How Do You Plan on Following the Twins in 2021?
Jan 09 2021 03:30 PM |
Tom Froemming
in Minnesota Twins
Image courtesy of © Michael McLoone-USA TODAY Sports (illustration by Tom Froemming, Twins Daily)
These things can change quickly, but right now the only streaming option for FSN is AT&T TV. I took a quick look into their packages and explained why my first baseball-related purchase of 2021 was a piece of outdated technology in the video below.If you're interested in your options, go to getmyhometeams.com and enter your ZIP code.
As a cord cutter, I've jumped from Fubo TV to Sling TV to YouTube TV to Hulu + Live TV over the past few years. Sinclair Broadcast Group, which owns the FOX Sports Regional Networks, can't seem to maintain a relationship with a streaming service for long. That gives me even more pause when considering singing up for AT&T TV.
We'll see if anything changes between now and Opening Day, but my plan right now is to turn to the radio. This is reminding me a bit of the Victory Sports One debacle of 2004. I'd prefer to watch the games, but Cory, Danny and Kris do a great job on 830 WCCO.
What's your plan?
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46 Comments
830 WCCO.Go Twins!
MediaCom basically told me when my rate went up 35% that if I wasn't willing to bundle they didn't want me. So I left.
Am now at Hulu and although my wife says things will change, am assuming I won't have Twins games come spring...or Wild games now other than the 6 on NBCSN. Also couldn't watch the Badgers play the Gophers in Hockey yesterday or today.
As for baseball, will be back where I was when I was a kid listening to the games on radio...although then it was the Braves. Assuming the MiLB package will be available, will sign up for that and watch a lot of Saints and whatever the Wichita team is called. Heck, I usually am more interested in the minors anyway.
We are dinosaurs. We finally ditched our landline phone in 2020 but due partly to inertia the cable is still hooked up, so FSN it is. We are a one-TV family so if there's another show being watched by another family member I'll stream the game on a site that is not supposed to be mentioned on Twins Daily's web site.
When I'm in the car it's SiriusXM (better sound quality than AM) unless the home broadcast isn't available there, in which case it's CCO. And even then I find that I sometimes enjoy listening to the opposition radio crew while the Twins are batting, even John Sterling if the Twins are having a rare good inning against the team that must not be named.
As much as I love going to Target Field, I'll wait until community immunity reaches a satisfactory level before I venture there. I hope we get to that point sooner rather than later.
Maybe you should have put a smaller TV in the garage and kept DirecTV?
I truly enjoy the listening to games on WCCO.Like you Tom, I invested in the simplest, yet effective hand held radio last year.WCCO here at home and 103.5 or 94.3 while up at the lake (depending on weather).Nothing like sitting on the lake in the evening casting or jigging as Gladden and Provus talk you through the game, or sitting in the screened in porch during a thunderstorm.I truly miss Gordon's voice.
Aside from that, how crazy would it be for the Twins and Wolves to go in on a TV station together?All kidding aside.This might be Dunning-Kruger Syndrome at it's finest, but the money to be made off of this, control of the airwaves, deciding what gets played, etc. would all be so beneficial to the fans.Or is this a headache s-storm the owners wouldn't want to embark on?
I'm just so sick of Sinclair.They place the blame on YouTube and Hulu, but YouTube and Hulu do the same right back.Just dumb, because this is all due to rich people wanting to get richer.
I'm in Arkansas, and have Roku with the MLB Extra Inning package.I only miss Twins games when they play Houston, Texas, Kansas City and St. Louis.The Houston ban is goofy.It's 7:40 from my house to the stadium in Houston according to Google Maps, but I guess since South Arkansas is closer, the whole state gets put under the ban.
St. Louis is 6 1/2 hours, but I get why Arkansas is included; even though the Rangers and Royals are closer for a lot of us, this is Cardinal country.
EDIT: I just looked, and Oklahoma seems to have the same teams under the blackout; that doesn't make sense that West Memphis (extreme eastern part of Arkansas) and Tulsa have the same restrictions.
I can--and do--watch the games an hour and a half after they are completed.If I make it to the next morning without hearing the score, I watch it like I do any other--with my finger on the advance button.
JcS
Until I was 20 years old, there was basically one way to follow the Twins.....Herb Carneal on WNAX Yankton, SD.Some of my best memories involve me, my dad and my grandpa while the Twins were on the radio.
Now I live close enough to attend a few games (only a few b/c I can't afford more than that).I can certainly enjoy being outside with Corey and Danny on the radio.
Kind of a side note, I use MLB TV so the only games I don't get are the Chicago games (which is fine because they're on cable and and I don't have to listen to Hawk anymore (Dagummit). Is it true that if you subscribe to MLB TV in Iowa you don't get Chicago, KC, MPLS, St. Louis, and Milwaukee?
Yes, at least if you live in Des Moines.It's a freaking joke!
I seriously only need live TV for Twins games. That's it. Everything else I can find elsewhere or don't really care enough about to pay for at all. So not only is the cable package more expensive than a streaming service, I wouldn't be using it at all for a big chunk of the year.
If a traditional cable provider would allow customers to go month-to-month, I'd go for that. In addition to simply not needing a cable package for much of the year, I'd be concerned Sinclair would pull FSN off the provider I have within the term of my contract. I believe that happened to Dish customers.
Sounds like you're finding other value from your cable package, just trying to explain where I'm coming from.
Am i permitted to be a creature of habit and follow the Twins on game threads?
That's good enough for me.
Ha ha! True but I got the tv free as it was rejected by the avid indoorsmen who inhabit my basement (they got new TV's). It's not really the money is is the whole business model where customer loyalty is rewarded with jacking up the rates. It creates animus,I mean who likes their cable or satellite company? And $175 is just plain wrong especially considering all the commercials you are expected to sit through.
Living outside of the viewing area, I will do the same thing I have done for years - MLB.tv
Free streaming on Reddit like the past two years. Works great.
In NC there is also a problem with hockey telecasts. I have DirecTV and sometimes get a break in the over-charges they have. You gotta keep calling. I generally follow my teams until the second half of the season then can subscribe to the Extra Innings package and get all Twins games except vs Baltimore and Washington (we have both MASN channels). However, this year- without leaving the house much due to COVID (yes, it will continue into June at least then return in the fall), I will probably pay for the full season for all teams (didn't know you could do just 1 team but the full season is only about $150).
But radio (not available that I know) would bring me back to the days of sneaking a transistor under my pillow as a kid.
The Opera browser has a built-in free VPN. For what it's worth.
The MLB streaming package and Sirius XM for times in the car. The MLB channel (89) on Sirius XM has great baseball discussions for following all baseball news.