the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network on a basic analog tier within 30 days.

Or, "in time for college basketball season," MASN spokesman Todd Webster says.

But TWC isn't giving up in its long dispute with MASN. The company issued a one-sentence response when informed of the FCC's Media Bureau's decision: "We disagree with the Media Bureau's decision and plan to appeal to the full commission."

MASN carries Major League Baseball's Baltimore Orioles and Washington Nationals, as well as college football, basketball and other sports. Under MLB's territorial rights map, the Triangle is Orioles and Nationals territory, so during the course of this dispute, cable customers have been unable to watch those games.

But Time Warner has argued that teams so far away from this market would not interest all of its huge basic cable audience and that MASN thus should be made available to subscribers willing to pay extra for a digital sports tier.

Two arbitrators have ruled that Time Warner Cable has discriminated against MASN, an independent regional sports network, and TWC had filed a "petition for review" with the FCC. FCC Media Bureau Chief Monica Shah Desai's denial came today.

This can still be classified as a standoff between the cable television company and the regional sports network that has the rights to televise the Baltimore Orioles and Washington Nationals. You may recall that the Triangle is in the designated TV rights territory of the O's and Nationals, meaning that TWC customers can't watch those baseball games, or any of MASN's college programming, etc., as long as there's no deal.

But there may be movement in the next week or so when the FCC is expected to rule on Time Warner's appeal of decisions by two different arbitrators that it discriminated against MASN by refusing to offer the independent regional sports network as part of its standard cable package. TWC wants to put MASN on a more expensive digital tier, available to those willing to subscribe to it — a much smaller audience.

Time Warner has argued that this should be resolved through the normal course of business negotiations, not by an arbitrator, and that standard cable customers shouldn't be forced to absorb a price hike for programming that may be of little interest to them.

Two arbitrators found that TWC had treated MASN differently fromregional sports networks affiliated with the cable company.