Strange world we live in when the Mets game on what we used to call “free TV” isn’t readily available via the service millions pay for because…well, ya got me. Two corporations are in the middle of a pissing match and it’s the loyal customers who get spritzed.
So what else is new?
When I took to Twitter to vent over the sudden Mets blackout in my coaxial neck of the woods, the company that owns the cable system to which I susbcribe reached out to let me know it was the fault of the company that owns the channel that airs “free” Mets games, while the company that owns the channel that airs “free” Mets games reached out to let me know it was the fault of the company that owns the cable system. Great moves — transparent, buffoonish PR maneuvers are so much more impressive to the Metsless viewer than cobbling together a settlement.
Is this what it’s like to be the parent of petulant twins?
Well, the Mets played without my eyes on them but my ears all over them, just as if it was a contention-free Saturday night in August of 2002 or 1992 or 1982 or 1972. In 2012, the Mets weren’t going anywhere, but neither was I, except to my radio, which is not a bad bargain in the post-Hagin era. My devotion to Gary, Keith, Ron and live televised images notwithstanding, I’m always happy to be immersed for a few innings in Howie and Josh. Alas, Josh was off to do a football game somewhere (one that doesn’t count, at that), so it was Howie and Jim Duquette for a few innings and then some. Happy was downgraded to content, but Duquette is amiable and informed and he’s not Wayne Hagin. Plus Howie is always Howie, which is a godsend in any medium.
From what they were telling me, Jon Niese was fairly close to Jon Matlack, Ike Davis channeled the bright side of Dave Kingman, Mike Baxter patrolled deep right like Joel Youngblood and Frank Francisco Skipped in from the bullpen to Lockwood down a save for a change. Only the names of the Expos have been changed to protect the impotent, thus we’ll say the final was Mets 2 Nationals 0 and hope to listen to another good game on Sunday. It is being televised on that channel I suddenly don’t get, so I’ll listen to a bad game if necessary, same as it ever was in 2002 and 1992 and 1982 and 1972.
As Chauncey Gardiner said in another satisfying tale set in Washington, I like to watch. But I’m content to listen. For a true baseball fan, the radio is always like being there.
If you do get a radio, I would like to suggest getting a Kaito KA200. It’s small, light and portable and a good quality radio that uses 2 AAA batteries.
This is as close to relevant spam as we’ve ever gotten.
Josh Lewin’s still a bit green and the chemistry isn’t perfect (though getting better every day). Still, what he and Howie have been building could be the start of a beautiful broadcasting friendship with, at the rate things are going, us Cablevision customers.
This is no time to be broadcasting fake Chargers games when sampling of Mets radiocasts should spike seven more weekend games this season.
And by spike, I mean a few more listeners…probably. But still.
If Howie and Josh aren’t necessarily on the same page every pitch, at least they’re generally in the same chapter.
What Greg,
Rabbit ear antennas too far away for you to get the OTA signal, even if a bit snowy? I just used my building’s old master antenna.
Not an option here, Joe. Went through this in the 2010 postseason and tested all the old options.
How refreshing, to find someone else who couldn’t stand Wayne Hagin. Here in Fla, where MLB blacks out Mets/Marlins games, I generally turn down the sound on the local broadcast and listen to Howie, but I couldn’t while WH was around because I hated him. I used to refer to him as “Tom Bodett”
Love the Nose. He’s making real progress this year.
We could have a very nice starting rotation next year…if not for Johan Santana. And yes, I was one of the ones who said, “I don’t care what happens after the no-no,” and I’m not sorry. I refuse to believe that 20 pitches were what did him in. It looks more like he’s pitching exactly the same as he was earlier in the year, except that now hitters aren’t fishing for his trash and he comes right down the middle with meatballs and gets clobbered. I’ve seen Niese do that too, but they’re going in different directions. Maybe they should hook Santana up with John Franco and he can teach Johan the art of lefty junkballing.
If anyone could point me to a portable mp3 player that also received AM, I’d buy it tomorrow. Listening to a game while bike riding (one ear only) on a summer evening would be such a joy.
With Howie and Hagin, Hagin would try to start one of his non sequiturs and Howie would not even acknowledge it. With Lewin, we have swung in the total opposite direction, where you may get a Honeymooners reference between the two. This is much better, but they should tone it down a little. Lewin’s voice is a little grating on me as well.
When was the last Mets game played that wasn’t televised anywhere? I remember looking at the schedule in the yearbook each week in the 70′s to see what games would be on Ch 9 that week.
If we mean anywhere in the NY area (as opposed to the other team’s market), it might have been a Sunday night game in 1998 against the Dodgers in L.A. that wasn’t ESPN’s.
Greg…. be grateful you couldn’t see the game this afternoon.
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