MLB: ***Official 2022 STL Cardinals Season Thread***
- Thread starter TheHelgo
- Start date
Man, where do you live. We have gotten about every game down here in S. Iowa through DirctTV and one on apple+. They will be fine, win tomorrow take 3 of 4 from the Giants and head back home.
DirecTV & apple+ are the only realistic options for rural residents who are limited to satellite or phone access streaming. And apple+ will carry very very few telecasts. I am on Dish that has Channels that DirecTV does not so I am not switching. Streaming MLB is an option but very expensive. Since Bally Sports took over it’s puzzling to understand their marketing plan.
I know a few people that switched over to Dish from Direct, only to find that they do not carry the Cards games, and now they are stuck, not being able to watch them play.
KidSilverhair
Well-Known Member
The problem isn’t the expense, but MLB’s ridiculous blackout rules. Even if you pay through the nose for MLB.tv, if you’re in Iowa you still won’t be able to see the Cardinals. Or the Royals. Or the Cubs, the White Sox, the Twins, or the Brewers.
The only way MLB lets you see non-national games with those teams is by you having access to their regional sports networks - which you can sometimes get with satellite or cable TV, but in many cases (particularly with cable) it depends on where you live in Iowa as to which RSN you can actually get. And if you’re a Brewers fan, as I understand it their RSN isn’t even available in the state.
I personally have YouTubeTV, which is pretty great, but it doesn’t offer any RSNs to add-on. So for me, it’s either just the national broadcasts, or I have to raise my skull and crossbones and sail those choppy waters.
MLB seems to not want fans to actually watch games of their regional teams. It’s a great plan to grow the sport, don’t you think?
I go through the pain of MLB.TV with a VPN to bypass the blackout rules. In order to watch games, I stream to my laptop through the VPN and then mirror to my TV.
It’s a huge pain in the butt but it’s the only option I have.
I envy your tech ability. The process you describe is beyond my capabilities I am sad to admit. MLB probably has consultants that get paid well to market their product but it looks to me like they are going down the wrong road.
KidSilverhair
Well-Known Member
Here’s what I think the deal is - MLB got their TV money upfront from the regional sports networks. Those networks want to protect their “turf,” forcing fans to sign up and pay them if they want to watch their teams. MLB doesn’t want to tick off the RSNs, so they keep enforcing the blackout rules and keep games off MLB.tv, making that service useless unless you’re a fan of a team you don’t live close to.
So it’s a combination of RSNs greed and MLB not wanting to kill the RSN golden goose … mixed in with a dash of MLB ignorance about how to grow interest in the sport (Apple + exclusives? Sunday morning games?).
The blackout rules could be made a little less ridiculous if they did county-by-county or something, instead of statewide … I mean, if you can’t even get the Royals or Twins or Brewers RSN on a TV service at your home, why are still blacked out from those games? It makes absolutely zero sense.
(I have to correct my earlier post, my YouTubeTV does have the NBC Sports Chicago network for White Sox games … but that’s it. No Marquee [which is fine with me, even though this is rabid Cubs territory around here], no Cardinals, no Twins …)
Neither am I. I just have friends who are.
Honestly, it’s not all that complicated once you do it the first time. I bought a 3-year subscription to a VPN provider for $60. Then I pay the $140 or whatever for MLBTV.
When I want to watch a game, I log into my VPN on my laptop. All that does is route my Internet signal through any major city I want. So it “disguises” the signal so MLBTV thinks it’s coming from LA, for example.
Then I log into MLBTV for the Cards. Then it’s a simple two clicks to get it to appear on my TV screen.
It sounds more complicated than it is. If you have a laptop and a modern-ish TV, you can do it. You just need a friend to show you how.
Again, a huge pain in the butt compared to MLB just removing the blackouts.
That’s exactly it. I get it, but it’s just extremely unfortunate for the sport that they can’t do anything to do fix it.
Also, it appears DeJong has taken the role of Matt Carpenter as player who has no basis playing regularly.
Just when we finally offload Carpenters dead weight, we get to carry Dejongs.
Losing some of the RSN feeds here in Iowa is really a pain, until last year, on our DirectTV package with the sports pak, we could get the Cards, Cubs, WS, Royals, Twins and Brewers. Starting last year they cut out the Brewers and Twins from us, but of course they did not lower the price of the package.
Then they wonder why people are leaving an overpriced package to begin with to stream.
I love YouTube TV...but when we first starting streaming YouTube TV we had all of the "Sinclair" regionals for Iowa and the NBC Chicago regional (could watch Twins, Brewers, Cards, Royals, White Sox and Cubs before they bolted NBCSC). Then Sinclair started playing their games and they were gone for good. As a White Sox fan I was OK that we did keep the White Sox station but I do miss the others.
Today is Nolan Gorman’s birthday. Potential debut? Hasn’t been announced if he’s been called up though.
I was about to post the DeJong to AAA. Was surprised he has options left.
Gotta think Gorman is coming up to play 2nd base full time.
Gotta think Gorman is coming up to play 2nd base full time.
It looks like they're bringing up Kramer Robertson (inf) rather than Gorman.
www.mlb.com
After being 'positive and patient,' Cards option DeJong to Triple-A
ST. LOUIS -- Feeling that they had been plenty “positive and patient” with Paul DeJong, the Cardinals optioned the struggling shortstop to Triple-A Memphis on Tuesday when “the at-bats looked the same and the adjustment wasn’t coming” and started the process of finding their next long-term...
I think this just proves they don’t think he’s ready yet to play second base everyday.It looks like they're bringing up Kramer Robertson (inf) rather than Gorman.
After being 'positive and patient,' Cards option DeJong to Triple-A
ST. LOUIS -- Feeling that they had been plenty “positive and patient” with Paul DeJong, the Cardinals optioned the struggling shortstop to Triple-A Memphis on Tuesday when “the at-bats looked the same and the adjustment wasn’t coming” and started the process of finding their next long-term...
