O’s spring training on the radio & MLB Network

[Moose Milligan]

15 minutes ago, andrewochs615 said:

At what point will it come out that not all regular season games will be broadcasted on MASN lol.

 

I could totally see that happening 

I remember back in the day, HTS thought they were great cause you could watch 90 O's games a year or so.

[InsideCoroner]

17 minutes ago, Moose Milligan said:

I remember back in the day, HTS thought they were great cause you could watch 90 O's games a year or so.

What was that in-berween channel for a few years in the early ‘80s... SuperTV? 

[SteveA]

4 minutes ago, InsideCoroner said:

What was that in-berween channel for a few years in the early ‘80s... SuperTV? 

Yep, it broadcast over the air, no cable, but you had to have a descrambler box to watch it.   If you tuned your TV to the channel it aired on the picture was all stretched and distorted like a Picasso painting viewed by someone on LSD.

[Orioles0615]

3 minutes ago, SteveA said:

Yep, it broadcast over the air, no cable, but you had to have a descrambler box to watch it.   If you tuned your TV to the channel it aired on the picture was all stretched and distorted like a Picasso painting viewed by someone on LSD.

You sure you are not thinking of the Spice channel

[Moose Milligan]

10 minutes ago, InsideCoroner said:

What was that in-berween channel for a few years in the early ‘80s... SuperTV? 

Before my time.

[OsFanSinceThe80s]

40 minutes ago, InsideCoroner said:

What was that in-berween channel for a few years in the early ‘80s... SuperTV? 

I remember SuperTV vaguely. When the Orioles started on Home Team Sports it signaled the end of SuperTV.

Found a commercial for it on YouTube:

 

[Hazmat]

49 minutes ago, SteveA said:

Yep, it broadcast over the air, no cable, but you had to have a descrambler box to watch it.   If you tuned your TV to the channel it aired on the picture was all stretched and distorted like a Picasso painting viewed by someone on LSD.

My dad brought one of those descrambler boxes home.  I'm not sure if it was legit or black market but I recall that we had SuperTV for some time.  I guess it was a big deal because cable wasn't offered in our area until many years later.

[scOtt]

18 minutes ago, Hazmat said:

My dad brought one of those descrambler boxes home.  I'm not sure if it was legit or black market but I recall that we had SuperTV for some time.  I guess it was a big deal because cable wasn't offered in our area until many years later.

My dad got one too. Got free HBO, Cinemax etc. No Spice....

[Frobby]

51 minutes ago, Hazmat said:

My dad brought one of those descrambler boxes home.  I'm not sure if it was legit or black market but I recall that we had SuperTV for some time.  I guess it was a big deal because cable wasn't offered in our area until many years later.

I lived in California for a summer and had a roommate from Cal Tech who built his own descrambler.   Watched the Sugar Ray Leonard - Roberto Duran PPV fight (one of the biggest boxing paydays to that point) for free.   

[Number5]

On 3/8/2021 at 3:02 PM, Frobby said:

Watched the Sugar Ray Leonard - Roberto Duran PPV fight (one of the biggest boxing paydays to that point) for free.   

No mas.

[spiritof66]

[I’ve been reluctant to question the Orioles’ overall strategy for turning around the team's fortunes or their specific money-saving decisions, partly because I don't know what alternatives are available for getting out of the deep hole dug by the team's owner, and partly because estate tax concerns, the shrinking of the Angelos law firm as a source of cash, and the problems and uncertainties from the pandemic may have put the team in a cash bind that I don't fully appreciate. But when they do something that seems as dumb as what follows, I can’t help it.]

You’re the Orioles. You’ve put a terrible ballclub on the field for four-plus seasons, and you’ve stopped trying to field a team that would win more games. Instead, you’ve focused on shedding payroll, moving up in the last couple of drafts, and acquiring prospects who will contribute in the future. That may be the right strategy, but it’s hell on the fan base. Who wants to pay to see a team hat's built to lose, most of whose best players are rentals who will be traded if they generate any market value? Your home attendance in 2019 was 28th in MLB. The nearby teams in Washington and Philadelphia have had some success on the field, are spending heavily, and are probably taking away a chunk of your fans, many of whom may not return. Your cable TV viewership seems to be doing all right, though, at least better than you might have expected, and as the majority owner of MASN you have control over it.

Your message to the fans is that things will improve when the young talent you’ve been accumulating over the last few years reaches the Orioles. Some of those prospects debuted last year, but a lot of that talent isn’t going to get to Camden Yards in 2021, at least not until later in the season, either because it isn’t ready to compete at that level or because it’s being held back for tactical reasons. The Orioles have been and will remain a tough sell.

Most of the young guys will go through part of spring training with the Orioles, though. At times, they'll be on the field, batting and pitching and throwing. When they're not o the field, they could be interviewed and profiled by the MASN announcers. You could try to keep the dwindling fan base interested by giving the fans a chance to see them in action by putting most or all of the home spring training games and some away games on MASN, then re-airing them at night. That will cost a few bucks, but it’s got to be a drop in the bucket compared to the overall budget. You could save some money by having the announcers work from a MASN studio in Baltimore, with a skeletal technical crew in Florida. You've got one worthwhile thing to show your fans -- your prospects -- and one near-term opportunity to display them. I just can’t imagine that seizing that opportunity wouldn't be a worthwhile investment in the future of this woebegone franchise.

[higgybaby]

24 minutes ago, spiritof66 said:

Exactly.  Why would you not want to take advantage of one of the only things that is most exciting about this team by not letting us fans watch the future of this club on the field in Spring Training?

 

 

[I’ve been reluctant to question the Orioles’ overall strategy for turning around the team's fortunes or their specific money-saving decisions, partly because I don't know what alternatives are available for getting out of the deep hole dug by the team's owner, and partly because estate tax concerns, the shrinking of the Angelos law firm as a source of cash, and the problems and uncertainties from the pandemic may have put the team in a cash bind that I don't fully appreciate. But when they do something that seems as dumb as what follows, I can’t help it.]

You’re the Orioles. You’ve put a terrible ballclub on the field for four-plus seasons, and you’ve stopped trying to field a team that would win more games. Instead, you’ve focused on shedding payroll, moving up in the last couple of drafts, and acquiring prospects who will contribute in the future. That may be the right strategy, but it’s hell on the fan base. Who wants to pay to see a team hat's built to lose, most of whose best players are rentals who will be traded if they generate any market value? Your home attendance in 2019 was 28th in MLB. The nearby teams in Washington and Philadelphia have had some success on the field, are spending heavily, and are probably taking away a chunk of your fans, many of whom may not return. Your cable TV viewership seems to be doing all right, though, at least better than you might have expected, and as the majority owner of MASN you have control over it.

Your message to the fans is that things will improve when the young talent you’ve been accumulating over the last few years reaches the Orioles. Some of those prospects debuted last year, but a lot of that talent isn’t going to get to Camden Yards in 2021, at least not until later in the season, either because it isn’t ready to compete at that level or because it’s being held back for tactical reasons. The Orioles have been and will remain a tough sell.

Most of the young guys will go through part of spring training with the Orioles, though. At times, they'll be on the field, batting and pitching and throwing. When they're not o the field, they could be interviewed and profiled by the MASN announcers. You could try to keep the dwindling fan base interested by giving the fans a chance to see them in action by putting most or all of the home spring training games and some away games on MASN, then re-airing them at night. That will cost a few bucks, but it’s got to be a drop in the bucket compared to the overall budget. You could save some money by having the announcers work from a MASN studio in Baltimore, with a skeletal technical crew in Florida. You've got one worthwhile thing to show your fans -- your prospects -- and one near-term opportunity to display them. I just can’t imagine that seizing that opportunity wouldn't be a worthwhile investment in the future of this woebegone franchise.

 

[scOtt]

2nd day in a row. No TV and no radio makes scOtt something something.

[bobmc]

2 hours ago, scOtt said:

2nd day in a row. No TV and no radio makes scOtt something something.

Would you take a day off and clean your gd closet bruh!  I know there are rodents in there!

Edited March 13, 2021 by bobmc
are vs 's

[spiritof66]

On 3/12/2021 at 12:24 PM, higgybaby said:

Exactly.  Why would you not want to take advantage of one of the only things that is most exciting about this team by not letting us fans watch the future of this club on the field in Spring Training?

I can think of just two reasons: You've decided not to spend a nickel, unless MLB requires it or Elias says it's absolutely necessary, or you're just too inattentive or stupid to understand the situation the Orioles are in.