I have to say, once I got past my major irritation at not being able to get MLB Network on Time Warner in Garland, I have to say the channel is a major home run. I’ve really been enjoying the heck out of it. They recently announced their upcoming programming for the month of February, so I decided that I’d say something now that they’re reaching the end of the first month of programming.
I don’t watch everything there, as I’d have a hard time doing anything else in my life. As it is the nightly baseball news show is a season pass on my TiVo. It’s called “Hot Stove” (although that will change to “MLB Tonight” once games start). It’s basically four guys at a desk (from a rotating crew of guys) with some support staff in studio talking about the issues of the day, and other things like commentary on free agents, things of that nature. It’s similar in feel to Baseball Tonight in that regard – but this “feels” somewhat different. I’m not sure how to describe it. Perhaps it’s because the MLBN program is on at a time when Baseball Tonight is not – they generally are off once the World Series stops, so we shall see how viewing habits go once BBTN gets rolling again. Anyway, “Hot Stove” has segments where they interview players and other baseball related folks. I’ve seen real major league players in there, I saw Scott Boras in there, John Hart once, Nolan Ryan, and even Batting Stance Guy. A lot of times on Baseball Tonight, I tend to skip the “segments”, but on MLBN I generally don’t. That’s not to say I haven’t – if I’m particularly disinterested in a guest, I’ll skip over it, but for the most part, I’m interested in Hot Stove from front to back. Maybe it’s the personalities, who knows? I admit Victor Rojas is a major draw for me, and I’ve always thought BBTN made a mistake by dumping Harold Reynolds. There’s been a rotating crew of other guys (Al Leiter, Mitch Williams), and whatnot. Really have enjoyed the “feel”. I still think the set behind them is a little too busy with video screens, but I can live with that. This show is “new” on Monday through Friday at 6PM here in Dallas. It’s repeated SEVERAL times during the day to help fill the 24 hours of programming, so even if you don’t have a TiVo you should be able to catch it.
There are several other series on here. Shows about ballparks, specific “years” in baseball history, classic games, and all kinds of things. But one other thing I’m glad is on here is “Ken Burns’ Baseball”. I saw this originally when I rented the flicks from Netflix some time ago. As with a lot of people, I got my first taste of Buck O’Neill and the Negro Leagues from this show. Oh, I knew about the Negro Leagues before that, but it was a bunch of “black guys” playing baseball to me before I got to see more detail. I’m grateful to Ken Burns for bringing this to the light for me. I haven’t seen this in awhile, and they’ve been running it every Tuesday night – this past Tuesday was Episode 4, talking about the 20’s and Babe Ruth, mostly. Fantastic show if you’ve never seen it. Of particular interest is the fact that they have Ken Burns in studio with a recorded clip to go with each episode. It’s him talking for about 5-10 minutes or so about the particular episode on that night. It’s nice to have this new insight. But the best part was the news that they’re doing a new episode. When the series first aired, it was right after the players went on strike in 1994, so that’s roughly where that series ended. The new episode will pick up where the series left off, and go through 2008, so I’m glad to see a new one of those coming up.
But one show I am looking forward to is one that will started on February 20th, called “30 Clubs in 30 Days”. It will be a one hour series detailing a preview of the upcoming season for that team. I expect this will be a good way to learn about teams that we might not know a lot about otherwise. I’m not sure if I’ll watch all 30 of them, but I will definitely catch more than just my hometown Phillies, and my adopted team the Rangers. :) I did look ahead on their programming, and it appears the Texas Rangers episode will air on Wed March 18th at 5PM Central Time.
This 30 Clubs show speaks a lot to why I like this network so much. It’s not like ESPN where they seem to have an affinity for just the Yankees & Red Sox. Last week they spent 20 minutes talking about the Royals, saw the Giants another night, and the Indians yet another. Sometimes I think ESPN forgets there’s more than just Boston & the Bronx.
If you aren’t watching this channel, you should be. Especially if you’re stuck with Dish Network.