Well, yesterday was the launch of the new year. It was also the launch of the new Girl of the Year Doll over at American Girl. I spent a few hours there with my daughter and my wife, it was a lot of fun (even if the place is seriously pink). :) It was also the launch of the new MLB Network, of which I have a few things to say.
First off, it was a great joy to see Victor Rojas up there. I didn’t want him to leave – I frankly would have preferred he take the lead TV play by play job here, but I can understand from Vic’s standpoint why he left here to go to northern New Jersey. He was sitting at the desk with Harold Reynolds, Barry Larkin, & Al Leiter. Harold I was glad to see again, as I always enjoyed him on Baseball Tonight. Particularly his sparring with John Kruk, so perhaps he can develope that same kind of rapport here with someone on MLBN. Assuming the duties we saw last night hold up, it appears Vic is the main “anchor” of the broadcast of the nightly news show.
The studio itself looked pretty good, although I do have one complaint. When they are showing a wide shot with all four guys in view, it was hard to see them. The screens behind them are fairly busy, and their heads got lost in the shot. When on a closeup of one guy this, was not an issue, but showing all four guys at once was hard to see any of them due to all the info that was going on behind them. Kind of like losing the ball in a bunch of white shirts. That’s kind of what I felt. But that was the only negative I had to say about it. Seemed pretty good, and most of the on air talent had little to nothing to do, but that was just the first hour. I’m sure things will change in a month when spring training gets going.
There’s a news scroll detailing current stories and events on the botom of the screen, much like is what is on ESPN’s channels. This is on all the time, so if you’re watching some of the older footage and non live programming hours, you can get updates there, too.
I watched most of the Don Larsen perfect game coverage. Was kind of cool to watch that. The game had a different feel back then. Really “feels” different with no camera behind the pitcher, and no closeups, and virtually zero graphics. On top of that, seeing the old commercials from 1956 was quite a blast, too. If you get a chance to watch this, it definitely shows you how different TV coverage is now.
I think it’s a great idea, and should garner a lot of eyeballs for baseball fans. Once all the kinks are ironed out. Apparently, the launch has had some technical problems getting going on some carriers. I’m not talking about carriers that aren’t carrying the channel (like Dish Network, although if you’re on satellite you should be with DirecTV anyway). But some carriers like Time Warner here in the Dallas area are having some issues. I can attest to this myself, as I’m having some problems with the channel. The short of it is I have two TiVo’s. One is an older Series 2 unit that uses a Motorola Cable box provided by TWC. The other is a TiVoHD unit that uses a M-type CableCARD. The Series 2 box can see the channel, but that’s because of the Motorola box. My TiVoHD cannot see it. I called TiVo today and spoke with them on the phone for roughly an hour trying to resolve the problem. After speaking with more than one tech there, they concluded the problem was with TWC, and filed an official report with them over the channel. So basically, I can see it on the old small TV in my bedroom, but not out in the living room on my big TV with all the fancy HD stuff. :) I did some research online and happened upon this article over at bizofbaseball.com. It details some problems other carriers are having. It appears there’s some techie stuff relating to TiVo units that use CableCARDS (that would be me and my TiVoHD), that prevents them from seeing the channel. Oh great.
At least I can see the channel on my old TV. It’s not optimal, but at least I can see it. Hopefully this gets straightened out in short order, as I really wanted this channel in my living room on my big TV. Of course there’s a separate issue of TWC Dallas not carrying the HD feed at all, but I’m trying not to get TOO worked up over this issue.
Anyone else in the Dallas area with a TiVoHD (or Series 3 or something like that) have the channel? Do you have a CableCARD?