It was pretty neat watching MLB Network for the first time. Kinda crazy though, as they jumped around for 3rd outs of several games within a span of a couple minutes. Better that than commercials, I suppose. Oh, and I even saw a baseball card commercial for the first time in my life, as best as I can recall (Did card companies advertise on TV back in the day? Seems like they would, but I can't recall ever seeing an ad.) But anyways, yeah, there was a commercial for 2014 Bowman which was cool to see.
Have any of you guys similarly "cut the cord" to cable, and if so how do you get your baseball/sports fix? I have an AppleTV device and apparently, you can subscribe to mlb.tv for something like $120/yr and watch a bunch of games that way. I'm interested in hearing any reviews on this service, so if you've tried it, please let me know your thoughts.
A few years back, I'd sometimes try online for questionably-legal live streams to catch Chargers games and episodes of Pardon The Interruption. The quality was often choppy or worse, and it was a pain trying to find a "channel" that even worked at all. I soon stopped caring much about the Chargers after they broke my heart for the umpteenth time, and I got a job so I wasn't home during PTI, so eventually stopped trying to find cable streams.
But anyways, I'd love to hear what any of you guys in a similar situation do to watch sports.
When I got home, there were some packages waiting for me, including a trade PWE. So let's bust that out real quick! Yes, 2 blog posts for the price of 1!
Reader John H. (do you have a blog?) is a Mets fan, David Wright specifically, and inquired about some Mets in my 2014 Gypsy Queen trade bait (still a bunch left, FYI; let's trade). I sent him off the Wright SP and mini, and a few other Mets from the set, and he sent me a handful of nice additions to some of my player collections.
Mr. Padre and a couple other greats who spent a little time in SD.
Hey, it's Robin Yount. Did you see the sketch card I made for Tony L. recently? I really wish I were a better artist.. I'd be making sketch cards of José Abreu (or whoever was hot at the moment) and throwing those puppies on eBay making fat stacks o' cash. As it stands, my skills are just a step above stickfigures so I'll be content occasionally making sketch cards to give to my blogging homies.
Another Gwynn, this time a Shining Star!!
Padres in the shape of X's.
Finally, some Andrew Cashner cardboard. Nice. John, thanks again for the trade.
I cut the cable and I use the Roku 3, teamed up with netflix ($7.99) and hulu plus ($7.99). Now I pay $15 a month instead of $160. I couldn't be happier, and I still have more TV and movie choices than I could ever watch.
ReplyDeleteI can't watch the Dodgers though, but then, I still couldn't watch even if I had cable, since our local cable company doesn't have them to offer.
You can get every game EXCEPT your home team on MLB TV. Some people buy the MLB package and then use a VPN ($7-$9 mo) to disguise their IP address. Then it thinks you're in another state and you can watch your home team.
gofirstrowus.eu - If you are not too concerned with video quality, or the legal ramifications.
ReplyDeleteSome of he free online tv sources will occasionally have live baseball as shown in other countries. For a time last year, I would catch an inning of Sunday Night baseball on the Dominican Republic feed on Wwitv.com.
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty satisfied with the mlb.tv package. The year subscription was well worth it, and it works for the preseason (I went month to month last year, and cut it after the Padres were out of it, so I'm not sure if the year long subscription I have now covers the playoffs, though I would hope and assume so). Like Oscar says, you can't watch your "home team", which is lame because I kind of would like to watch the Rangers and Astros, which are blacked out. However, being a Padres fan, it all works out, since they don't play the Rangers or Astros at all this year, so I can watch every Padre game. When I bought mine, I also was able to get the At Bat app on my phone for free, so I can also watch the games on my phone if I felt so inclined (don't do often because I don't want to pay for the data), but you can also listen to every game with the app, which is pretty cool, since my town is smack in between Houston and Arlington and I can't really get either game clearly when I'm driving around.
ReplyDeleteWe cut the cord with cable a few years ago, so this is my one splurge in terms of "TV" watching. We also have Hulu for my wife and Netflix for the kids, but those are pretty cheap monthly bills, like Oscar says. I also grew up in a house without cable, so I'm not much of a TV watcher anyways. In college, I had managed to have my work schedule not interfere with The Office on Thursday nights, but now that it's over, I haven't dug into any other TV shows.
It's a shame that the Blazers games aren't going to be on local TV for the rest of the playoffs. (Blame the NBA's TV deal for this one as they only allow local broadcasts for the first round these days for some reason.) I think TNT has some sort of free live feed service for the games they are showing, so that may be an option. I've never tried it.
ReplyDeleteI have cable, but I am doing MLB TV Premium this year to watch the Cardinals. I have Comcast and the MLB package they offer is more expensive and does not show most games in HD. I have a Blu Ray player that includes an app for MLB TV, which seemed to work better last season than it does this season. It's been kind of buggy. I'd recommend signing up on a month-to-month basis rather than the full year because you can cancel at anytime and only owe for the month if you find that you have technical limitations that lead to a less than optimal experience. My biggest issue is that I work weird hours and can't often watch the games live, and for some reason the app isn't working for me this year unless I am either watching live or the game has already ended. Starting from the first pitch when the game is still in progress doesn't seem to be an option right now for whatever reason. Things are probably a bit smoother using the computer except that my picture has been really choppy when I output it to the TV. Anyway, blah blah blah whatever. Go Blazers!
Living in the Boston area. You get every Sox fame with the basic cable package. You get the Bruins and Celtics in the same package. Not a bad deal
ReplyDeleteWe cut the cord to cable about 4 years ago. I have "rabbit ears" and pick up all the local HD channels (CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX and a few others) for free and then we supplement with Netflix. I get my baseball fix when it's on FOX on the weekends, but I rarely get to watch my Cubs at home. I usually head to a local watering hole or kick it at a friends house to watch Cubs lose yet another game.
ReplyDeleteMuch easier to watch the NFL, as most of the games are on FOX and one of the other big time channels that I get.
My wife said that we could get cable when I start spending more money at the bars watching games than what a monthly cable bill would set us back. As much as I try I can't manage to go out that often.