Hello all,
I will be in London and Dublin over the next week and a half, and I need some help. My baseball team, the Chicago White Sox, are going to be starting their playoffs on October 3rd. Can someone tell me the best way to get foreign sports scores while I am in the UK and Ireland? Newspapers, if you have ESPN over there, that short of thing. I’m not looking for in-depth analysis, just the scores. Thanks a lot!
Yep, we have papers. US newspapers are readily available in central London the following day. Or go to an internet cafe for instant updates.
Buy a copy of the listings mag ‘Time Out’ if you don’t chance across a cafe within 10 seconds of landing. Also, this is a corporate cafe with 5 huge central London gigs where you can get cheap access and ‘meet’ interesting, alone, and carefree female travellers:
As London_Calling says, most leading foreign newspapers are available in London. Try any main railway station, or get a decent hotel to order a copy.
CNN is pretty standard here in the larger hotels.
Enjoy your stay!
Hmmm… I doubt that Joe meant to imply that foreign newspapers weren’t available in London. He probably wants something more current than a newspaper published elsewhere and shipped to the UK, though. Even though he is a misguided Sox fan, he’d likely prefer something that would have the scores the day after the game. (Realize that when a game ends in the late evening in the US, it is already early morning in the UK or Ireland.) A computer hookup is probably his best bet, assuming the US version of CNN or ESPN are not available where he is.
When my Irish relatives were in Chicago a year ago, and had the reverse problem, we had good luck pulling up Irish newpapers’ websites to get scores and articles relating to Irish teams.
Anyone who has a quote from Nick Hornby’s ‘High Fidelity’ in his sig can’t be too daft.
Random points to the problem of watching games on cable or satellite either in pubs or hotels. The timing is all wrong as the US is 5 to 7 hours behind the UK i.e. 8.00pm Chitown is 2.00 am London. Wrigley Field without lights…those were the days.
I think my wife would have a problem with that last part. 
Thanks to everyone for the great tips!
Why, thank you. Has the movie made it overseas yet?
Wrigley Field in flames…that will be the day.
Just kidding! Though, now that I think about it, how are the Cubs playoff plans going? 
I have to concur about the EasyEverything sites. Not only does it cost only one pound (any foreign magazine/newspaper will be a bit more), but your online password is good for several days, so you can log on and get your scores several times with that one pound investment.
In the UK, Channel 5 teletext carries baseball scores on page 398. They also broadcast some games, but only very late at night.
I never saw teletext in the US. Is it obvious what it is?
Teletext is a system whereby text pages are sent along with regular TV pictures (I think they use the brief period when the scan jumps from the bottom of the screen back to the top - not sure though). Teletext TVs will have a ‘Text’ button on the remote. You then key in the page you want and wait for it to load. It is quite slow but free. Most UK sets will be able to do Teletext.
Actually, now you mention it, I’ve never seen teletext outside the UK, either. Does it exist anywhere else, or is it peculiar to us?
Ditto, TomH, I’ve never seen it anywhere else either. Was it started by the BBC? The font used looks very much like the font used on the old BBC micros.
C’mon guys! I don’t know where Teletext originated (I think it might be Germany), but it’s pretty common all around Europe. Every European station I ever watched (NL, BE, DE, FR, &c.) had it. The problem most likely is that in the UK you don’t watch foreign stations all that often.
More to the point of the OP: because of the time difference the Internet would probably be the best source of information.
Wrong SkinnyGuy, it’s a BBC thing.
AFAIK International newspapers can be bought in Dublin in Eason’s on O’Connell Street. There are also lots of cybercafes where you can log on and find out the scores from the net.
Well ‘Teletext’ is a beeb thing but ‘Ceefax’, which is an identical service, is available on the commercial channels.
Every tv in the UK with a remote will have access to both so I imagine that means all hotel rooms.
For those unfamiliar with the concept, it’s kind of like the Internet without hyperlinks i.e. pages of info accessed from an index by punching in numbers on the remote.
… and it’s been around since the early 80’s.
Joseph: “High Fidelity” has indeed made it overseas, and I loved it!
I’m going to find the TRUE origins of Teletext now.
Whatever happened to that French Teletext crap they tried simultaneously in the 80’s? I forget the name, but it had a little keyboard, I think. MiniTel! That’s it.
Coldie, I’m sure you know but as you have an ‘interest’ in the area…you know Nick Hornby set ‘High Fidelity’ in Notting Hill ?
BTW, it’s a great ‘blokey’ read.
Didn’t know that, LC. I only saw the movie, and didn’t read the book. I didn’t pay too much attention to the surroundings, but the thick Yankee accents in the flick didn’t exaclty hint at a posh London neighbourhood