I was in OpenID meetings at Microsoft all day Tuesday, and started driving home to Vancouver at 4PM. This a fairly painful route at that time, but the Blue Jays and White Sox, via MLB on the Nexus 7, reduced the pain considerably.
The problems included an accident on 405 (but there’s always an accident on 405) and that Skagit-river bridge that fell down last month (but the detour isn’t terrible). Still, a lot of stop-and-go. If you could just keep going you could do the trip in under 3 hours; it took me a just over 4.
So right there in the Microsoft parking lot, I pulled up the MLB app on the N7 and checked out what was on; then tuned into the Toronto pre-game show. I was going to have been a Blue Jays fan this year, but they’ve been so awful; still, I enjoy listening to Jerry Howarth.
I have a little 1-Amp adapter for the car power which can’t charge the N7 but can keep it running for a long, long time. Its speaker is kinda low-fi but plenty loud enough even on the highway.
When I pulled into Vancouver the game had just switched into extra innings; so when I got home to the fast WiFi, I sat down to enjoy the game on the N7 screen (damn, MLB gets a fine picture on that screen; just razor-sharp) along with pizza and a pilsener. It ended just in time for me to read my 7-year old the evening’s instalment of Narnia.
As for the game; well, it was a little ridiculous. The Sox handed it to Toronto on a plate, what with a couple of crucial errors and the plain farce of Maicer Izturis (5’8”/170lb) knocking the ball loose from Tyler Flowers (6’4”/245lb). Still, Wang may be a viable band-aid on the Jays’ bleeding starting-rotation neck wound, and it was nice to watch Janssen work; he might be a premier closer if the Jays had more save opportunities.
MLB gets the Internet better than all the other sports franchises put together. I spend a hundred and change a year for the service, and it’s worth every penny. And the N7 is a terrific baseball platform.
Comment feed for ongoing:
From: ctate (Jun 12 2013, at 18:13)
MLB gets the internet badly wrong in one particular way: blackouts. You cannot view local teams' games through MLB.tv, nor can you view playoff games at all. That is the reason I won't pay the annual fee for MLB.tv. I get Gameday Audio and listen to the radio broadcasts instead (with the added benefit of much better announcers).
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From: Jake Munson (Jun 13 2013, at 02:24)
I echo what ctate said, and I'll add one more. I am a cubs fan, but I am not a fan of the other 29 teams. So why am I forced to pay a high price for full access to all 30 teams when I only care about the Cubs? I'd gladly pay $5/mo for access to just the Cubs. It seems reasonable to me, and I'm sure lots of other fans would go for that option. In fact, I'd wager that MLB would get a lot more subscribers that way.
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From: Bob (Jun 13 2013, at 14:06)
Agree with the other commenters. MLB is great for internet viewing, until you run up against the blackout restriction. To view games on my tablet, I have to install a GPS spoof app (and install it as a system app or it won't work), I have to install a proxy app (and pay for the proxy), and only then will I be able to watch home games. So many hurdles to just watch a game.
If they could get rid of the blackout restrictions, then it would be the best internet sports experience. If they could also provide a smaller per-team package, that would be even better.
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From: Jack (Jun 17 2013, at 15:21)
What cracks me up is that MLB calls Fox' blackout-worthy coverage "National" coverage, but it's not really.
Fox only broadcasts one game in a region. If you want to watch a different game, even though Fox isn't showing it near you, you're still SOL...
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