Cherub Rock Indeed

I think - and I can't be sure, because MLB.tv fancy new DVR technology doesn't work either (seriously, guys: what the hell are you doing over there?) - but I'm pretty sure Jacoby Ellsbury's walk in music is "Cherub Rock." If that's the case, well done to whoever is up in the music booth.

MLB.tv Continues to Fail

And yet I continue to subscribe. This time around, I laid out the extra cash for the premium package, for two reasons:

1. I love the DVR concept in all of its forms and knew the option to pause a game would be very useful during the season.
2. If I'm watching the Red Sox, I want to listen to the guys on NESN, not the randomly selected feed that the service happens to want to serve that day. The difference is important enough that I was willing to pay more to be able to choose my feeds.

Well, it's Opening Day Part 2, the Sox are on...and there's no audio feed from NESN. None at all, with no explanation of the problem, no status message, no email alert, no attempt to connect with the fans on the MLB.tv web page, nothing. So I'm listening to the Rays announcers and wondering why I keep getting suckered in.

Someone Broke Baseball

So there was baseball tonight. Red Sox baseball, in fact. With Curt Schilling pitching, no less. The first time there was real, live, honest-to-god baseball in six months...and you know what I couldn't do? Watch it. Not because I didn't want to, not because I hadn't paid to play...it was because MLB.tv, despite upgrades and a price increase, despite its fourth (right?) year of operation, still can't get things right when it comes to streaming games. I'm not talking about the momentary glitches and buffering errors; I'm not even talking about the system's annoying habit of dropping the connection every few minutes. Instead, MLB.tv literally killed the connection without any explanation for six innings and I missed the best part of the game; the part where the players we'll actually be seeing this year were on the field.

I know even being able to watch out-of-market baseball games is a wonder of modern technology that I should be grateful for, blah blah blah, but you know what? It stopped being so novel when I started paying the equivalent of a premium cable channel price ever year for service that is, at best, bleeding edge quality. I know Major League Baseball doesn't care about the fans at all; they're just looking to get more money, increase the bottom line, corporate bs, etc. and MLB.tv is a part of that. We're just caught in a sucker's blind because there's no other way for us to watch games. I've lost any hope that things will change, but I'm still tired with being dicked around.

Oh and congratulations to the Sox for tying the first game of the year. Mayor's Cup, here we come!