No MLB

[Agent Orange]

What a great deal for the MLB, NHL, and NBA fans here in the Great Lakes and North Central area. If you're a sports fan you already know that Sinclair Communications bought out Fox Sports. Bally has paid Sinclair millions for the "naming rights"; i,e you are searching for your game and it will appear as Bally instead of Fox on your TV menu.

Here's the deal. Sinclair raised the ante to the cable and stream providers so high that they were forced to drop Sinclair/Bally. In my area there is no sports on TV except for the so called game of the week which is not part of Sinclair. Sooner or later this has to have an effect on the sports teams bottom line. In my case, Fubo is my streamer and the national going rate is about $65 per month. Now that Fubo has dropped Sinclair/Bally, I haven't seen a decrease in my monthly bill. But, as soon as Fubo (and the others) cut their deals with Sinclair/Nally, I can expect to see an increase in my monthly rate if I want to continue with sports. Not fair but that's the way it's heading. There's another option. Somehow or another AT&T has Sinclair/Bally on cable. That would be $85 please and thank you. Something's not right with all of this but in the meantime I guess I'll go back to listening to the Tigers on the radio.

 

[whartung]

Since I started watching the Angels back in '15, I've only been able to see the bulk of the games on channels with the "Sports Pack" (or whatever it is) with DIRECTV, so I've always had to pay extra for it over the "not so basic" channel package. But I get the MLB network along with it also, which is good (I like MLB network).

The "Fox Sports West" Channel is now a Bally Something Something channel and a partner Bally Something Something Else channel, but it's carrying the games with (mostly) the same crew as last year (though mixed up a bit -- we our play by play guy this year, I don't know if it's because of the new ownership or not).

So, it's a little different but close enough.

You might want to explore getting the MLB network directly and streaming it. Mind, it has its limitations. You won't be able to watch a local game live. But you should be able to see it after its been played (I watch almost all of my games delayed anyway, so it's not that big of a deal for me). But what's kind of nice about it (at least it was, I haven't tried it in a couple years) was that for each game, you got the Home team TV coverage, the Visiting team TV coverage, and also both Radio broadcasts. So, if you're watching your team vs the Brewers, you can tune in and listen to Bob Uecker!

Honestly, I'm this close to just going back to the radio anyway. Especially for day games. If you subscribe to Sirius/XM, they broadcast all of the radio games each day. Angels are playing (played) Royals today, I could have listened to the Angels broadcast or Royals broadcast of the same game.

So, there's options. All is not lost.

 

[ScutBoy]

We dropped cable and so lost the (then) Fox coverage of the Twins. We just started listening on the radio and found it to be much nicer- you could work, do chores, whatever and still enjoy the game. Also was a nice nostalgia flashback to when I was a kid and the game was always on the AM radio my dad had in kitchen

It was then a short step to add the coverage to SiriusXM so the wife could listen from her iPad if she wished or radio reception wasn't optimal, etc.

 

[whartung]

During the World Series last year, we lost power.

So, it was just my wife and I and an electric lantern, curled up in a dark house with an AM radio listening to the ESPN broadcast of the game.

Honestly, it was really great.

On SiriusXM, in the car, I more often than not have it tuned to the MLB Network channel. I like the banter.

I still have to hook it up on my computer.

 

[Agent Orange]

During the World Series last year, we lost power.

So, it was just my wife and I and an electric lantern, curled up in a dark house with an AM radio listening to the ESPN broadcast of the game.

Honestly, it was really great.

On SiriusXM, in the car, I more often than not have it tuned to the MLB Network channel. I like the banter.

I still have to hook it up on my computer.

In my wife's car, where she's the program director, it's either the Garth channel or Yacht Rock. Yeah, losing power makes a case for a Generac. The older I get the more I think we need one. We had a major outage 2 years ago in the middle of winter - good thing that we had a gas fireplace in the family room.

 

[whartung]

In my wife's car, where she's the program director, it's either the Garth channel or Yacht Rock. Yeah, losing power makes a case for a Generac. The older I get the more I think we need one. We had a major outage 2 years ago in the middle of winter - good thing that we had a gas fireplace in the family room.

Here, power outages are Policy because of fire danger. We looked at a Generac, but for us, we found we could do better with whole house batteries. One of the nice things about them is that they're always being used and tested, whereas a generator is tested...whenever we get around to testing it I guess.

Been here less than two years and have had over a week of power loss in that time. Of course, GETTING the batteries, that's a different problem. We ordered them, but it's been a year so far. Hopefully in May.

 

[Agent Orange]

Here, power outages are Policy because of fire danger. We looked at a Generac, but for us, we found we could do better with whole house batteries. One of the nice things about them is that they're always being used and tested, whereas a generator is tested...whenever we get around to testing it I guess.

Been here less than two years and have had over a week of power loss in that time. Of course, GETTING the batteries, that's a different problem. We ordered them, but it's been a year so far. Hopefully in May.

Just how does that work with the batteries? Would that be part of a solar energy package? I think I still want the Generac and I really don't mind firing it up once a week.

 

[whartung]

Just how does that work with the batteries? Would that be part of a solar energy package? I think I still want the Generac and I really don't mind firing it up once a week.

Yea, our solar (will) feeds the batteries. Theres nothing stopping grid power from feeding the batteries (that was folks do with electric cars for example). Some folks use batteries to take advantage of time based electrical billing. Charge them over night, use them during the day during peak hours. Can't say if that's actually worth the money, but it's something that could be done with the backup battery system, so it's being exercised.