By the by, today is Blackout day for MLB.TV users. I have the link for 400/700 users, but the 1200 speed uses a different link.

Anyone got the 1200 link?

Can I just say for probably the 1 millionth time how much MLB's out of region policy sucks. I pay $160 per year to get the MLB tv package. For that price, I get blacked out of Saturday games (except FOX broadcast), Sunday night games (except ESPN broadcast) and usually one other game per week. Baseball is not like football. Most baseball fans don't care to watch games other than their favorite teams (except maybe playoffs). If I am willing to pay $160 to watch baseball, shouldn't I at least get to see every game of my chosen team? Alternately, let me pay $160 to get every game broadcast on YES. I don't see how their policy helps local market teams. If I'm willing to buy the package, it's probably because I don't care to watch my local market team.

/RANT OFF/

my grandfather had an SI subscription from 1960 or so until 2002, and I think we still have about 90% of that collection. A lot of the issues have been cataloged and offered for sale on with the rest of our used and rare books, which is why i've been lucky enough to have my own SI vault for years now.

i totally remember that boggs/mattingly/williams story; reading it in the bottom deck of my bunkbed when i was a kid.

my all-time SI favorite remains "The Curious Case of Sidd Finch." If there is someone here who hasn't read it, please take a look:

http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1119283/index.htm

Just finished reading "A Diamond in the Ashes."

wow!

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

2 What makes it totally shitty is that they blackout the 1PM games, like our boys today, even when Fox doesn't have a game on TV until 3:30PM. LAZY BASTARDS!!
/Rant2

2 5 I'm bailing on MLB.tv this year. It was fun last season, but I never got the quality they advertised (the picture would frequently hang or get choppy at the highest speed stream), and the blackouts were irritation. I'll only see about 30 or 40 games this year, when the Yanks play the Jays or are televised on national TV. I think that I'll live.

2 5 comcast gave a free preview of extra innings this week - and since i have gotten into baseball so much earlier this season i am going to plunk down the money to get the package this year, so i am sure i will have more to rant about in the future.
i don't know all the cable laws - but what i don't understand is why can't "out of market" people just get yes (or if you are a mets or sox fan sny or nesn).
the other thing i wonder about - are the sunday afternoon games going to be blacked out because of tbs? - it is bad enough knowing chip carray is still around - but if i am going to spend the money - i would much prefer the sunday afternoon games not be blacked out too.

2 5 That said, even with the blackouts, the cost/game is still a really, really good deal. If the picture quality were a bit more reliable (and if my internet service didn't charge an arm and a leg for going over the newly imposed download limit) I might have signed up again this year.

Slingbox fixes all problems, assuming you can plunk it in someone's house in the NY market.

If the weather does hold up, Andy Pettitte will make his season debut, coming off the DL (back) and likely shuttling Jonathan Albaladejo, who was strong in his Yankee debut last night, to Scranton. Melky Cabrera will be out serving the second game of his suspension, but Jonny Gomes, who served his one-day ban yesterday, will return. Shelley Duncan serves his two-day ban starting tomorrow.

10 The guy who pitched well gets shuttled, unfortunately. However, since he went a few innings last night, he (probably) would have been unavailable for a couple of games anyway.

i tried slingbox, as well as software-based streamers (Orb), and was never really happy with the quality. if you had no other options, it would be OK.

i get YES on cable, so I'll probably stick with that. i just hate paying $50 a month for yankees games (i dont really watch broadcast TV)

i checked out the new high quality stream from mlb.tv, and it was pretty nice. the price is great... but i wouldn't be able to see many games because of the blackout restrictions.

trying to finagle around that with proxies and such is a pain, and not reliable.

i think customers are getting fed up, however, and that usually leads to some kind of acceptable solution. here's to hoping.

More game info: Dioner Navarro, who was taken out of last night's game due to a cut on his throwing hand, is on the DL with 12 stitches (he cut his hand on the dugout railing--what did someone sharpen the visitor's dugout over the winter?). Shawn Riggans becomes the starting catcher and Mike DiFelice, last seen with the Mets, comes up as the backup.

Today's Melky-free Yankee lineup has Jorge back behind the plate, Giambi at DH for the first time this year, and Shelley Duncan making his first start at first base.

11 Indeed, I think that was part of the logic behind letting him go long last night.

One last thing. The Rays' lineup facing the lefty Pettitte has Gomes in right, Aybar back at third base, and Cervelli-killer Elliot Johnson at . . . DH? Man, if I were Joe Maddon, I think I'd rather take my chances with Cliff Floyd lefty-on-lefty.

2 5 6 7 etc...
I had mlb.tv premium last year and made the switch to EI this season as it was the same price (of course, you have to have digital cable etc already for that to be the case). If it makes you feel any better, which it shouldn't, they are blacking out the game on EI too for some reason.

I like EI a lot already mostly b/c it frees me from staring at my small computer screen a bit more, but it does leave you high and dry with no secret special super duper way to still watch the game during blackouts...

Incidentally, be sure to check out the DRaysBay blog for more insight into the series (see sidebar). Author Patrick Kennedy has been doing a great job over there thus far this season and even has a proper explanation of Navarro's injury:

"Navarro was forced to leave the game early after attempting to break a fall in the dugout by grabbing onto the netting. It was this netting that caused the injury."

16 Totally dumb question--what is EI?

I ran MLB.tv from my laptop to my TV--that way I occupied both the internet and the television at the same time. My wife loved it, as you can imagine...

13 with running into the camera and having damn near every throw require a scoop or an extended stretch - even if giambi's not happy about dhing is body is.

shelley's probably getting the start since he is out the next 2 days, so not sure if this gives any indication as to the pecking order over at 1b - but with pettite pitching - let's hope shelley does not flub too much over there.

and why couldn't kkf have been standing at that dugout railing?

16 i have the computer wired to the TV via S Video cable (yes, there are better ways, but i have a crappy old TV and it works fine). no more tiny screen! most video cards have some kind of video out; my plan was to make a media center PC so I wouldn't need cable anymore, but it always comes down to being able to watch yankee games.

otherwise, watching TV shows, movies, etc via computer to my TV is no hassle at all and actually better in many ways.

any updates on the weather?

It's suddenly gorgeous in northern NJ. Sunny, blue skies.

18 extra innings - out of market games on tv -if you have digital cable or direct tv
http://tinyurl.com/yrt87n

Are slingboxes legal? Sounds like someone in NY with YES could offer a nice little service?

I have MLB.TV 1200 and it's pretty good. The picture is fine, but the 'video player' does not show box scores, lineup info or anything game related. Just like TV, it's picture only and the line score. This seems like an oversight on the viewer design.

EI (Extra Innings) is what? A service/package offered by Cable companies?
By Satellite TV? Why is it digital only? And I though they had boxes that took a digital signal and translated/ported it to analog TVs. Am I wrong? Whats the scoop with EI and the cost.

Are people telling me that YES games are blacked out in NY? The new stadium tickets are very expensive and they expect mostly sellouts. Why black out the games? Doesn't YES make money on commercials during the games?

As a kid, I watched Yankee games on WPIX, on a 12" B&W TV. Geez... it would be nice to be able to do a little better now.

It is hard to be a Yankee fan in NH (not to mention getting Boston YV media and the stench of RSN all around me).

18 Extra innings. Its the TV version of mlb.tv but, well, full quality. It was $155 for the year and it is much easier to flip between games for me. I've already found myself watching more games, except, well, today. Although i just realized that I had paid for a month of mlb.tv to watch ST, so I can actually catch today's game, which for me doesn't seem to be blacked out. (Though I live in San Diego)...

P.S. I think we need a 'Banter' on Matsui. I wonder if we really need him taking up a roster position. Is he tradable? Is there demand? Is he worth $13m (or $10m, or what).

As I said earlier, I can stand JD (who I don't think will be an above average offensive player anymore) because he can at least run, and fields average or better in LF. But Matsui? I think, for us (maybe not other teams) he is a liability.

Could he be replaced by Gardner for now?

23 To dd just a bit more, yeah, its like NFL Sunday Ticket or any of the other "on demand" sports packages. The reason you need digital cable is for the increase in available channels I suppose (and b/c it costs more). Its less about the actual feed and more about the cable box.

The other thing about EI thats great, is that if you have a dvr you can record the games. I know with mlb.tv you can get the archived games, but for me its a matter of coming home an hour or so late and catching up.

18 20 Those are good ideas, though for me I need to use my laptop to write while the game is on, being on the west coast. So that never would really have worked for me...

26 Is EI like MLB.TV in that it shows all teams/all games? Or do you order the YES broadcast only? So I ask Comcast if the offer EI 'on demand'?

28 you get all the games oyf - i put a link that explains it in 22
i just ordered it today on comcast - you call comcast and tell them you want mlb extra innings - it is not pay per view or on demand - though the lady i spoke to at firts thought it was ppv.
it cost me $159 and they let you split it into 4 installments on your cable bill

28 Its like MLB.TV, though "supposedly" this year they will offer both feeds for certain games (and also some HD games, neither of which I have yet to see on Cox).

26 28 et al. Thanks for the info on Extra Innings. Unfortunately, living in the Peoples Republic of Quebec severely limits my television options. It appears that I can only order extra Innings as part of a special "Sports Max" package through my digital cable--at $30/month for a year. I'll pay $150 for the Yankees, but I'm not shelling out another $200 for the NFL and (gack) NHL.

I must investigate this further.

29 Your right, its not on demand, but its run by the company called "indemand" which may or may not be the same thing. In any case, at least for Cox, its counted as a ppv/on demand offering despite paying a fixed rate. But for some dumb reason, they are only offering 4 games today, I'll just have to get used to no Saturday tv games...

32 oh yeah - i just looked and saw the "sports indemand" logo - i only have 4 games too - all beginning after 7pm eastern time
so yeah, i guess we will have to be thankful for fox and our good friends tim and joe - or it will be a saturday blackout special

The old 'magic link' no longer works. BUMMER!
Is EI blacked out today and other FOX days?

HOLY SMOKE!!!!
The 1PM games are NOT blacked out on MLB.TV!
Could there be a human being somewhere at FOX?
Yippie!

alrighty ... get it started here guys

jesus jeter, 5 straight balls and you swing at a slider in the dirt

Wow, that was terrible Derek.

There's also this - http://www2.myp2p.eu/

I've never used it. I know that it requires downloading some software. Looks like the game is available.

Nice, Alex!

yay-rod!

Don't see THAT every day...

Oh man, what a dumbass..
Nicely played Bobby.

Gomes never has been regarded as the smartest player in the game.

Very tight strike zone so far.

Cano looks terrible. That ball was near his head, and he still swung at it.

2 , 5 etc. Amen. I freaking hate Saturday blackouts. And I can't even subscribe to YES if I wanted to, unless I go whole hog for Directv's entire $port$ package.

Jonny Gomes should have stayed in bed today.

We need to push another run across.

Man, this lineup has really been excellent at killing rallies...

Slingboxes are legal, and are locked down in that only 1 person can log into each box at a time.

I got the cheapest one that has a TV tuner in it, and put it in my folks house in NJ, sits b/w their cable outlet and their modem.

The benefits vs MLB.tv are no blackouts, and it's useful also for watching the Devils, Knicks (when I can stomach them) Giants, etc. for one time cost of $100.

Quality is up and down, but it's more portable than EI and less blackouts than .tv. Plus I have it on my phone- yep.

That's just horrible, Damon pops up and Jeter swings at a bunch of pitches that weren't even close to being strikes.
Edwin Jackson is making our lineup look like the Giants lineup.

"Watching" this game on Gamecast is brutal--it keeps freezing and everytime I refresh the page Jeter has struck out or Cano has grounded out.

In other news, Extra Innings is apparently not available a la carte with my local cable company.

Looks like its Sox/Jays for me, with occasional scoreboard and banter watching.

I think Jeter needs a day off...

There's no way in hell Damon or Matsui are going to nail Crawford at the plate.

Abreu and ARod are the only ones with a reasonable batting ave. Everyone else is in the toilet.

Well.... just spent 2 innings on the phone with comcast:
Bottom line (sorta): EI available, $189/yr
includes Spring training.
Fox Blackouts on Sat. 1-7PM (like MLB.TV)
ESPN Blackouts on Sun. after 4PM (does MLB.TV blackout ESPN times)
"So" sez I, "What Channels are these games on?"
Turns out I need the "premium" package for those channels, 200-281... which gives me 20 extra channels of TV for my viewing pleasure, for $13/month.
"So" sez I, "I can get these Channels on my TV"
Turns out I need a box. $6/month.
So....... at minimum...
$189 + (7x $13) + (12x $6) = $352/baseball season.

DOWN WITH CORPORATE AMERICAN!
BURN DOWN SOME BUILDINGS!

This whole thing sucks.

57 I appreciate your frustration, but one might consider that evil corporate America has made all of these games available to begin with. I mean, we could go back to the good old days of my not-living-in-NYC childhood, with a handful of Yankees games on broadcast TV.

Even $352 is only $2/game.

Of course, I wouldn't pay it. ; )

I am completely amazed that Pettitte continues to pick people off. These guys need to stay awake in the pre-game meetings.

Next to Oakland the Yanks have the worst team AVG in the AL with a .227

FTR, when I point things out like this, I know it's early, and it won't stay that way and yada yada... But it keeps me occupied

I must say, ARod has sure looked great on D so far.

57 The digital box certainly has other uses besides baseball- if it means you get DVR, which is quite possibly the greatest invention of the last 30 years. For me, the $60 a year is just part of my cost for cable. Plus, if you now have DVR and the Extra Innings package, you can record all the games and watch them at your convenience.

As for the "premium package," I didn't have that with Time Warner. I also signed up early for EI, and only paid $130 for the season.

There are very few games on Sunday that start after 4 PM. Currently the Yankees only have one non-ESPN game scheduled to start after 4 PM: at Seattle on September 7.

As for comparing it to MLB.tv in general- if the "secret plan" for getting Saturday games no longer works, then I see zero advantages to MLB.tv compared to Extra Innings. Watching games hunched over my laptop screen as the feed jumps around and is 60-90 seconds behind life (critical when Bantering), is not the way I want to be watching games.

62 "60-90 seconds behind life (critical when Bantering)"

So true!!

57 Yeah, but that's only for this year. Next year it's just $189. I've had EI for the last 5 or so years and I would probably pay $300 a year if it were that much. The only thing I wish they would incorporate now is HD. Games are tough to watch these days in standard def.

Damn, Edwin's already at 81 pitches.

Last year some guys said they were not in great shape and started off slow. This year guys said they were in great shape and are starting off slow. What's the alternative? Pig out on donuts one day and work out the next all winter long. Frustrating. I get the Jays starters, but the Rays..

Depressing.

5-1 Rays... Sheesh

Though I will say that I'm not concerned, nor will I be until maybe september

58 There are like 80 million households in the US? If 5 million pay these fees, that's about 1.8 billion dollars... for games already being telecasted by local stations.

That's some serious money.

FYI - the FOX Saturday blackouts won't start until May 17th. Maury Brown summarizes the mess that is the blackout rules quite nicely here:

http://tinyurl.com/5ocky2

DirecTV offers a lot of games in HD, though you need an HD-capable dish and one of their HD boxes, and have to pay the HD content fee; Maury Brown again:

http://tinyurl.com/5mfmr5*

*Note he was (allegedly) wrong about Comcast not having EI games in HD: http://tinyurl.com/55tjrb

grrr ... just called charter, they offer EI, but not in my area ... and for a moment, i was excited i'd get to actually WATCH yankee games this year ... i guess i could do the MLB.tv-> TV thingy

70 So if the FOX saturday blackout isn't in effect, why can't I watch any games on EI right now?

Does JD catch that ball? It BARELY made the stands.

69 I've had EI for years through DirecTV, and I only pay $140/year for it; same as I've always paid. I don't know if that's because I'm a long-time customer or what; when I signed up for DirecTV, I specifically told them it was because I wanted the EI package to watch the Yanks.

7 "i don't know all the cable laws - but what i don't understand is why can't "out of market" people just get yes (or if you are a mets or sox fan sny or nesn)."

Its actually MLB's fault; another way of subsidizing the teams with smaller fanbases. Their reasoning is, if we out-of-market fans could just pay for YES/SNY/NESN, all that money goes directly into the Yanks/Mets/Sox pockets. But, if its a centrally sold package, then they can split the fees between all the teams.

On DirecTV at least, I could get the "SportsPack" which includes YES, SNY, MASN, and all the other RSNs - but then when any games come on, the games are blacked out unless you have EI/Sunday Ticket/whatever the NBA's thing is/etc.

72 Didn't you also say you weren't getting both the home and away feeds for all the games? Your cable co sounds screwed up. Call 'em up and let 'em know it shouldn't be blacked out!

Boy, it sure would be nice if the dang offense would wake up. Seems like this has been 5 years in a row of the bats taking a few weeks to wake up. So be it i suppose...

75 Thus far, I'm not getting both feeds either, I'm on Cox. I think it goes by provider. And mehmattski, today EI only has those 4 games for everyone, but no idea why.

On the hand hand, who really wants to watch the garbage anyways?

76 old men, cold bones ...

different year, different baba bruney

Watching these two relatively crappy pitchers mow down the Yanks on back to back nights while they strand countless runners is really not fun.

Sure, its early, I know they will snap out of it, but it sure makes for awful baseball in the meantime

77 Fox is televising a game today. It's Mets vs Braves. I believe that explains the daytime blackout.

Sore left groin for Giambi. Well, that lasted 4 1/2 games.

This game (on gamecast) makes me sleepy. I'm outta here.

Bad timing for Giambi too with Duncan going out, but there's still Ensberg and Betemit, so not to worry. Hey, with all that work the fielders were making Giambi do, its not that surprising, and I hope they keep trying to get him out there

Hmm, maybe it's not such a bad thing this game is blacked out. Who told the Yankees' bats that they were blacked out too?

In Boston, Comcast Extra Innings broadcasts the HD feed for the games, but it's compressed to SD so you get even worse quality than if they just broadcast the SD feed. Kinda frustrating. Also, with most of the country starting to get larger tv's because of the impending requirement of HD and digital tv, SD just looks like crap (I love watching red sox HD games on my 88" wide projector, but watching extra innings yanks games on that screen is painful).

I understand MLB trying to protect small market teams and not allowing me to buy YES out of market, but if I pay $160 for the full baseball package so that all teams get a share, (which I've been paying every year for the past 10 years) the least they could do is give me EVERY game. Blackout rules are ludicrous in this day and age where everything is available to everyone with an internet connection. The whole concept of "regional" seems like a quaint throwback.

Last year it was the ARod and Po show.
So far, it the ARod and Bobby show.
Let's hope the rest of the boys join in soon.

OMG! They are teasing us again. I can't look!

87 Quick, warm up Hawkins!

Maybe this is just the boys' way of paying some sort of bizarre homage to their former manager. Time to start hitting tomrrow.

Well that was fun.

89 or a bizarre homage to their current manager - let's hope he is felling better (even if it has nothing to do with the yanks performance - an upper respritory infection is awful to have)

74 thanks for the explanation shaun - i should have known that the "small market" was somehow involved.

at least while i was out and nesn was on everywhere i got to see buccholz get rocked

Another Saturday wasted thanks to my good friend the Yankee offense...

Well it should be Yankees - Red Sox next Saturday. Though I am already dreading the hype machine.

91 damn - it was actually kyle synder and and corey who got rocked but buccholz was nothing special.

93 yeah - i can feel it starting already.

Daniel Okrent SUCKS

Even "The New Republic" called him "pathetic"

Yo Al
Did you make that matzo ball soup? Looks delicious.

Just back from the Stadium...what a lame-ass excuse for a ballgame that was.

1. How on earth does this team get shut down by Edwin freakin' Jackson? I really hate seeing them stymied by really bad pitchers - not URPs, just bad.

2. Jeter's first two at-bats were embarrassing.

3. Today was the first time I've seen a defensive play and wished Giambi were in there, for his glove.

4. I think Girardi will be a fine manager. But is it safe to say that his new, improved spring training camp didn't do much to help the team get a strong start?

5. Nice baserunning by Gomes. As he walked back afterwards, he looked out towards Abreu - like, wtf just happened? He had no clue. I thought his fielding error was more understandable; the sun was exceptionally bright, so when I saw him move into the shadow, I knew there'd be trouble. But at least Gomes was able to redeem himself later...

Obviously, it means nothing this early, but I find it kind of interesting that, right now, the AL East standings are in the order they were for so many years in a row: Yankees, Red Sox, Blue Jays, Orioles, (Devil) Rays except that it's in reverse - the Rays are in first and the Yankees are in the cellar. Go figure.