Did you ever fucking think that somebody, somewhere might want to watch a game with someother than the fucking Yankees or the fucking Phillies? How about a regional game now and then? Huh? I don’t know if you guys have noticed, but there’s about 5000 channels available these days. Since you couldn’t be assed to put the Braves/Nats on any channel that I don’t have to pay $100+ a year for, guess what? I ain’t watching baseball tonight.
There was, in fact, about a 15 year period when I was making the same complaint. Well, not quite the same, “Why are the fucking Braves on again?” I’d say.
I’d love some variety on Fox, ESPN, whatever. And, as a captive in an NL city, I’d especially love to get to see an AL game once in a while that doesn’t involve the fucking Red Sox.
Feel your pain, man. I used to be a Braves fan, but dropped off a few years back. Now I’ll watch the Fish or the Rays, but the Marlins aren’t playing and the Rays are already over.
I watched the Giants and Diamondbacks the other night, i had St. Louis and the Cubs on earlier, and i’m now watching the Mariners and Orioles while peeking in occasionally to relish the Yankees getting beaten by the Royals.
It’s $120 for the season (cheaper now, because we’re over a month in), and while their blackout rules for locally and nationally televised games are stupid, you still get massive variety in the teams you can watch.
If you have a decent internet connection, the picture quality is fantastic, and a variety of devices (Roku box, Apple TV, some HD televisions, and some Blu-Ray players) allow you to stream straight to your TV so you don’t have to sit in front of your computer to watch.
Well, you need a router that allows multiple devices to connect to your internet, and then you need some sort of box that sits between your router and your TV, and that allows you to log into MLB.TV.
A Roku box will do it, and the cheapest version costs $60. Similar products that will also work include AppleTV ($99), and Boxee ($199).
Newer Panasonic, LG, and Samsung HD televisions will allow you to use it with no extra hardware, as will some internet-ready Blu-Ray players.
Thanks! I’ll look into it. The last time I explored mlb.tv, it wasn’t possible, and frankly, I don’t want to dedicate my computer to watching a game whether it’s on my monitor or my TV. I want to have the game on my TV while I do other stuff on my computer. (By the way, I’ve subscribed to mlb radio for about ten years now.)
Jesus Christ would you actually read the OP? I don’t want to have to pay $100+ just to watch someone other than the fucking Yankees, Phillies, or Red Sox (thanks for the reminder Frank!). The NBA got my watching $$$s tonight.
Well, mileage differs. If Mhendo is correct that I can now pay $120 a year to have the Orioles or Rockies on TV when I want, and still do my regular computer evenings, I’ll go for that.
Hell, I’m paying more than that for HBO just to watch the 10 episodes of Game of Thrones.
Right, but then is MLB Network the one causing that problem? I thought that the “local” team is the one who has the ability to broadcast within their local area, and that was the reason for the blackout. So if the game’s blacked out on MLB and not available elsewhere, isn’t that because of the Braves’ choice, not the league’s?
I didn’t realize Tallahassee wasn’t actually in the Braves broadcast area anymore, but then I guess when I was down there, the whole country was the Braves broadcast area.
Thing is, if you’re not paying to watch the game, someone has to pay for you to watch it, and that someone, in the case of television, is generally the advertiser.
And, much as i fucking hate the Yankees and the Red Sox and the Phillies, the fact is that these teams are plastered all over our television sets because their games tend to attract the most viewers, which in turn attracts the most advertising revenue.
Sure, you might turn off and deny MLB your share of commercial viewing tonight, but the fact is that the absence of the Nationals on your TV is unlikely to lose them too many viewers. And their advertisers are taking notice; they are taking notice of the fact that they get more people seeing their ads when the Yankees and Red Sox are on the TV. It sucks, but this isn’t exactly new.
As for the NBA, you’d have to pay me $120 a year to watch it.