Some of my fondest memories as a kid recall listening to Ernie Harwell on a summer night through an old mini-boombox (maybe even a dual cassette one!) or clock radio. I loved hearing the same sponsors year over year. There was something about listening until the game was over, and trying to stay awake long enough to hear the game recap. Even if it was a loss, at least they’d talk about probables for tomorrow. Then I would wake up and double check my memory via the box score, and look around the league to see who had a big night.
As a result, I’m a radio first guy, for all sports. Even if I’m watching the game, I’m usually muting Rod and Mario in favor of the sweet melody of Dan and Jim. I think some people may do step one without step two.
But I’m curious to know, how do you follow?
This will mark my 6th year of MLB.tv, it’s a must for any out of town fan. I also have XM radio, which covers all MLB games, and then At Bat for the iPhone. I’m even considering adding it for my iPad. I know, its ridiculously redundant, but I want Tigers baseball at my every disposal.
Unfortunately, and to the dismay of commenters on its website, MLB does not offer package pricing. So it’s $120 for MLB.tv, and then $15 each for the iPhone and iPad apps. This sounds like price gouging, but I’m about to pay it. On the other hand, $150 for a year of Tigers’ baseball (~$200 if you include the XM subscription during the season) through virtually every electronic medium I own? Not bad.
I’m also considering adding a Roku or Apple TV into the mix, so that I can stream the game from MLB.tv through my TV (as opposed to my computer monitor). I’d love to hear your thoughts if you are familiar with either.
And what about Twitter? I follow Jason Beck, Dickerson, billfer and Det_Sports. Anyone else out there hot on the Tigers?
Also, a little housekeeping:
1) If you like the posts/site, please “Like” the posts on Facebook. You should see a button following the text for each post.
2) If anyone wants to contribute during the season, I’d love some help with the game posts. I can always throw a quick thread up for comments, but I’d prefer to have a little background for each game and that’s a tough gig for one guy to handle. billfer really did have a second, full-time job. See below for my email addy.
3) I’m always up for ideas for the site. You can reach me at kmvela @ yahoo dot com.
All I can say is: thank goodness for DVR! I sometimes get home at between 7:30 and 8pm, and am happy as heck I can start up the game without missing a minute and power through the commercials too, often catching up to live near the end. I love Mario and Rod, so the tv broadcast is my fav way to go. I do enjoy the radio broadcasts from time to time, I listen to them when I’m at the game.
If they could mix Dan and Mario somewhat, I’d follow them that way every night. Rod can be funny at times, but he can get old. Can’t stand listening to Jim Price.
The last few years I’ve been out of town for school(Columbus, OH), but couldn’t afford MLB.tv or convince myself that it was worth purchasing for a total of 3 months(April-early June, then in September). After all, I’d be home to watch all summer. So I went the much cheaper Gameday Audio route. 20 bucks to be able to listen to not only the Tigers while away, but any game in the league for the rest of the year? Great deal. And let’s just say, with one of our hometown heroes pitching for the Dodgers, I’ve loved all those late nights listening to Vin Scully.
I’ll be lucky enough to get to 20+ games in person so that’s the main way. Otherwise, I’ll probably end up watching Mario/Rod more than listening to Dan/Jim. I have XM in the car but I use that to listen to out of town day games driving home. Speaking of radio, nice to see good reports about Paul Carey coming home after his heart attack — best of luck to The Voice.
I listen or watch anyway I can. Though I prefer to watch it on tv. Twitter is a good way to keep in touch. The tiger pages sends a text between every inning letting you j ow what happens. I’m really not a fan of the radio guys. If I hear the phrase “art of pitching one more time”…
I use the same combo….mlb tv, xm radio, at bat
I stream MLB tv through my PS3 to my HD TV….It let’s you rewind and fast forward, choose any game, choose home/away broadcast (so almost all the same functionality of the internet).
As far as WWW I follow blessyouboys.com and tigers.com primarily and get your site RSS fed to my inbox.
I live in southern ohio so I am happy to get to 1 or 2 games each year.
GO TIGS!
Does the MLB.TV thru the PS3 work pretty well on an HD tv? I’m trying that this year.
Yup. Depends a lot on your connection though. Good connection and it’s pretty much HD quality (720p I think).
My fondest memories were listening to Al Kaline and George Kell on TV as a kid. When that combo ended, it never felt right watching without them. Thankfully, I got over it and Rod and Mario now seem like home to me. I know a lot of people can’t stand them, but if you listen to who other teams have, we got pretty lucky. Also, I’ll probably be in the minority here, but I’m not a big Dickerson/Price fan. They talk over each other constantly, and Price just kind of seems like a bumbling fool.
By the way, I read this site and Beck’s Blog through Google Reader, but usually come directly here to read comments. I like Bless You Boys, but their game posts don’t format correctly in Reader, and they have far too many posts for my liking, so I don’t subscribe.
Got a Roku for Christmas. Tried to watch a world series game as a test and about every two minutes it goes to a “loading” screen. Called their customer service twice now and tried to play some Hulu videos. They locked up after about 45 seconds. The Roku customer service continues to blame my ISP, but I can watch any streamed game through my computer without interruption and every speed test I take (even with them online) says I’m pulling over 11Mbps.
It’s unfortunate that no spring training games will be on the Roku for testing purposes because a live game streaming is different than a saved game already on the servers. We’ll see.
As for audio. I got the MLB at bat for the Samsung Epic and it has audio. I can plug it into my car charger and into the AUX in my car when driving, or plug it into the charger and into my stereo at home for audio. I dumped XM radio this weekend, as I can do the same with their Pandora app to listen to the music I want. I’ve gone through three XM radios in 5 years because they keep breaking and they always try to charge me to change to a new one. Sprint has unlimited bandwidth.
Good feedback on the Roku Chris. I’m gonna hold off until you report back.
Also, how is it for displaying pictures from your CPU?
Well, I’ll tell you. The Customer Service is a bit spotty with them. It’s obvious to me that they are talking to you on the phone and helping another user online at the same time–possibly more than one, with the silence in the air when you are asking a question, etc.
But when they didn’t resolve my issue, the guy (who didn’t even say he was going to call back) called back the next day and did more troubleshooting. We finally figured out that the firmware on my wireless router was not up to date. After doing the update, I put on a world series game from last year and it played through with no interruption whatsoever. As long as they can stream live like this, it will be the best present I ever got.
Android at Bat app here.
Is it free?
$14.99 /cheaper than MLB audio, and it streams to my phone, so I can listen to day games at work.
Mario & Rod have a pretty good rapport and seem to genuinely like each other. Dan is a pro and a worthy heir to Ernie. Jim Price is awful. He’s redundant, a total name dropper and a blatant homer. At least he’s been removed from play by play, which was often dead air anyway, but I’ll be glad when his time in the booth has come to an end.
Wouldn’t Todd Jones make a nice color man?
You guys brought up something that I left out above, I love listening to other team’s broadcasters. MLB.tv and At Bat now let you get home team calls, all the time, but I really love the community and warmth (most of the time) that goes along with the home team guys. When I’m in the car, XM only broadcasts the home feed, so I get a good dose of the broadcasters around the AL. We’ll do a thread one day just discussing this. I know I’m not the only one who feels this way.
XM is the way to go. I do enjoy non tigers games and the Tigers take up my TV time.
I like to grab my XM portable and go for a walk in the first 3 innings. It allows me to still have a life while worshiping the Tigers and whoever else I want to listen in on.
They should have more days like opening day where the games start at noon and finish around midnight!
I subscribe to mlb.tv, although I usually just listen to the audio feed at work or while I’m doing other things. Price’s comment today about Maxwell needing to change his drawers after the 3rd strike from Verlander did make me laugh.
Have any of you had success with mlb.tv/apple tv?
I agree — reluctantly — that MLB.tv is a must-have for out-of-town Tigers fans. I’m finally breaking down and getting it this year. Still, I think baseball is mortgaging its future (kids) by not having more ‘free-TV’ games — even when I couldn’t watch the Tigers as a kid, I could find some major-league game.
I’m not exactly sure what I wili be doing or even where I will be living come opening day, but those caveats aside, I would be willing to help out with game threads or whatnot.
I”ve used MLB extra innings on Direct TV for the past 4-5 years which has been awesome. But this year I am going give MLB.TV a try. I”m gonna try streaming it thru my PS3 which looks pretty sweet. I like the portability of it. I also use the At Bat app for my phone to listen to the audio before I get home from work.
I’ll follow them any way I can. Just got a new laptop(still in the box) and am thinking about MLB extra innings., Would love to get rid of cable but would miss the broadcasts on Fox and April in the D something terrible.
I hope to watch most of the games live in HD , while having MLB Gameday and the DTW game thread on my PC monitors.
HD? I was thinking of getting plastered for every game and watching it in DD, drunken definition, so that I can be like my hero Miguel Cabrera, and when things go wrong I can then scream at the screen saying do you know who I am, I’m the great TSE and I know everything about baseball and you guys are stupid for sucking at knowing things! Thanks for the inspiration Miguel.
How did adding alcohol to the mix change any of those other things?
I don’t know, it was just a sarcastic jab at Miguel. I’m sure he’ll be fine considering he’s just too awesome at baseball and I don’t see how a drinking problem is going to stop him from being great. I haven’t posted in a while and I couldn’t remember if I poked at Cabrera yet for his episode, my timing sucks here lol. And without the alcohol I don’t get animated and actually yell at the screen, I just keep my thoughts silent and in my head or I call my dad on the phone and say oh my god look at what they’re doing now! lol
I’m going to watch the game on a wide screen television so I can see all of Cabrera. In 2002, he said his ideal weight was 222. He’s now at 270. If you believe that’s all muscle with lower body fat content you haven’t seen his chest jiggling as he runs to first. Dear beat writers: please don’t insult my intelligence and say he’s in great shape.
I think Miguel is in great shape – physically, mentally, and emotionally. He looks to have lost 20 pounds since last season (like I used to do every year). It’s clear that he’s on the path to greatness.
Sincerely,
Dmitri Young
Rick G, favorite detroit tigers weblog of the decade.
Its fine, its unsaturated fat. Good for you.
He’s too heavy. Have to agree with you on that one.
This will mark my 12 year with Direct TV MLB package. I also have XM radio in the cars and one of the radios I can also take out and listen around the house. I really enjoy Dan and Jim on the radio as that brings back lots of Michigan to me. (I also enjoying hearing Dan say “The Tigers are going to World Series!!!” during the start of every game. Living in the central time zones allows me to catch home evening games at 6:00PM and usually done by 9PM. My brothers and I also plan to hit the wrap-around series in Baltimore this July. We usually attend the Rangers v. Tigers game in Arlington but this year that’s in the middle of the week. I also plan to watch a few Diamondback games to see how Kirk and Alan fare. PUT TRAM IN THE HALL!!!
I used to listen to the Tigers on WKZO, and if i’m not near a TV, or I’ll turn the radio on. Or, if i get tired of listening to Rod Allen, i’ll put the Radio on. If i’m not near a TV, or radio, I’ll “watch” the game on my phone, via “gameday” from the Tiger Mobile site. If I’m near a computer I’ll keep up with the game on Gameday. I also follow the Office Tigers on twitter, and they’re okay about updating.
I’m excited for this year.
8-D
-Jill in Kalamazoo.
Does the new Apple HDMI cable change anyone’s mind? http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC953ZM/A
Yes, it would be annoying to have your iPhone/iPad/iTouch out of use for three hours a night. But it seems like this would allow you to save $73 ($120 for MLB.tv – $40 for the cable – $7 for an HDMI cable).
I have a Roku but have only used it for Netflix (works fine) and Amazon on-demand (also works fine). I’ve been ponying up the $15 bucks a year to MLB.com for the radio broadcasts. I’m too cheap to pay for the TV package (although now that I can watch it on my TV rather than a computer screen I may be tempted). Like you, I prefer the radio broadcast to TV, so the extra value of watching on my little laptop screen wasn’t worth the extra $100.