Sports
I am a Chicago Cubs fan who lives in southeast Michigan. When I first moved here in 1989 I couldn’t watch the Cubs unless they were on national TV, so I did take an interest in watching the local Detroit Tigers broadcast. When the MLB.tv and MLB At Bat app became available I could again watch every Cubs game and therefore I don’t watch as much of the Detroit Tigers. I also tend to not watch the national broadcast games.
All of the above is background to me wondering just how successful the streaming of “national broadcast” games will be on Apple TV. Fourty years ago there were more national broadcast of baseball games at a time when there were no regional nor local broadcasts and no Internet streaming. Baseball does not have the same national draw as the NFL and the Cubs play every Friday. I doubt this will happen, but I’ll be really mad if they don’t stream the games in MLB.tv on Fridays.
So, for myself, the only time I will watch the Friday night games on Apple TV is when the Cubs play, and I suspect most other people will do the same. I just don’t see this working out well for Apple, particularly when Apple decides to block access to only Apple TV subscribers. Right now people do not subscribe to Apple TV to watch baseball. MLB will probably be ok because I am sure they are getting paid by Apple regardless of the number of viewers.
In the meantime I read that the NFL might start their own streaming service, so I wonder whether I will be able to see more Green Bay Packer games?
I wonder whether the “Friday Night Baseball” on Apple TV will be blacked out for local markets like MLB.tv is?
It should be a big week for baseball given that there are so many big name free agents yet to sign. I am hoping the Cubs will sign one of them because we still need more bats.
And now the fun really begins, watching the free agent tracker to see who is going to be playing for the Cubs this year.
Last year on this date the Chicago Cubs won their first spring training game of the 2021 season. Today I have no idea when the Cubs will play their first game in 2022, with the lockout end not in sight.
On September 1, 2014 I wrote about the buzz on the northside of Chicago as the Cubs were calling up some of their young players like Javier Baez. I speculated about whether Theo would sign Jon Lester. Little did I know then that just two years later the Cubs would win it all.
MLB Free Agent signings are picking up and so far the Cubs are sitting on the sidelines. I am starting to be pessimistic about the ownership’s commitment to being competitive, there is the appearance of just collecting money from Wrigley Field tickets, betting, and all the non-baseball operations. In other words, a repeat of prior ownership that lead to 100 years of playoff futility. I really wish Mark Cuban had bought the team when he had the chance, I would not doubt his commitment to winning.
Still think that replay should stop play and make calls on hits to the head in the NFL. In the last 10 minutes of the game tonight there have been two calls the refs have missed. Hits to the head is a player safety issue that the NFL should make maximum effort to get out of the game. Fines after the fact doesn’t do the job. The NFL needs to follow the NCAA’s lead in this, and frankly should be open to law suits from former players.
The pitfall of playing in two fantasy football leagues: having your point leader (Jonathan Taylor) in one league leading your opposition in the other. Time to rest Taylor. :)
Congratulations to Atlanta Braves fans who are celebrating their teams World Series championship victory. Watching the game last night gave me all the feels as it was the five year anniversary of the greatest game every played. I will forever have a bit of disbelief that I lived to see the Chicago Cubs win the World Series. I know that as a fan I am supposed to want my team to win it all every year, but even though since 2016 the Cubs have ultimately lost in the playoffs those loses were not as crushing in context of 2016. The Cubs NLCS loses in 1984, 1989, and 2003 were crushing as I had never seen them in the World Series. I’ll always be bitter about 1984 because frankly, they were the best National League team that year and should have played the Tigers.