04/23/24
March 29, 2007
Why don't I subscribe to Extra Innings?: The only thing more ridiculous is Jerry Jones saying teams should be able to break news of trades and such through exclusive deals rather than letting the mainstream media report it.
posted by olelefthander to general at 05:54 PM - 44 comments
It sounds like extortion. If you want to see our product, then you better switch to where we tell you. As for myself, I have Dish Network. Didn't subscribe last year, and won't change to dtv.
posted by samtana at 08:29 PM on March 29, 2007
Just another slap in the face of "common man"...Can't afford expensive power, can't afford expensive gasoline, can't afford two-hundred dollar ball games... guess I'll stay home and watch the...oh... You know what "they" say, "Rich men buy, poor men cry..." Stephen Stills said it,"the rich keep getting richer, while the rest of us just keep growing old".
posted by wolfdad at 08:46 PM on March 29, 2007
Why such an outcry over this when the NFL is doing the exact same thing?
posted by igottheblues at 09:14 PM on March 29, 2007
I don't like the NFL doing it either. And that Jerry Jones comment is just outrageous. Extra Innings has the added kick in the pants that even though I live like 350 miles away from Cincy and am closer to five other teams' markets, even if I subscribed to it, it doesn't show Reds games here. (A Cards fan I know who subscribes told me Reds games are always blocked out here.)
posted by olelefthander at 09:52 PM on March 29, 2007
igottheblues, I think the reason there is a bigger outcry is that Extra Innings used to be available to anyone who's cable/satellite provider who wanted to carry it. I don't remember Sunday Ticket every being available except through whoever currently has the monopoly. MLB is taking away viewability, the NFL straight up denied it from the beginning.
posted by apoch at 03:20 AM on March 30, 2007
NFL Sunday Ticket was always a DirectTV deal (I think it also predated cable's ability to handle it, so it wasn't such an obvious money grab). Re: Jerry Jones' comment, get used to it. As a Red Sox fan I'm starting to have to work to enjoy the team as the ownership has decided to squeeze any nickel they can out of it. I appreciate no one pays $600 million for The Ole' Ball Club and just lets it run, but the naked attempts to control media access have become ridiculous. They want all news about the team to come from approved sources and they want to control the sources so there's no "news" at all, just spin. Fuck you for thinking we're idiots and fuck you for taking something people care about and trying to turn it into American Idol. Also, Fuck you David Stern. You seem like you'd fit right in here at Sportsfilter with your dumb-ass arguments: "As a taxpayer, I think the most important thing the Senate should be doing is holding hearings on Bud's DirecTV package," Stern said sarcastically. "I don't care about health care or ... the war in Iraq."
posted by yerfatma at 06:24 AM on March 30, 2007
Yerfatma, you get an amen from the choir on that. At some point, the viewing public's only recourse is to tune out. These clowns don't realize it was media coverage available to the masses that built their leagues and their fortunes.
posted by olelefthander at 07:46 AM on March 30, 2007
Why such an outcry over this when the NFL is doing the exact same thing? Well, one difference (in my opinion) is that it's a heck of a lot easier to make it out to a local sports bar to watch your team play once a week on a Sunday than it is to make it out every single evening all summer. I had no problem keeping up with the Patriots when I lived on the west coast, but the Red Sox were a lot more of a challenge. Long-distance baseball fandom practically demands the baseball package. MLB claims that if you can't or don't want to switch TV providers, you can just watch the games on your computer. Weak.
posted by Venicemenace at 07:59 AM on March 30, 2007
At some point, the viewing public's only recourse is to tune out. Not sure what this would look like -- unless I pony up for Extra Innings, which I haven't so far, I really don't have the option to tune in. I have only one choice of provider, and despite the fact that I live in western Massachusetts, much closer to the New York state line than Boston, I'm considered "out of market" for Yankee games: I can get the YES network as part of my satellite package, but I can't watch the games. My brother, on the other hand, who lives in Connecticut right on the Rhode Island state line, gets the games on YES. I'd love to be part of some campaign such as bmw and olelefthander suggest, but honestly, they seem to be getting on fine without me anyway. The people who are willing to pay for Extra Innings are doing so -- MLB has their money, and they don't seem to care about those who want to watch but can't afford or aren't willing to pay for Extra Innings. So, I'd be all over it, but I'm not sure where we could bring any real pressure to bear.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 08:33 AM on March 30, 2007
I think it's time to reintroduce myself to my old friend Radio. Cold beer. Warm sunny afternoon in the backyard. Four grams of pure Lebanese blond hash. Extra Innings, DTV and the rest of it can bite me.
posted by WeedyMcSmokey at 09:09 AM on March 30, 2007
>I think it's time to reintroduce myself to my old friend Radio. I've started listening to sports on the radio, too. Highly recommended. Just try not to blare it too much when you're outside :)
posted by Philfromhavelock at 09:21 AM on March 30, 2007
I think it's time to reintroduce myself to my old friend Radio. Cold beer. Warm sunny afternoon in the backyard. Four grams of pure Lebanese blond hash. Yeah, that's my approach too. The problem is this: let's say you're a big fan of the Blue Jays, and you live in Texas. Unless you pick up an XM subscription, there's no way you can hear Blue Jays games (save for an occasional appearance on ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball). But I don't have a TV at all, and the radio works pretty well for me (but then again, I'm a Brewers fan, and local to Milwaukee, so this all works out). If I moved, I'd probably bite the bullet and pay up for XM, since Bob Uecker's my only friend.
posted by rocketman at 09:25 AM on March 30, 2007
I think it's time to reintroduce myself to my old friend Radio. Cold beer. Warm sunny afternoon in the backyard. Four grams of pure Lebanese blond hash. You get all that with your radio? I'm a radio fan too -- the commentators seem a lot smarter and a lot less annoying, and it's easier to listen to a game and do something else than it is to watch and do something else.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 10:15 AM on March 30, 2007
"As a taxpayer, I think the most important thing the Senate should be doing is holding hearings on Bud's DirecTV package," Stern said sarcastically. "I don't care about health care or ... the war in Iraq." Comments like this annoy me. Like our congress is incapable of multi-tasking? They act like they can only focus on 1 issue and 1 issue only. And if they could, should they be worrying about health care or social security? Iraq or the national deficit? You could always make this argument about anything they ever discuss. Couldn't we make blanket statements like this about Stern "As a basketball fan, I think the most important thing that Selig should be doing is worrying about what ball the players are using," bdaddy said sarcastically. "I don't care about ticket prices or offcourt trouble with star athletes"
posted by bdaddy at 10:20 AM on March 30, 2007
I'm a radio fan as well. Thankfully, Dr. Charles Steinberg, the Josef Gobbels of the Red Sox, has decided the radio broadcasts could be improved by adding a company man to the booth.
posted by yerfatma at 10:29 AM on March 30, 2007
You get all that with your radio? Actually, I just really like the line "pure Lebanese blond hash". I have no idea if it really exists, let alone actually had any. I think it's from the "Let's make a Dope Deal" sketch from a Cheech and Chong record. Speaking of comedy records. Norm McDonald's "Ridiculous" has a hilarious sketch called "The Legend of Tex Hooper" on it that I can't recommend enough. Also - new LCD Soundsystem album "Songs of Silver" - awesome.
posted by WeedyMcSmokey at 10:48 AM on March 30, 2007
Buy me some cold beer and pure blond hash Isn't that taken straight from "Take Me Out To The Ballgame"?
posted by dyams at 11:14 AM on March 30, 2007
Actively working to limit dispersed fan access to your sport is just plain dumb business.
posted by fenriq at 11:19 AM on March 30, 2007
Also - new LCD Soundsystem album "Songs of Silver" - awesome. I would argue half awesome, half not awesome, but YMMV. Yours, Fellow North American Scum
posted by yerfatma at 11:23 AM on March 30, 2007
Oh now come on ya'll, look at how popular boxing is now that you have to pay extra for access to bouts.
posted by ChiefsSuperFan at 12:03 PM on March 30, 2007
I think it's time to reintroduce myself to my old friend Radio. Cold beer. Warm sunny afternoon in the backyard. Four grams of pure Lebanese blond hash You got that right, Weedy. Pull me up a lawn chair and pass me a cold one and I'll bring a few grams of that Jamaican chocolate haze with me. Play ball~
posted by BornIcon at 12:07 PM on March 30, 2007
rocketman (and others), don't forget you can get all the radio feels on mlb.com for $15/year. Honestly, compared to Extra Innings, I think that's a steal (unless you're already paying for XM.) And unlike XM, you get your pick of broadcast teams. You can even listen in Spanish, if your team has such a broadcast.
posted by stevis at 01:15 PM on March 30, 2007
rocketman (and others), don't forget you can get all the radio feels on mlb.com for $15/year. But I don't want a radio feed. I want radio. I want to take my little battery-powered radio outside and listen to a ballgame while I spade the garden or haul wood or dethatch the lawn or do some other stupid homeowner drudge work.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 01:19 PM on March 30, 2007
jamaican chocolate haze...sounds yummy. Listen whiners, get over it. I guess baseball isnt as important to me as football is, as I have never had extra innings and have had the football season ticket with DTV for like five str8 seasons, till this year, i just cant watch the Lions lose anymore, I needed a break, plus I live in Indy, so I have a back-up team. Yes it sucks that we pay so much, but that should be a motivation to get out there and make some money!!! Plus, you cant blame just Selig or Stern, there is more to this than them, you got TV stations, owners and most of all, players, all scramblin fo the almighty buck and a million dollar raise here or their if they are good enough. Which makes us all pay more. That why I agree with Stern's bitching, Congress needs to keep their noses out of shit like this, its the private sector. Unfortuantly some of you think the governement should do something about this, that is absolutley ludicrus!!! A government that governs the best is one which governs the least. Just look at back at the embarassment of the Congressional investigations about steroriods, baseball had already passed new rules to prohibit and punish offenders, but the gvt. had to go in and get their face time on the news and make it an even bigger embarassment.
posted by dezznutz at 01:31 PM on March 30, 2007
I think that if we could just eliminate all the fans from these spectator sports things would be much simpler. Perhaps broadcasting the games to only those with telekinetic powers would be the logical next step. (And Weedy, I got some of that Lebanese stuff in Holland once and rode a bus for three days talking to a sandwich. Never did catch the score.)
posted by THX-1138 at 01:35 PM on March 30, 2007
A government that governs the best is one which governs the least. I'm going to assume you found that in Thoreau's Civil Disobedience. While I'm playing the assuming game, I'm going to further assume that if my experiments with raising the dead ever bear fruit, his re-animated corpse's first act would be to strangle you with your dumb-ass braided belt.
posted by yerfatma at 01:45 PM on March 30, 2007
I think that if we could just eliminate all the fans from these spectator sports things would be much simpler. Perhaps broadcasting the games to only those with telekinetic powers would be the logical next step. Telekinetic powers and lots of money. I like dezznutz'z economic engine argument: jack the prices sky-high so all us butt-sitters will be motivated to go out there and get a good job and climb the corporate ladder and make more money so we can buy Extra Innings. Yeah, that's the ticket. (edit: yerfatma, how do you know that dezznutz has a braided belt? It could be macrame, y'know)
posted by lil_brown_bat at 01:45 PM on March 30, 2007
Last year, I got the MLB.com package instead of Extra Innings. MLB.com is cheaper and has almost every game, and I can watch it when I travel. MLB has really paid attention to Extra Innings, and as a result it's never been a particularly good product. MLB's deal with DirecTV actually has little to deal with $$$; it's all about trying to gain access to viewers for the MLB channel. The NFL has been having the exact same battle with cable companies, which want to put the league channels on separate sports tiers that are currently bought by about 1% of cable customers. Echostar has already offered to match DirecTV's price and carry the MLB channel, so I suspect that they will also pick up the package
posted by spira at 03:13 PM on March 30, 2007
Wow, I love how SOME people in these blogs have to twist what someone says all around, so they can make a sweet half paragraph retort/insult and makes themselves feel smart even when they are waaaayyyyy off. Especially LIL brown Brat and all her blog friends whose backs she always has.... If you want to argue economics, put down the blunt, squash the incense and lets go at it. Tell me, how else would you suggest we take care of this matter of no-one being able to afford tickets anymore? I know!!! we stop going and we stop watching....but no-one here is going to do that because we all love sports! Thats why every1 is bitching about this in the 1st place!!! You are all attacking Stern and Selig when there are so many other factors invloved! Grow a brain bat, and stop making insinuations about how I said we should all work for the MAN. I'm pretty sure I said "go make money"....entrepenuarship is what this country is all about and why people will risk death to come and live here...sooo why dont you try selling some of dat shit you are smoking and then maybe from the profits you can get DTV and order the extra innings. Problem solved. yerfatma, how disappointing...you are exactly what I am talking about. That quote is from Thomas Paine, one of our Founding Fathers. Try catching up on yur early American history dude. I know its not your fault, our antiquated public school systems just dont cut it anymore. P.S. this country is 12 trillion dollars in debt now because their is to much governing. These last two presidents we have had spent/spend money like millionaire teenage sluts. P.S.S. your Mickey-Ds paycheck is missing 20% of its pay because of too much governing...I could go on and on about how inept and inefficient governments are, and how raising taxes actually lowers how much money the government brings in its treasury, but I'm sure some ignorant person would twist that fact around and make a witty joke about it...well heres some ammo for ya'll with double digit IQ's...
posted by dezznutz at 03:16 PM on March 30, 2007
That quote is from Thomas Paine, one of our Founding Fathers. Try catching up on yur early American history dude. I know its not your fault, our antiquated public school systems just dont cut it anymore. Ooh, let's have a debate about whose quote that is!
posted by bperk at 03:36 PM on March 30, 2007
dezznutz, I'm not arguing for some kind of basic human right to view out-of-market baseball games for peanuts. The problem is, even if you're in market (or what used to be in market), you can't see games the way you used to. Red Sox games aren't on broadcast any more, they're just on NESN -- used to be you could watch games if all you had was broadcast, but no more. Yankee games used to be on WPIX, now you have to get YES. Maybe this will all be routine to young pups and the future generations, but if you can remember back a year or two to how it used to be, why should you be happy about the current situation? Putting it plainly, it just sucks.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 04:07 PM on March 30, 2007
That quote is from Thomas Paine, one of our Founding Fathers. Try catching up on yur early American history dude. The rest of your trollery to one side, I know where its from, but the first time I ever saw it cited was Thoreau, where he attaches the addendum, "That government is best which governs not at all." If you want to show us mouth breathers How Things Really Are, I'd suggest a cogent argument backed with facts rather than loud pronouncements. Far be it from me to pick on someone's nick, but if your username is supposed to be an example of higher discourse, perhaps we are in the trouble you claim.
posted by yerfatma at 04:16 PM on March 30, 2007
The rest of your trollery to one side, I know where its from, but the first time I ever saw it cited was Thoreau Isn't this a famous quote that is misattributed to both Paine and Jefferson? I think the first place it is ever found in writing is in Civil Disobedience though a similar quote was a motto of a magazine. Not that it has anything to do with anything, so I have no idea why I am mentioning it.
posted by bperk at 04:46 PM on March 30, 2007
Bartlett's has it as Thoreau quoting someone else not mentioned.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 05:08 PM on March 30, 2007
I'm starting up a caravan to move to Haiti, but I could be convinced to settle in Rwanda instead. You can still get XM or mlb.com there, and best of all, the tax rates are low enough to prove dezz right about what makes good government.
posted by olelefthander at 05:48 PM on March 30, 2007
If a deal is not reached, it means that about 230,000 cable customers who previously subscribed to the Extra Innings package will lose access unless they switch to DirecTV. That's it? This huge rigamarole about 230,000 customers who won't be able to pay their cable company for the ability to watch sporting events and don't want to switch over to a satellite company for the right to pay them money to watch the sporting events? In a capitalist marketplace, I fail to see how this should be the business of the government. This would be like the Canadian government interceding in NHL television broadcast rights in Canada. Imagine if CTV won the right to broadcast the NHL on Saturday nights, but the Canadian government interfered beacause 230,000 customers in remote areas of Canada couldn't watch the games because they can only pick up CBC on their rabbit-ear TVs. This is just f*cking ridiculous.
posted by grum@work at 06:05 PM on March 30, 2007
That quote is from Thomas Paine, one of our Founding Fathers. Try catching up on yur early American history dude. Wrong. That phrase wasn't even coined until the 19th century. In his 1849 essay, "Resistance to Civil Government" (often republished as "Civil Disobedience"), Thoreau paraphrased the motto of The United States Magazine and Democratic Review, a literary magazine headed by John L. O'Sullivan that often published the work of Thoreau's contemporaries Hawthorne and Emerson. The motto was "The best government is that which governs least"; Thoreau eloquently rephrased it as "That government is best which governs least." Don't step to me on this. I'm coming to you live from Concord, Massachusetts!
posted by Venicemenace at 06:51 PM on March 30, 2007
That government is best which governs the least, because its people discipline themselves. Thomas Jefferson Don't step on me, I teach U.S. History
posted by texoma-slim at 09:57 PM on March 30, 2007
I'm lucky. I live in Western Canada hundreds of miles away from any team, in a country that basically doesn't give a shit about anything other than the Blue Jays, and then only barely. It amazes me how nobody learns the history lesson from boxing. How often do the broadcast networks show boxing? Boxing took the money grab route via PPV. Now nobody gives a crap about boxing, because it gets no mainstream exposure. Sure, they make $60 a pop on PPV. Too bad so few people care about it. Baseball is heading the same way, though at least Fox still show baseball for the masses. (Though the worth of a Fox broadcast of any sport is debatable.) The DirecTV deal is despicable, and is limiting their audience for a few extra dollars. I love the way Bud speaks as if he's doing you a favour making you switch. What an asshole. The greed in sports, for some reason, never ceases to amaze me. You'd think I'd be used to it by now.
posted by Drood at 01:46 AM on March 31, 2007
I actually love politics and history I just try to avoid discussing the subjects on a sports website. I will say I subscribed to the basic mlb.com package last year and was pretty happy with it. The picture at 350 kps was a bit grainy but this year both the price ($120 for the season) and picture quality have gone up (allegedly 700 kps, or TV quality picture as their ads say). I am subscribing again this year but in fairness I should also say that the customer service (if you ever need it) is lousy. Their customer service basically consists of a web site and a phone number that I am convinced is leads to Kenya or perhaps India. I say that because every time that I call I get a friendly and articulate English speaking person with a British accent who seems to know nothing about either baseball or computers. I have only had to call 3-4 times in a year but it was somewhat unpleasant and difficult to get results .every time
posted by kyrilmitch_76 at 06:35 AM on March 31, 2007
kyrilmitch_76, can you let us know how it works out? I've been thinking about an Apple TV thingee or turning my old XBox into a XBMC; that might be a fun killer app.
posted by yerfatma at 08:26 AM on March 31, 2007
Yerfatma, could you translate that site into English for those of us who still have trouble setting the VCR timer?
posted by wfrazerjr at 08:40 AM on March 31, 2007
I've been thinking about an Apple TV thingee or turning my old XBox into a XBMC; that might be a fun killer app. My friend has a modded-XBox and it's a sweet system. He has his digital cable and his computer hooked up to it, and he's "ripped" a bunch of his own DVDs and CDs (plus his iTunes collection) and stored them on his computer. He fires up the Xbox and we'll watch either his own movies, television shows he's recorded onto his computer, shows he's downloaded off bittorrent, play games, watch live tv (with the ability to pause/rewind/fastforward), listen to music or watch movie trailers (from Apple's site). For kicks, he's got a "weather channel" that spits out the local weather info (like this) and a "sports information channel" (that he created on his computer to scrape news/trades/injuries/scores from various sites). He's not a baseball fan, so I can't convince him to get the MLB.com package, otherwise he'd have that streaming/recording on this system too. He doesn't get out much any more.
posted by grum@work at 01:32 PM on March 31, 2007
All we need to do now as a "watching public" is to unsubscribe to DTV. Then we'll see where they can take their "extra innings" package.