Tom McCarthy Follies

[julio]

What are the current blackout rules with MLB.tv? I might subscribe, but I live in Bethlehem and I think I'd get blacked out on almost every game broadcast by Comcast.

You would be blacked out of essentially every game, PC. MLB.tv would be useful to you only for delayed viewing of games (they're available "90 minutes after the game ends," more or less). I actually subscribed to the "one team only" version in 2017, and found it somewhat useful (being retired, I can watch at least parts of games the following morning - particularly nice for west coast games), but they're all blacked out in real time. Moreover, the blackout area is remarkably wide - even when we're at our summer place (in Sullivan County!), we're under the blackout, although we're waay beyond the reach of CSN Philly. (We do get Pirates games on the cable system there, though...).

[zambonir]

Yeah I probably wouldn't have MLB.TV if I was in the blackout area, though I gather that if you have Comcast as your cable (and possibly some other cable providers too, if you have NBC Philly in your package) you can now get the Phillies streams anyway? Or is that still $ a la carte?

There's so much other baseball on TV (and MLB.TV itself has a free game of the day) that I probably wouldn't want it w/o the Phillies, but to me it's still an incredibly good value, less than $1 a game if you only care about one team and pennies a game overall.

[julio]

Yeah I probably wouldn't have MLB.TV if I was in the blackout area, though I gather that if you have Comcast as your cable (and possibly some other cable providers too, if you have NBC Philly in your package) you can now get the Phillies streams anyway? Or is that still $ a la carte?

We don't have cable at home; our summer place has Comcast (the account's in my sister's name, I think), but it's too far from Philadelphia to include NBC Philly (but has ROOT out of Pittsburgh, notwithstanding that it's northeast of Williamsport), so I have no experience with that. I did make some (desultory) efforts to use that Comcast account info to access NBC Sports Olympics coverage at home, without much success.

If you're outside the blackout area, and have the hours to devote to watching games (radio still has the advantage that you can have it on while doing other things, and still get a reasonable vocal description of the game), I agree that it's a good value. As a tool for viewing delayed telecasts, it's OK - but I don't know that "incredibly good value" describes it as much as "not that expensive for an indulgence" (for me, at least).

[donaldorc]

(radio still has the advantage that you can have it on while doing other things, and still get a reasonable vocal description of the game)

This is why I prefer the radio.

[Lucky_Beagle]

Thankfully I live in an area that doesn't blackout the Phillies. I consider the ability to put a game on my Ipad and watch it for about 60 cents a game a nice deal. It helps that it makes an easy yearly birthday gift for my wife to supply for me.I only purchase the single team version as I don't care to watch many games the Phillies aren't involved in. Usually when I visit the parents or in-laws I do not get the games (black out areas) although over the Easter weekend I was able to view Friday night and Saturday's game. They didn't catch up to my location I guess

[nycphils]

I find McCarthy dull but mostly inoffensive - I have the MLB package and see other teams games occasionally and i’ll Say it could be much worse.

Franzke (and LA) are terrific. I like Ben Davis, think his analysis, especially on catching is interesting and mostly insightful.

Kruk is an abomination- he has about two jokes (always hyperbolicly self deprecating) that he repeats a million times a game in different forms, and barely bothers to analyze anymore. Schmidt is a bit of a troglodyte but he’s Mike Schmidt and i’ll always worship him.

[donaldorc]

One thing I must add. I have listened to radio announcers around the league, and the Phillies are the best IMHO.

[robbo]

I need an interpretation...
TM: "That is Hendricks' first bases-loaded walk in two years. Sometimes guys just do it on accident. But he has, you know, he's usually has such great command."

[EastFallowfield]

Thought when this thread popped up it might be a complaint about last night's broadcast getting very excited about having a camera in the hallway near where they work and how the coverage either missed or nearly missed several hits and outs.

[Philsmania]

Thought when this thread popped up it might be a complaint about last night's broadcast getting very excited about having a camera in the hallway near where they work and how the coverage either missed or nearly missed several hits and outs.

Yeah, their hangup over the hallway cam was annoying.

[robbo]

Top 8, discussion of the organ at PNC Park w/ Krukker...
TM: They definitely have the volume set at a high temperature.

[LoneStarPhan]

No broadcaster should appear on TV after the first pitch and before the final out.

[robbo]

After Maikel Franco's 8th inning groundout left him 0-4...
TM: Maikel's, uh, streak, is gonna windup coming to a close. He's hit in 16 of 17.

First off...16 of 17 is not a streak.
Hey, fans! His 16 of 17 streak just ended, but now he's got a 16 of 18 streak!
Second...I went to the game logs. Franco had hit in 14 of 17. Two of the 0-fers included a walk. So he'd reached base in 16 of 17. [sigh]

[frylock]

McCarthy is rough, and I find Davis to be annoying too. I think back to a few years ago (it was probably whenever his first year was -- maybe longer ago than that) when he put his thermos on the sill of the press box and knocked it down to the concourse below, and then did it again after retrieving it the first time. From that point on I couldn't take him seriously. He's also captain obvious. I find him to be decent when in the studio during the post-game (but I rarely watch, but like Botallico).

I find Kruk hilarious, he's such a grouch. He's made it more tolerable to watch on TV, for sure. I enjoyed when they did that weird "broadcast from the crowd" thing and they put that armor on Kruk and he just had this annoyed look on his face.

I LOVE Franzke / LA, and I was pleasantly surprised by Franzke/Stocker (I expected to hate anyone immediately who wasn't LA).