It's been 5 years now since I've lived in Washington State. I grew up there for 22 years. I've gone from a fan that saw sports games all the time to a place that has no local pro team and no beer sales on Sunday, Connecticut. In that time I've left my Seahawks for the Pats, forgotten about my Sonics for the speed of NASCAR, but I still kling to my first love. Yes, the good ole Seattle Mariners. The problem is that it's quite hard to track them when I'm 3000 miles away. I can always wait for them to play the Yanks or Sox or maybe they'll show up on ESPN, but that's not enough for me. I still feel left out. I want to hear the voice that filled my ears in when it was spring and summer times. I want to hear the slightly raspy voice of Dave Neihouse.
I'm hoping I can hear it all again now that I have a computer with sound, yes sound. However, I don't know if there is a way to pick up MLB radio feeds via the internet without buying the whole MLB package or a package akin to it. It didn't look all that expensive, but I prefer not to pay for it if something like this is sitting right there for free.
So, what is there to know about radio and the internet? If someone can rip off movies and cds before they are released, surely the free world of radio is there for the taking too ... isn't it?
They're only offering one feed of each game, so you may get stuck listening to some very horrible radio teams. But, XM is my plan for baseball listening goodness this year. I just need to save up some dough for a MyFi.
The options I can give you (and yes, you have to pay for any of these methods)
1) Purchase the MLB package off of the internet. Price isn't that prohibitive, but you do have to be in front of a computer to listen to the game. I think in the past the option has been available to purchase individual games, but, if you want to listen to all/most of 162, the package would be cheaper. Of course, the ESPN or Yahoo pitch by pitch option is always available.
2) If you have a dish, pull the game off the dish. If you have cable, the MLB Extra Innings package.
3) If you want to purchase satellite radio, XM this season broadcasts every game.
A few seasons ago, you might have been able to pull in the game for nothing off of the flagship station for a team, but, now that baseball can make a buck off of broadcasting games off of the internet, that option is gone. There is always the fluke chance that on a warm summer night you could pick up the broadcast on AM. In past years in RI, I've picked up Atlanta broadcasts, Detroit broadcasts and Toronto broadcasts playing with the AM. Doubt Seattle will carry that far, but always a possibility. As for No Beer/Booze sold on Sunday: That is why you buy extra on Saturday.
I did the MLB.com thing to watch the games last season and was very satisfied. The radio thing would be good, but I rarely have a radio at hand and don't watch to get an XM - although I have considered it.
I buy the mlb.com radio package every year. I think you can buy for one team (cheaper than all teams), and the entire season is cheaper than paying month by month. Phillies broadcasts are sketchy here in State College (one FM radio station about 50 miles away broadcasts it weakly), so the realplayer is a godsend.
I looked into the XM thing, and an XM representative told me that I'd only hear the broadcast of the home team. So that's 80 games without Harry Kalas, which is an idea I hate.
Originally posted by Roy.I buy the mlb.com radio package every year.
So the whole MLB.TV thing is just highlights and rebroadcasts? No way to watch the games on the net yet, huh?
MLB.TV shows full (live) games only if they are out of market. My biggest problem is that my credit cards all have my home billing address (so I don't have to change it every year or so due to school housing/apartments) and they won't let me watch Phillies games since my home is within so many miles of Philadelphia. Maybe I'll try to talk to a live person this year (unlikely) and see if they can get it fixed for me.
I'm hoping I can hear it all again now that I have a computer with sound, yes sound. However, I don't know if there is a way to pick up MLB radio feeds via the internet without buying the whole MLB package or a package akin to it.
MLB.com's got it for $15 for the whole 2005 season right now. As mentioned, they also do small increments.
You get all of the live games for all the teams with this package, with alternate language feeds where available and seven days of archives. They don't appear to have packages for individual teams; I found the upside of that arrangement was noticing a good unrelated game on Baseball Tonight and being able to tune in to hear it myself rather than wait for highlights.
Prices Comparison MLB.com Radio: 14.95 MLB.com TV: 79.95 (blacked out local, Saturday Afternoon games) Extra Innings: 149 (same black out, $169 if you wait) XM: 12.95 a month
There's a bit of a buffering delay as compared to TV, maybe about five seconds? It won't work well if you watch and listen at the same time, but then it won't work well with normal radio either.
Since they're selling this, they don't allow stations to give it away for free. So you're stuck buying something.
Is anybody happy with XM radio? I'm thinking of getting it because I'm only allowed to use the radio at work, not the internet. Spring training games are a must. I really don't care who I'm listening to as long as they can describe what's happening.
The $10-$12 per month doesn't sound that bad, but they have extra costs for receivers and speakers.
Prices Comparison MLB.com Radio: 14.95 MLB.com TV: 79.95 (blacked out local, Saturday Afternoon games) Extra Innings: 149 (same black out, $169 if you wait) XM: 12.95 a month
Those first two actually seem like deceant deals, but what exactly is Extra Innings? Can you get all the local feeds for every game on the MLB.com radio package or just home games like someone mentioned above for XM? I'm real leary of buying anything from MLB, for no other reason than they seem able to boggle the simplist of tasks, but I may break down if I know all 162 games will be the voices of my summer memories and not 82 of mine and 82 of a bunch of other peoples, because let's face it listening to games of your team with their announcers really doesn't cut the mustard.
Originally posted by Roy.I buy the mlb.com radio package every year.
So the whole MLB.TV thing is just highlights and rebroadcasts? No way to watch the games on the net yet, huh?
Not at all. I probably watched 200+ games last season - mostly the cubs, but a heck of a lot of Astros and Cards games (and a few others). You can even watch more than one at once.
Yes, I'd say it was about 145 or so of the Cubs games were on - all except the ones on Fox (the network, not FSN) and ESPN and the ones not televised. Now, it wasn't always "your" announcers - 1 feed per game - so sometimes you get "their" announcers.
But OTOH you get a shot at Harry Kallas, Vin Scully and others (but no Steve Stone this year, alas).
(edited by AWArulz on 28.2.05 1725) You're putting Descartes before the horse!
Those first two actually seem like deceant deals, but what exactly is Extra Innings?
Extra Innings is the Digital Cable/Direct TV "out of market TV games" pacckage. The actual TV version of MLB.TV, though only one feed per game (MLB.tv gets you both) and they don't seem to get all of the games on busy nights. (Isn't it something like 10 channels? Which means you're missing out 5 games.)
Can you get all the local feeds for every game on the MLB.com radio package or just home games like someone mentioned above for XM?
All the games, both home and away and Spanish for both if they have it (but I assume no more French.) You can always choose to listen to your radio team, as long as they're broadcasting the game.
Well, hell I quit smoking last week so this seems like a deceant way to spend that money ... I'm sold!
I picked a random game and I'm listening to KC vs Seattle from Aug 27th ... and I'm stoked for baseball season. Now, I just have to pick a more exciting game.
I haven't figured out what I am going to do this year, but last year I had a pretty good plan. In June of last year, MSN was having a deal where if you joined MSN Premium ($9.95/month), you got MLB.com All Access for free. I watched a ton of games last year on that. I would assume I'm going to have the same deal for this year. I've had XM since August 2002, so I'm sure I am going to be listening to some games on there when I am not around the computer.
Originally posted by TigerFan55I haven't figured out what I am going to do this year, but last year I had a pretty good plan. In June of last year, MSN was having a deal where if you joined MSN Premium ($9.95/month), you got MLB.com All Access for free. I watched a ton of games last year on that. I would assume I'm going to have the same deal for this year. I've had XM since August 2002, so I'm sure I am going to be listening to some games on there when I am not around the computer.
This year, they've upped the price (to $14.95, I think), and taken away a month of the free preview, down to two. Still a good deal, but not quite as good as it was last year. And if I remember correctly, you only got one feed on the mlv.TV games last year. I remember having to suffer through the brutal Pirates guys a bunch of times just to see my Cubbies play.
This year, they've upped the price (to $14.95, I think), and taken away a month of the free preview, down to two. Still a good deal, but not quite as good as it was last year. And if I remember correctly, you only got one feed on the mlv.TV games last year. I remember having to suffer through the brutal Pirates guys a bunch of times just to see my Cubbies play.
I tried to look around to see if I could find out what they had upped the price to this year for MSN Premium and I couldn't find it. When I looked on msn.com, it still said that MSN Premium was $9.95/month, but it had no mention of baseball. When I googled mlb on msn, it took me to baseball.msn.com, which has a link entitled "MLB.TV activation" which takes me to a blank page. I hope to still be paying $9.95, but I don't know as of yet. I'm sure when we get closer to the season, we'll find out the answer.
Speaking of MSN, I subscribe and last year they gave me a free subscription to the MLB internet radio coverage. I don't know if I still get it this year or what, but it was pretty cool last year.
Well, he was a good guy as the Tribe skipper, and certainly will be a change from Bowa. I'll be curious to see how he holds up in Philly - part of the Tribe's concern was with his health.