Results tagged ‘ MLB.tv ’
The joys of early Sunday baseball
Sunday evenings can often be a bit of a downer. The weekend is almost over and another week at work/college/school is just about to begin.
However, baseball fans in Britain have a great advantage over the non-baseball believers. Typically all but one game in the MLB schedule is played during the day, meaning that our Sunday evening is packed full with great live baseball action. Take today as an example, all times listed in British Summer Time:
Angels @ Yankees 6:05 p.m. Saunders (3-1) Hughes (1-0)
Indians @ Tigers 6:05 p.m. Lee (1-3) Verlander (1-2)
Orioles @ Blue Jays 6:07 p.m. Guthrie (2-1) Richmond (3-0)
Not a bad way to start things off. Phil Hughes showed promising signs in his comeback against the Tigers that he is back pitching to the level that had so many scouts tipping him for great things in the past. Lee versus Verlander is an exciting pitching match-up from the AL Central and the Blue Jays have started the season very well.
Astros @ Braves 6:30 p.m. Rodriguez (2-2) Reyes (0-1)
Reds @ Pirates 6:35 p.m. Cueto (1-1) Karstens (1-0)
Mets @ Phillies 6:35 p.m. Maine (1-2) Blanton (0-2)
Cardinals @ Nationals 6:35 p.m. Lohse (3-0) Lannan (0-3)
Red Sox @ Rays 6:38 p.m. Penny (2-0) Shields (2-2)
The next batch of games starting half an hour later isn’t too shabby either. The Mets-Phillies series has been as good as expected so far and the same can be said for Red Sox-Rays.
D-Backs @ Brewers 7:05 p.m. Petit (0-2) Bush (1-0)
Royals @ Twins 7:10 p.m. Meche (1-2) Baker (0-3)
Marlins @ Cubs 7:20 p.m. Nolasco (1-2) Zambrano (2-1)
The Royals and Twins are two evenly matched teams, so it’s no surprise that this series is tied at 1-1. The series finale brings together two starting pitchers with question marks hanging over them. Meche is a doubt to take the mound after leaving his last start with an injury, while Scott Baker has looked out of sorts after beginning the season on the DL. At Wrigley, Carlos Zambrano takes a break from his pinch-hitting duties to pitch against the Marlins.
Rockies @ Giants 9:05 p.m. Hammel (0-0) Zito (0-2)
Athletics @ Mariners 9:10 p.m. Outman (0-0) Jakubauskas (1-3)
Padres @ Dodgers 9:10 p.m. Gaudin (0-0) Billingsley (4-0)
Oakland pulled out a come-from-behind victory yesterday after suffering a walk-off loss on Friday; with both games being decided by a solitary run. The two teams were wearing some very fetching throw-back uniforms yesterday, but they’ll be back in the standard outfits today (shame!). Chad Billingsley looks for win number five against the Padres.
White Sox @ Rangers 01:05 a.m. Danks (2-1) Harrison (1-2)
The single night game begins at one in the morning UK time. With Monday being a holiday over here, that’s no problem for fans wanting to stay up to watch this one. Personally, I think I’ll be worn out by then with so many games to check out beforehand.
Where would we be without MLB.tv and Gameday Audio?!
Don’t miss those day games
It’s Thursday evening here in the UK and I’m enjoying a pitching duel between Aaron Harang and Carlos Zambrano thanks to MLB.tv.
Just watch the runs start pouring in now I’ve written that!
Anyway, the reason I mention this is that it will be one of many games from Wrigley Field over the course of the season that Brits can watch at a convenient time. We’re six hours ahead of Central Time, so first pitch at 1.20pm in Chicago works out as a 7.20pm start over here. That’s the standard start time for day games at Wrigley and it’s perfect really: get home from work, sort out any chores that need to be done, fix yourself something to eat and settle down for an evening of baseball that should finish at a decent hour.
Last year, we worked on a project at BaseballGB called the Team Picker. It was designed to be a fun way to help a Brit pick which MLB team they should support, bearing in mind that most of us don’t have any of the traditional reasons (following the same team as your family, rooting for your local side etc) to fall back on. We looked at various factors which would be important to a Brit, such as the history of a franchise and their underdog status, and ranked all of the thirty MLB teams.
The Cubs came out on top and by a considerable margin. One of the big factors that worked in their favour was the amount of day games they play during the working week. Quite simply, the more day games a team plays, the more often a fan in Britain will be able to follow their games live. Most teams play a fair number of games under sunlight rather than floodlights at the weekend and, in any case, staying up to watch a ballgame in the early hours over the weekend isn’t too much of a problem.
Therefore, the real bonus for Brits is the number of day games played during the working week. The Cubs played thirty such games last season, six more than the second-place Brewers and eleven more than the joint third-place Tigers and Giants. Wrigley was the venue for a number of Friday games in particular: a great way to start the weekend.
Reading the box scores and watching the highlights is fine, but that doesn’t compare to watching the games live. That makes it all the more essential to know in advance which evenings can be filled by a live game or two. Planning ahead means you won’t miss an unmissable pitching match-up.
To help fellow Brits out, one of the regular features we publish at BaseballGB is a guide to the games that are scheduled to be played in the daytime over the week ahead. I put this together on Sunday evening, noting down the start times and the probable pitchers, before publishing it first thing on a Monday morning.
Be sure to check it out every week during the regular season so that you don’t miss any of those day games.
Two games in a day
I was looking forward to today as it was the one chance to watch the A’s take on the Red Sox in this series at a decent hour over here. Little did I know that I would be able to see bits of two games.
I woke up and, as per normal, logged on to MLB.com to check the results. The A’s game is always the one I look for first and it wasn’t hard to miss it this morning as the line had the MLB.tv logo shining bright. The game began at 10.05pm ET, which is 3.05am in Britain and it was still ongoing at around 6.50 as I sat down with my bowl of cereal.
Bonus baseball at breakfast time: what a great way to start the day.
The A’s eventual 6-5 victory after twelve innings made it all the sweeter as I logged off forty minutes later. It certainly made the walk to work more enjoyable knowing that the A’s had just won and that I would be watching the two teams again in the evening.
And so I am, taking in the game live on MLB.tv. It looks like a beautiful day in Oakland and, even though Tim Wakefield’s knuckleball is dancing all over the place, my good mood can’t be broken.
Another Opening Day
Mark today down as Opening Day number three.
Day one saw the Braves and the Phillies start the MLB season with their Sunday Night opener.
Day two brought us the first bundle of games being played around the same time, giving us the first true experience of the MLB marathon that will unfold over the course of the season.
Day three is the opening day for six teams, but it also has a special resonance for British baseball fans. One of the daily rituals we go through once the season begins is the breakfast time MLB news check. Typically most of the games are played in the early hours of the morning British time (although not so much during opening week) and this means that we wake with an urge to log on and see what has happened while we were sleeping.
With yesterday being the first day of the MLB season proper, this morning was the first time in 2009 that my breakfast was accompanied by news of final scores, exciting plays, good and not-so-good debuts and many other baseball stories.
Today’s MLB breakfast started on a downer for me as, despite my hopes while the page was loading, I was confronted by the news that the A’s had lost to the Angels. And were shutout as well! We all know that one game in 162 isn’t overly important, but an opening day loss always hits a fan a little harder than at most other times. However, I’m certainly not going to write-off the A’s new offense after one game and it looks as though Dallas Braden’s start was a positive to take from the night.
There were box scores and game reports to read next, making a special point to see how my fantasy players got on. I was glad to see Chris Iannetta went deep for the Rockies, but didn’t have a great amount of joy elsewhere. I’ve got three starters scheduled to pitch on Thursday (Javier Vazquez, Zack Greinke and Randy Johnson), and my mood on Friday morning will be determined by the MLB breakfast check first thing that day.
The one major disappointment I’ve had today (on top of the A’s loss) is the lack of video highlights. As I write this (07.30 ET and 12.30 British time) there are still no Condensed Games online and only highlights from four of the games. I sincerely hope that they will be published much more promptly from this point onwards. Coming on top of more than a few MLB.tv glitches last night, after a flawless showing for the season opener, the MLB.com multimedia content hasn’t lived up to expectations so far.
Here’s hoping for better things later today and at breakfast time tomorrow.
First impressions
MLB.tv last night provided us all with a chance to take a look at the two newest ballparks in baseball, as well as the new Flash-based media player that will be used on MLB.com this season.
Citi Field looks great. I never visited Shea, but most comments I’ve heard about it suggest that any new facility would have been an improvement (even though it contained a lot of memories for many Mets fans). However, this new ballpark would be a fitting replacement for any beloved home.
The New Yankee stadium has a slightly more ostentatious look to it. It’s great to see how they have incorporated design elements from previous incarnations of Yankee Stadium. This really struck me when there was a side-on view of a batter at the plate, with the right-field porch behind him. Without any prompting from logos on uniforms or on the stadium itself, you knew you were looking at Yankee Stadium at that moment.
This is very rare when a team moves to a new home. Watching on TV, you become accustomed to seeing certain things that instantly tell you which stadium the footage is from. Normally it takes a while before you learn these for a new place, but not with the new Yankee Stadium.
Of course, both ballparks cost a lot of money, in construction and in terms of the ticket prices, food and drink (etc). They should be impressive new facilities. However, spending that sort of money to replace legendary stadiums doesn’t guarantee that the new homes will be taken to the hearts of the fans. It looks like they will in these two cases.
Thanks to MLB.tv, I was able to get a brilliant view of the new ballparks.
The Flash-based media player has been impressive even in ‘beta’ mode, but it was even more so last night as I finally gave in and upgraded to the Premium package. Wow! The picture quality is amazingly good. I don’t have the fastest set-up in the world Internet-wise (no fibre optic cables etc), so I probably won’t use the highest quality most of the time. Being able to adjust the quality is a very useful new feature which will come in extremely handy for me.
If you haven’t used MLB.tv before, make sure you take a look at the free previews today. Be warned: you will probably end up spending some money and signing up for the season.
WBC Final – Japan retain their title
The World Baseball Classic final more than lived up to the high expectations placed on it. Japan and Korea put on an excellent show, displaying some exceptional fielding in a closely contested encounter. There really wasn’t much between the two sides and it was a classic case where neither side really deserved to lose.
Baseball fans were the winner, that’s for sure!
My review of the final, and why it showed how special the WBC is, can be found on BaseballGB.co.uk.
What I didn’t mention in the review was that my enjoyment of the game was reduced a little by knowing the outcome before I sat down to watch it.
As first pitch was set for around 1:30 in the early hours of the morning UK time, I decided to get some sleep rather than catch it live and to watch the game back via the archive function on MLB.com (having booked the day off work – and, yes, I do plan my annual leave around the baseball season! April 6 and 7 are already booked so that I can enjoy the opening to the MLB regular season, with more than a little help from MLB.tv.).
E-mails, RSS feeds and Twitter accounts were all out of bounds when I woke up and I had carefully set up a bookmark to the ‘media center’ page on MLB.com so that I could click on the game without seeing any baseball news. Everything was set.
Everything apart from the ‘News and Alerts’ box inside the (soon to be ‘old’) media player. I’ve been watching games live recently and rarely pay much attention to the news box, so it completely slipped my mind that I should have clicked the cross to turn it off.
Sure enough, after entering my log-in details, the first thing I saw was something along the lines of ”Ichiro lifts the WBC trophy”. I quickly looked away, but it was too late by then.
Damn!
I didn’t know exactly how the game had panned out so I was still able to enjoy it, but Korea’s ninth inning comeback would have been even more exciting had I not already known that it was going to happen.
Oh well, it’s a lesson learned. I’ll definitely be checking for any ’news’ boxes on the new media player when the final version goes live. Us Brits tend to watch quite a few archive games once the season has started (the live games not always being at the most convenient time for us) and making sure you don’t find out the score beforehand can require military-style planning. Setting up preferences on the new media player will be one job that I won’t be forgetting now.
More Classic baseball
The World Baseball Classic provided another group of exciting games on Sunday.
I wasn’t able to watch any of them live, which meant that this morning served as a trial run for the season ahead. As a British baseball fan, the morning MLB.com visit becomes part of your daily routine. You wake up, fix yourself some breakfast and then log on to see what happened in MLB while you were asleep.
Invariably this will start with a visit to your chosen team’s home page. As the page loads, you cross your fingers and repeat in your mind “win, win, win” before the outcome of the previous night’s game finally reveals itself. It can either get your day off to a bad start or see you heading off to work with a spring in your step. As an A’s fan, the balance of grumpy and happy days leaned firmly towards the former last year, but I’m hopeful that 2009 may be different.
Anyway, this morning’s MLB.com visit led me straight to the four WBC Recap clips.
The big shock was Australia’s thumping win over Mexico. It is always dangerous to count out the Aussies. Their sporting pedigree is second to none, as any English cricket/rugby fan can testify. After winning the silver medal in the 2004 Olympics (demoting a very talented Japanese team – including Dice-K, Kuroda, Fukudome and Jojima - into third place), Australia fell back to earth with a bump when they failed to even qualify for the 2008 event. Of course, the make-up of the team changes slightly when the WBC comes around, but I thought they might see this as an opportunity to put that disappointment behind them and they’ve certainly started off in impressive fashion.
Elsewhere, Cuba had a comfortable win over South Africa, the Dominican Republic put their opening defeat to the Netherlands behind them with a 9-0 victory over Panama (sending the latter out of the WBC) and America booked their place in round two with a resounding 15-6 win over Venezuela.
The highlight of the day was Adam Dunn’s bomb to right field at the Rogers Center. While it was great news for the Nationals, I’m still mystified as to why a play-off contender (and I’m sure Nats fans won’t take offense at me taking their team out of that bracket) didn’t pick him up. A two year/$20m contract looks very reasonable. Although he is poor in the field, Dunn’s production will outstrip what the majority of AL teams will get from their DH spot this season.
In particular, he would have made a massive difference to the Twins’ batting lineup. It’s easy to focus on deals that are made and which go wrong, but sometimes the more costly decisions are where you take a pass on a player.
Dunn’s WBC performance may have a few GM’s questioning whether they made a mistake this off-season.
However, that’s for later. Right now, Korea and Japan have just started the latest instalment in what’s becoming an epic rivalry. Korea will be out for revenge after their loss via the ‘mercy’ rule a couple of days ago.
The games just keep on coming. It’s a great time of year.
Netherlands beat the Dominican Republic
Wow!
The Netherlands have just completed a stunning 3-2 victory over their star-laden opponents. They scratched out three runs in the first inning thanks to a wild pitch by Edinson Volquez and a throwing error by Hanley Ramirez, and that was all the run support they needed.
There were a few nervy moments along the way, but the Dutch were always going to need a bit of luck to come out on top. They pitched out of jams, turned a few timely defensive plays and closed the door at the end.
It looked like the Dominican Republic were going to rescue the situation when Willy Taveras was stood on second in the top of the ninth. So often you see a near-dramatic victory get taken away from a team. Not this time. Taveras made an ill-advised attempt to steal third and he was gunned down by catcher Kenley Jansen. The MLB.tv announcers had spoken about how impressive the Dodger prospect’s arm was and he gave us a demonstration in a spirit-crushing play.
The scene at the end said it all. The Netherlands celebrated like they had won the WBC; that’s how much this victory meant to them.
Europe’s top team has done the continent proud.
Honkball reigns supreme!
WBC provides a Saturday baseball feast
It’s amazing to think that baseball fans all around the world can sign up to MLB.tv and watch games live at the same time in completely different environments and settings. Some will be watching in a midday heatwave, others will take in the game on a cool evening, and yet more will be trying to keep awake while peering out from under the duvet in the early hours.
For Brits, the time difference with the States usually means one of two things: 1) that a sunny day game can be enjoyed in the early evening and 2) that night games lead to a first pitch time of one or three o’clock in the morning.
More often than not, the result is that a fair bit of planning is required to take in a game. The only way I can get through the World Series live (and the Fall Classic has to be seen live if at all possible) is to book the days off from work, get a few hours sleep beforehand, wake at one in the morning, watch the game then get a few more hours sleep after the final out has been recorded.
Not that I’m complaining. It’s become part of the annual ritual and somehow it wouldn’t quite feel the same watching the World Series at a normal hour.
Anyway, the time difference can work in our favour just as often as it leads us to broken sleep. Today is definitely one of those occasions.
As an international baseball fan, I absolutely love the World Baseball Classic. A look through some of the BaseballGB posts on the Classic will prove this fact. I can fully understand why teams are incredibly protective of their players (especially pitchers) and would prefer them not to be taking part at this time of year, but seeing some of the top players competing for their country is a joy. International competition is a fundamental part of all British sports and the WBC can become a great way to sell the sport to new territories.
While a handful of games have already been played, this is really the day on which the 2009 WBC kicks into gear. Here’s what I have on my viewing list.
We start with a clash between Japan and Korea, which should be a classic. Daisuke Matsuzaka will be on the mound competing against the Olympic champions in front of a rapturous Tokyo Dome crowd. It’s an early start for those of you on the east coast and even earlier for those of you on the west coast, but in Britain it’s a very convenient ten o’clock in the morning.
At four o’clock in the afternoon, the top European team will be taking on one of the tournament favourites. The Netherlands couldn’t have been handed a more difficult opening opponent than the Dominican Republic; however, I’m confident that they can put in a good showing (even though it’s likely to be in a losing cause) and hopefully that will give them confidence to go on and capture second place in Pool D.
The final spot on my Saturday viewing list belongs to Canada versus the USA, with first pitch at seven o’clock in the evening. Two proud nations that will not want to lose to the other: it should make for facinating viewing, not least because the U.S. have revenge on their minds after Canada’s victory in 2006.
Thanks to MLB.tv, I’ll be able to watch them all and with a bit of luck I’ll be able to take a look at the new Flash-based media player in the process.
A day full of baseball, all at a convenient time. Sounds good to me!
Hello!
After some encouragement from the mlblogs Twitter feed, I’ve decided to start a blog here on the MLBlogs network.
The key message from the Twitter feed stated:
“Even if you have existing blog, creating MLBlog to promote it can increase visibility…biggest baseball blog network, linked from MLB.com”
Why is this relevant? Well I started a blog back in March 2006 that has gradually evolved into more of a website with a blog as its main feature. As I had always hoped, I have been joined by several other writers as we look to create a great place where British baseball fans can write and read about the game in a way that also captures the imagination of baseball fans regardless of their nationality.
From the latest MLB news to the British National Baseball league, the British senior baseball team and international competitions, fantasy baseball, the great MLB.tv/Gameday Audio features that are invaluable to non-US based baseball fans, and simply the experiences of being a baseball fan in Blighty. We cover a full range of topics to hopefully create a unique, entertaining and informative mix.
The site is called BaseballGB and you can find it at www.baseballgb.co.uk
You may think that there’s no such thing as a British baseball fan, but I can assure that’s not the case. Sure, there aren’t many of us and the majority of Brits will roll their eyes at the mention of baseball and make some wisecrack about rounders. However, there is a small band of us British baseball nuts that love the game.
To be honest, you cannot be a British baseball fan and simply like the game. We get up at one in the morning to watch the World Series. We put up with the bemused looks and sarcastic comments from friends and neighbours. We devour every book and Internet site we can find to gather up the baseball knowledge that people in the States simply absorb during childhood. You’ve got to be dedicated to follow baseball in Britain and I’m glad to say that there are a decent number of us who are more than happy to put in the hard work.
As you’ll know, it’s more than worth the effort.
While I enjoy many of the traditional British sports (soccer/football, cricket, rugby etc), baseball will always be special to me and that’s partly because of its ‘minority’ status. There’s something greatly appealing about having a passion for a sport that many other people in your country don’t give two hoots about. It’s a bit like following a cult local band: the fact that most other people don’t seem to appreciate them only makes you like them more.
However, that’s not to say I want to keep baseball to myself. One of the great frustrations many British baseball fans have is that so many of our compatriots have an inbuilt prejudice against the sport and disregard it completely without giving it a chance. I’m convinced that if more Brits learned a little about the sport and started watching a few games on TV, they would find that they really enjoy it. One of the aims of BaseballGB is to try and break down that prejudice and to encourage more Brits to give baseball a go.
Realism lies at the heart of this. Baseball will always be a minority sport here and there are many people who simply don’t want to like it. However, we know there are Brits out there with a more open mind and we will do our best to help them become part of this great sport.
While this blog will primarily be here to promote BaseballGB, I don’t want it simply to be a series of ‘look at this’, ‘new article just published’, ‘read this‘ type posts. I think there are several ways that I can use this blog to build on BaseballGB, just as I have with my Twitter account. Let me know if you’ve got any ideas. I’ll aim to post a couple of times per week with something worth reading.
baseballgb
Recent Comments