You have to feel for CBC, even if you're one of those people who thinks it's an arm of the international Marxist movement and an unnecessary drain on taxpayers' wallets. (For the record, I am not one of those nor have I ever been a member of the Conservative Party.)

After all, the people's network planned record amounts of Pan American Games coverage and was flooded with complaints about the lack of coverage in the early going. So it adds 17 hours to its television offerings and boosts its online streaming, and it still get complaints.

Like this one, from Canadian baseball legend Larry Walker:

CBC.... You missed out showing Canada an amazing game!! Many are disappointed! Gold 4 Men's baseball!!! — Larry Walker (@Cdnmooselips33) July 20, 2015

CBC did make a deal with Cuban broadcasters to stream baseball online, but that didn't satisfy baseball fans -- who tend to be older and less inclined to watch things online.

Sadly, a great opportunity was missed to let Canadians watch one of the competition's greatest moments. The Stubby Clapp incident put the Pan Ams on the map the last time they were in Canada. This time, Stubby (or his successor, Pete Orr) didn't even get to the plate as far as Canadian TV viewers were concerned.

The Twitterverse lit up again Monday night when CBC didn't provide televised coverage of the gold-medal game in women's basketball. Canada's historic win over the United States was streamed online with a condensed version of the game televised on CBC beginning at 11:30 p.m. ET (CBC took a similar path with the baseball game Sunday).

The truth is that in this day and age, when every second of every competition during the Olympics is available either on TV or online, people expect the same thing to happen for every multi-sport event. With the Games in Canada and this country hauling in medals at a record pace, people have been caught up in an event that couldn't draw flies four years ago when the same Games were staged in Guadalajara, Mexico.

The truth is that it didn't make economic sense for the CBC to go that route for something like the Pan Ams, which despite Canada's big medal haul, isn't an A-list competition. The advertising dollars aren't there, the CBC is a financial basket case and with only one channel, it couldn't really give this Olympian coverage. To its credit, CBC contracted out its soccer coverage to Sportsnet, but there was little interest in the business to taking on more.

However, you do have to wonder why a non-television sport like taekwondo is carried live while sports such as rowing, canoeing and baseball get little more than highlight treatment. According to CBC, that decision was made by the Games organizers, so I guess we should be grateful they didn't include bowling in the must-see list.

Despite the economics of the situation, the bar has been set and woebetide any network in future that doesn't go whole-hog, either on TV or online.

The demand is obviously there. The Pan Ams dominated the sports ratings again, pulling in pretty impressive numbers for a midsummer event. Although people are complaining, they're also tuning in.

The un-Games stuff: The early season CFL ratings haven't overwhelmed anyone, but they're basically on par with last July. Like this year, those ratings were affected by some stiff competition -- the World Cup. ... Despite their recent swoon, the Toronto Blue Jays continue to attract big audiences. That should continue as long as the team is in contention.

Here are the most-watched English-language sports events from the past weekend, according to Numeris overnight ratings:

1. Pan American Games prime-time coverage, Saturday, CBC: 914,000

2. Pan American Games prime-time coverage, Sunday, CBC: 870,000

3. Pan American Games prime-time coverage, Friday, CBC: 857,000

4. CFL, Lions at Roughriders, Friday, TSN: 755,000

5. MLB, Rays at Blue Jays, Friday, Sportsnet: 737,000

6. Pan American Games afternoon coverage, Saturday, CBC: 668,000

7. Pan American Games afternoon coverage, Sunday, CBC: 662,000

8. CFL, Blue Bombers at Stampeders, Saturday, TSN: 596,000

9. MLB, Rays at Blue Jays, Saturday, Sportsnet: 520,000

10. CFL, Eskimos at Redblacks, Friday, TSN: 482,000

11. PGA, British Open final round, Sunday, TSN: 370,000

12. Auto racing, NASCAR Energy 501, Sunday, TSN: 337,000

Story continues