MLB Network

This year we moved to a new city, which meant a different selection of channels on the cable TV.  The city in which we currently live has the MLB Network as a cable channel.  This, I'm guessing, would be an equivalent of the NFL Network so talked about?  I don't know.  But, it does have some really interesting shows.  First, it's all baseball, unlike ESPN.  Second, although it does seem to have some of the east-coast bias, it's not as bad as the Red Sox Network, uhm, I mean ESPN.  Or is that the Yankees Network?  Well, ESPN is often the Yankees vs. Red Sox Network.

MLB Network has panels of a sports journalist and former players that discuss the day's games, the winter meetings, the hot stove league.  They also have something I really love: lists.  The top 50 this, the top 25 that, the top ten other.  The greatest finishes, the greatest home runs, the best pitching performances, the best fan moments, the best ballparks.  It's fun to count these things down and try to guess what is number one.

One thing it has against it is the repetition of programs.  Like the Sports Center/Baseball Tonite/ Sports Center/Baseball Tonite merry go round of ESPN.  Sometimes a show will repeat for a week or so, with player moves in between that aren't reflected in the repeating show.  Overall, though, it is a good channel to have and it covers so many aspects of baseball and its history.  If you love baseball and have a chance to get this channel, do so.

MLB Network!

A cool new channel suddenly appeared on our TV cable. The MLB Network. Baseball 24/7. So far, pretty impressive. Shows counting down the top 9 'x' of all time. (There are 9 innings in a game and 9 players on the field.) Top 9 pitching seasons of all time, top 9 characters who have been part of the game. Also, a look back at the 1986 season, and a replay of the 2007 All-Star home run derby.

Another Night's Sleep Ruined By Playoff TV Schedule

Okay, it happened again. Tomorrow's Rays/White Sox game has a starting time that completely relies upon the outcome of the Angels/Red Sox game. Which by the way was a more than five hour, way past midnight affair that went deep into extra innings. The TV ratings pecking order has the Rays/ChiSox game behind the Angels/BoSox game. So an Angels victory puts the Chicago game early in the day with a night game in Boston, where a Red Sox victory ends the series and puts the Chicago game in prime time as a night game. Thousands of ticket holders in Chicago went to bed tonight not knowing the starting time of their game tomorrow; not knowing whether to leave work early or take the day off at all; not knowing in many cases if they even can go to the game.

But Major League Baseball doesn't give care about these people at all because a bunch of idiotic morons work there. FOX and TBS don't care because they have a contract. And Major League Baseball already sold the tickets. Screw the fans, they suck anyway.

Giants Not On TV For Some Reason

The Giants aren't on TV this afternoon, playing the Braves from Atlanta. They're scheduled to play on Comcast Sports Net, both on their pocket schedule and on their broadcast schedule on their website. They're not on TBS, the Braves station, either, nor their flagship station (an NBC affiliate) due to the Olympics. But the A's pregame show was on instead.

As I write, the game just appeared on Comcast Sports Net Plus, starting at 7pm with the 9th inning, just as the A's game was starting on Comcast Sports Net regular. But the listing on CSN+ says the A's game is on. Go figure it all. The Giants are winning 4-1 in the ninth. We'll see if they can hang on now that they're appearing on the tube.

Comcast and the Seven Second Delay

I love listening to baseball on the radio so much that I used to watch the game on TV with the volume off and the radio on. Radio announcers have to describe the game using picturesque language, and their description is much better than TV announcers. Some time in the last two decades, I noticed that the game on radio and TV were slightly out of sinc. The TV seemed to have a fraction of a second delay. Once I heard that this was due to radio using land lines while TV had to beam many thousands of miles up to a satellite, creating a slight delay because of the speed of light.

Then a few years ago, I noticed that the TV had about a seven second delay. This is so irritating that it's very difficult to watch the game with the radio on. But at the ballpark, they have used closed circuit TV for years now, so that watching the monitors while standing in line for food or beer resulted in an absolutely live picture. But this year with the changing of Fox Sports to Comcast Sports, the monitors at the park have about a three second delay. What's up with that? With all the increase in technology, you would think Comcast could get it right instead of worse over time.

Saturday Night Baseball?

For decades, three teams have traditionally played more than half of their games during the day. The Chicago Cubs, the Oakland A's and the San Francisco Giants. The Cubs didn't get stadium lights put in until 1988, and day baseball is still the tradition on the Northside. The A's and Giants have always played a high percentage of day games, and always a day game on Saturday, because of the cool, foggy nighttime weather in the Bay Area, with the midweek getaway day usually played under the sun, too.

Saturday afternoon at the ballpark in the sunshine has always been a treat. But things have changed, and the Giants have just this year started playing a large majority of their Saturday games at night. Why? The short answer is television. FOX has the rights to the daytime slot and teams are forbidden to televise their own games during that time. Since the Bonds era is over and the Giants really suck, FOX isn't going to show the Giants anytime soon. They were on FOX nearly every Saturday in at least a regional game for years. Now the Giants have nothing more than their historic name as a national TV draw. So, to take in TV revenue, they're moving most of their Saturday games to a night starting time so either the local FOX Sports Net or their new channel 11 can carry the game, and the Giants can still pull in some revenue. TV money rules baseball. Just my guess, anyway.