Now, Batgirl doesn't have a dog in this Victory Sports fight. She really doesn't. But she wants some damn Twins on the tube. And as Batgirl sees it, the parties are at a something of a stalemate. So this weekend, she asked her swarm of lawyers to take a look at it. They came back with an unsurprising answer: somebody's gotta get sued.

While Batgirl is not herself a lawyer, she does have a large and talented legal staff. So last night, during a donut break from one of their evening meetings, said legal staff began to discuss why Pyrrhic Victory One and the Twins---which, lordy knows, are unafraid of lawsuits---have not sued the Twin Cities cable nonproviders. Perhaps what they are missing is a legal theory. If that is the case, allow Team Batgirl---in the interest of breaking the stalemate---to provide one. Be warned: what follows is square and boring, much like Batgirl's lawyers.

Section 1 of the Sherman Act prohibits conspiracies in restraint of trade. To show a section 1 antitrust violation, a plaintiff must demonstrate an agreement, express or implied, between two or more persons. That agreement can be shown a number of ways, including by suspiciously coordinated behavior---so called conscious parallelism---in combination with a "plus factor" indicating interdependent activity. Where an agreement is shown, group boycotts and concerted refusals to deal are almost always illegal.

Here, we have apparently coordinated behavior between the nonproviders, a group boycott/refusal to deal, and a situation where one of the main boycott participants (DirecTV) is owned by Fox, the company with the largest financial interest in keeping Pyrrhic Victory off the air. Worse still for the nonproviders---and this might be the plus factor---they're all out there saying, "Look, Victory really should be negotiating with Fox." So rather than competing with each other, the nonproviders are cooperating with each other, and consumers are getting the shaft. While it's impossible to predict which side might win a lawsuit, if Pyrrhic Victory won it would be entitled to mandatory triple damages plus attorneys fees. All of which the Twins could use to sign Lew Ford to a thirty-year deal.

Pyrrhic Victory is hardly an angel. And Batgirl booed as lustily as the next girl at the Pyrrhic Victory commercials at the Metrodome. But something's got to give. If the providers have been coordinating their behavior illegally, then they should have to pay. And if from the Pioneer Press is any indication, they might have to pay a lot.

Now, Batgirl's lawyers were just shooting the breeze. In fact, they were very insistent that she explain that this was just speculation, not legal advice. But it does seem curious, given the bad blood between Pyrrhic CEO Kevin Cattoor and Fox Sports, that he would leave unchallenged the possibility that Fox is pulling the strings of this boycott. And given the substantial public interest at stake, it's even more surprising that Minnesota's own elected Sultan of Legal Swat, Attorney General Mike Hatch, hasn't stepped in. But, of course, maybe Batgirl's missing something. After all, she's just a blogger. And what do bloggers know?