April 5th, 2007 → 10:43 am @ Seth Mnookin
Yup: all of us cable subscribers are going to get the privilege of spending $150 bucks to watch baseball after all. Which doesn’t mean that I don’t still hate Major League Baseball. (Apropos of that, here’s something worth checking out: a reader wrote in saying that he was able to listen to the ‘EEI feed of the game for free — and that it was much clearer and stronger than the MLB feed. I have to assume someone will wise up and start blacking that out soon, but in the meantime you might want to see if that still works.)
Here’s a question I have (and some cursory poking around on the Interweb didn’t provide the answer, although maybe when InDemand updates their MLB page to reflect the fact that they’ll now have Extra Innings, I’ll be able to find the info there): I currently am a Time Warner subscriber, but I’m moving to a Cablevision neighborhood at the end of May. Is InDemand going to transfer over my subscription? Or will I have another reason to get incensed? Anyone?
Post Categories: DirectTV & InDemand & Major League Baseball & Manny Ortez
April 5th, 2007 → 10:35 am @ Seth Mnookin
The Feeding the Monster 2007 Pre-Season Contest, that is. A quick scan through the entries shows only two contestants who had Youks hitting the Sox’s first home run of the season in the second game — ric and maranara — and only maranara also had JDD picking up his first RBI in the same game.
Also: I realized the “three winners” thing was a bit unclear, as was the way I’d tabulate scores. The three winners will be the three entries with the highest total scores. And the scores will be computed as follows:
* Each of the three portions of the contest will count for a total of 6 points, divided up as follows:
* HR: The correct player is needed for any other portion of the entry to count here; contestants who get that right will get two points. The game and inning count for another two points each; however, if a contestant gets the game wrong, the inning is automatically counted as incorrect. In other words, someone who guessed Youkilis would hit one out in the 7th inning of the 1st game won’t get two points for the correct inning, but s/he will get the two points for guessing Youkilis.
* J.D.’s first RBI: This will be divided into two components — game and inning — each worth three points; as above, the wrong game but the correct inning won’t get you any points.
* Dice K’s pitching line: Every component — innings pitched, hits, walks, strike outs, runs, and earned runs — will count for 1 point.
Currently, Maranara has 7 points, followed by sox5452 with 5 and ric with 4…but anyone with at least two points still has a chance at winning. And barring a freak hailstorm in KC tonight, we should know all the winners later tonight…
Post Categories: 2007 Season & Contest
April 4th, 2007 → 9:45 pm @ Seth Mnookin
Enough people have complained about the complete stupidity of Major League Baseball’s decision to take it’s Extra Innings package away from the millions of cable subscribers that have, in the past, willingly shelled out more than $150 a year to watch their home team play its games even if they no longer live in the city of their team of choice.
Not surprisingly, the Times‘s Joe Nocera highlights just how stupid MLB truly is in a an article on the whole messy imbroglio. “Let’s face it,” Nocera writes, “the men who run baseball have a history of not making the smart play.” Truer words have never been spoken. After going through all the not-so-exciting details, Nocera sums up the issue nicely:
“So let’s think about what baseball has done here. In the interest of seeing to it that its baseball channel gets a running start on DirecTV, it has infuriated the cable industry, which is now unlikely to ever give it the time of day. It has turned down the opportunity to be guaranteed an astounding 30 million subscribers on Day 1 because it wants to squeeze the cable industry for more. … Plus, it has alienated 200,000 of its most passionate customers — the ones willing to pay $165 a year to see baseball games every night — taking away from them a fruit they had already tasted. Plus, it has forced those same fans to go to the baseball Web site to see those games — which, however good the site is, still entails scrunching over a screen and looking at a picture that doesn’t compare to say, a flat-screen plasma TV. Plus, it has reminded the world yet again how much sports is just another greedy business — exactly what its customers don’t want to be reminded of. Plus, it’s gotten Congress up in arms.* …
“Nice going, fellas. The N.F.L. would never do anything this dumb. Of course, that’s one of the big differences between pro football and pro baseball. The football guys actually know how to run their business with some intelligence.”
Color me spoiled — or color me stubborn — but I’m one of those passionate customers who absolutely refuses to pay for the honor of watching Sox games on my MacBook. (I spend enough damn time sitting at my desk as it is.) So tonight, I grudgingly shelled out $14.95 for the MLB Gameday Audio package (and no, dammit, I won’t put in a link)…and was greeted with the following message:
“Server busy. Please try back again soon.”
This went on for a full half-hour. Then I finally patched in. And then I got knocked off in the third with Beckett pitching out of a Mike Lowell-induced jam. Now I’m back on…but it sounds like I’m listening through snowstorm of feedback.
Awesome.
* Yeah, I’m glad John Kerry made some noise about the whole issue, too. But think about this: cable subscribers around the country are relying on a man who referred to the two best hitters on his own team with the Frankensteinian moniker “Manny Ortez.”
Post Categories: DirecTV & Joe Nocera & Major League Baseball & Manny Ortez
April 4th, 2007 → 9:54 am @ Seth Mnookin
The beginning of the baseball season means more than just frustrating Opening Day losses and tendentious handwringing about Schilling’s start. It also means that…I’ll be in a town near you* talking about Feeding the Monster and the 2007 campaign. That’s right: next Monday, I’ll be at the Dover Public Library at 56 Dedham Street in Dover; the wonderful men and women there have even provided easy-to-follow directions from virtually anywhere (in the greater Boston area). If you didn’t get a chance to heckle, badger, or berate+# me last summer, here’s your chance. Don’t let it pass you by.
* So long as you live near Dover, MA.
+ Or praise.
# This is also your chance to get me to actually sign your book. Of course, if you can’t make it, free, personalized bookplates are still available to put into the copy of FTM you’re about to purchase from Amazon for only $17.16 (cheap!).
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Post Categories: 2007 Season & Feeding the Monster Readings
April 2nd, 2007 → 10:41 am @ Seth Mnookin
There’s an hour and a half left in the 2007 Opening Day contest. And surely you can top the 55 people who’ve already put down their guesses…
Oh, and speaking of Opening Day, what could be a better matchup that Schilling versus…Gil Meche? I mean, I guess they make about the same about of money. But really, that’s a matchup?* I don’t know about you all, but the two games I’m most looking forward to are this Thursday’s rubber match of the KC series, in which our very own $100 million man takes the mound for the Sox for the very first time, and next Wednesday’s contest, when Dice-K takes the Fenway mound for the first time. Time for everyone to bone up on their Japanese…
Oh, and, of course: Happy Passover.
* Folks will actually be able to see today’s game, which is being broadcast on ESPN. Take advantage of that, folks. Unless you have DirectTV, that’ll be one of the few away, non-Yankees games you’ll be able to see.
Post Categories: 2007 Opening Day & Contests
March 30th, 2007 → 4:46 pm @ Seth Mnookin
Think you know the Sox? Put your guesses where your bravado is, and tell me who’ll hit the team’s first home run, what Dice-K’s pitching line will be for his first MLB game, and when J.D. Drew will have his first RBI. If you beat out the rest of the crowd, you win a free, autographed copy of Feeding the Monster. Full details and how to enter are here.
Post Categories: 2007 Season & Contests & Uncategorized
March 30th, 2007 → 1:40 pm @ Seth Mnookin
Only one more baseball-less weekend in 2007…at least until October. And sure, opening the season in Kansas City isn’t the most exciting thing in the world, although anyone who’ll actually be in Missouri should make sure to check out Posnanski and Bryant’s. Better yet, do both at the same time.
So to help get you through that final weekend, some thoughts about spring training, the upcoming season, and what to expect going forward…
* 38pitches. It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that Curt Schilling’s recently launched blog is always interesting, often entertaining, and usually informative. Feelings about Curt tend to run hot or cold; regardless of your take on the big righthander, you need to admire a pro athlete who actually takes time to answer questions sent in by the hoi polloi.
Actually, I guess you don’t need to admire it: Shaughnessy, in one of the meaner-spirited columns I’ve read in a while, painted the whole thing as one more way for Schilling to get his ass kissed. What’s surprising here isn’t that Shaughnessy is being a dick — he’s done that before — but that he missed the mark so completely. (This will surprise some people, but I actually think Shaughnessy is a very good columnist in that he’s great at hitting a nerve and is generally pretty fearless about public’s (and his subject’s) reactions. I often don’t agree with where he’s coming from, and I abhor some of what he’s done in the past…but that’s another story.+) As Daniel Drezner writes, Shaughnessy seems to betray some sort of primal fear: if athletes join the rest of the bloggerati, will the members of the tradition-bound fourth estate continue to lose readers? (It’s worth noting that Schilling provided the first official confirmation of Papelbon’s move to the pen…)
Drezner makes a good point. In this case, I think Shaughnessy’s also worried that he’ll lose access to one of the city’s most entertaining sports personalities. Schilling’s never been shy about expressing his disdain for Dan; in face, I’ve often wondered why Schilling spoke to him at all. Maybe now, he won’t…
(Schilling had a great response to Shaughnessy’s column, in which he referred to Dan as his nom de guerre, Curly Haired Boyfriend.)
Also worth nothing: starting Opening Day, Curt will run an 11-day contest; two winners a day will get the MLB.tv package. All you cable subscribers, take note…
* The NESN-Red Sox highlight clips controversy. (OK, fine, mini-controversy.) This is a story that’s definitely worth following; I’m surprised local stations aren’t making more of a fuss. A recent Globe article quoted NESN VP of programming Joel Feld as saying that “there is no plan in place to charge for highlights” in the future. There’s enough wiggle room in that statement to drive a truck through; I can’t imagine what other real rationale there could possibly be. I also found Sox spokesman Charles Steinberg’s comments on the issue to be laughable. Steinberg said the Sox don’t want “reduction in Red Sox presence in the marketplace” and that the team had nothing to do with NESN’s decision. “Sometimes people miss that the Red Sox and NESN are two entirely different companies with two entirely different management staffs,” said Steinberg. “They share common ownership but are independent companies.”
I call BS on that. The Red Sox and NESN are damn symbiotic. This isn’t a Times (and, by extension, Globe)-Sox scenario. Anyway, stay tuned. Or, you know, don’t. At least if you want to see in-game highlights.
* The Sox’s payroll. Earlier this week, Tony Mazz had an article on how to decipher to team’s payroll (and MLB’s formulas for determining payroll tax, etc.). If you’re going to be talking about the team’s offseason spending, check this out. You’ll sound smarter.
* Theo’s thoughts. In case you haven’t heard, Theo isn’t much of a fan of all of the attention the team gets.+ For that reason alone, the above article on his reflections on spring training is informative, not necessarily for the actual content but for what can (and should) be read between the lines. Theo’s incredibly smart, and he thinks carefully about the effects of what he says in public. (Take note any time this season when he steps up and says he needs to accept responsibility for a rough patch the team is going through; it’ll more than likely mean he thinks some pressure needs to be taken off of the players.) When Theo says “I think the thing I liked best about the club was that there were no real egos on display, as much as any camp I’ve been around,” there’s undoubtedly some truth there. I’d bet there’s also an intended (if subliminal) message to the press: the clubhouse is a placid place. Look elsewhere for your story of the day. Even if this kind of thing doesn’t have a huge effect — and the Boston press isn’t keen on playing down even the most minor of squabbles — if it helps for even a week or two, that one statement will likely have fulfilled its purpose.
* Manny and Roger. SI had a squib the other day about possible Manny-Ichiro trade discussions; it got virtually no attention…but I don’t think we’ll get through a season without a Manny flare-up. And, of course, when Roger decides he is, indeed, going to come back for one more season, the Sox will be in the hunt…
+ There is, of course, lots about Shaughnessy’s weird and wooly relationship with the Sox and the roots of Theo’s press and publicity aversion in Feeding the Monster, which is available from Amazon for only $17.16 (cheap!). And don’t forget: free signed and personalized bookplates are here for the asking. How else are you going to get ready for Opening Day?
Post Categories: Dan Shaughnessy & Manny Ramirez & NESN & Roger Clemens & Theo Epstein
