My wife pretty much only follows one sport – tennis. That means the current action at the Australian Open is one of the few times she gets truly engaged in the kind of idiotic emotions I feel all the time as a sports fan.

Part of this has to do with the matches that ESPN and the Tennis Channel choose to show at any given moment. In the early rounds, many courts have matches and any could turn into something a fan wants to see at any given moment.

Unfortunately, the networks will often stick with one of the Williams sisters or some other well-known player eviscerating an opponent instead of showing two no-names playing some awesome tennis. They may cut in and show a little of the good match, but nowadays they cut back to the blowout while letting you know that you can go watch the good match online.

What a pain in the butt. I knew my wife would never do that. hell, I watch TV on the computer a bunch and know how to do it, but I would probably never do it. That made me think that there has to be an easier way.

These networks need to partner with Tivo or Comcast or whoever and give you the ability to access these online feeds right through your TV. Tennis can’t command a special channel for overflow matches and going to the computer is just a pain in the butt.

Not everyone has their TV hooked up to their wireless network – I do through TiVo and I bet Comcast could easily hook that stuff up – so why not let the people who do have it set up take advantage of this extra programming without making them get off their butt?* I tried getting it through the Internet channel on our Wii, but you had to download software to play the matches, and I didn’t feel like doing that.

Come on electronic geeks, make this happen.**

* – I know I could always have a computer hooked up to my TV and use a wireless keyboard and mouse, but that just seems like too much work and clutter. I want someone to do it for me.

** – I’m sure there already is something easy, but I didn’t feel like looking. Plus, I want this free or real cheap.