Watching the Yankee's from the UK

Blog On The Run

mlblogsukyankee — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 19:59:17 +0000

I’m moving this blog over the next few days to its own website, where I can have more control of the features and create a UK Yankees community.

www.ukyankees.com

See you there!

5 Hours & 14 Innings Later…

mlblogsukyankee — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 16:29:12 +0000

Wow, what a game! It took 5 hours of play, and 14 innings for the Yankees to see off a shortened two game series against the A’s, and what a game it was! Sadly, I missed most of it because of work, and travelling, but it certainly seemed to be a highly charged game, and the first to go to extra innings at the new Yankee stadium.

Well, today, the Yankees get a day’s rest ahead of the start of a three game series against arch-rivals, the Boston Red Sox… So, time to say goodbye to normal life for a few days from tomorrow, its baseball all the way!

Weather Update

mlblogsukyankee — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 18:36:01 +0000

Its looking increasingly risky that there could be showers this afternoon and into this evening, ahead of, and during tonight’s game. There is now a 40% chance of ‘precipitation’ at the new Yankee stadium. Two rainouts in two days? I hope not… I’ll keep my eye on it though!

Well, We Might Get a Game Tonight…

mlblogsukyankee — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 18:21:43 +0000

After last nights postponement, its looking likely that we will have a ballgame tonight, with the Yankees taking on the A’s at Yankee Stadium and the weather so far holding off from rain. The Yanks will lead off with Andy Pettitte, who has started strongly this season, unlike the other pitchers who have been slow to get off the mark. But tonight, assuming MLB.tv holds up following the fiasco of the last couple of days, I’ll have my eyes firmly on the hitters, with the new stadium looking increasingly like a hitters ballpark. Jason Giambi returns to the Bronx, and Teixeira and Swisher are finding form.

So, it should be a good game, I’m looking forward to it definately, and I’ll let you know my thoughts later on!

Well, We Won, But I Didn’t See It

mlblogsukyankee — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 20:34:02 +0000

Because of MLB’tv’s inability to supply the product we pay for (read below), I only heard the end of the game, including the home run which will make the press tomorrow.

Yankee’s won is the main thing, but shame on you MLB for your shoddy service… A disgrace.

So, Gameday Audio it is

mlblogsukyankee — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 19:54:15 +0000

And I don’t even know the score……… What a total cock up tonight as been. Manchester United lose in the FA Cup, and now I get **** from the MLB too…. must just be my luck…. Still…. MLB support, I’m coming for you.

MLB Customer Service Sucks

mlblogsukyankee — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 19:42:33 +0000

So this evening, watching the Yankee game is hard work…. on MLB.tv, the picture is buffering like mad, and looking at the support forums, many agree. Infact, I managed to get through to someone on the phone at MLB support, which is a first in two weeks. I’ve spent nearly £100 in trying to call MLB support in the last two weeks, only to end up on hold for 20 minutes and then the daunting “The other caller has hung up” message…..

Imagine my anger… being in the UK and calling the states is not cheap.

But there is also the fact that two weeks ago I emailed them with all this info, and I’m yet to recieve a reply. Utterly shocking service I’m afraid.

Oh, by the way, I asked about this on the MLB support forums, my post was never published…. I wonder why.

Looking at my last post, ESPN America doesn’t look so bad afterall.

MLB.tv? on this performance, give it a miss, especially if you are in the UK.

ESPN America or MLBtv?

mlblogsukyankee — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 11:20:00 +0000

Watching the Yankee’s on the tellybox is pretty much a full time occupation, especially as it is now possible to see every game they play live. In the UK, there is a premium sports channel called ESPN America which shows around 10 or 15 games a week from across the MLB. Thats great for sports fans that generally watch the sport, but its not much use for the avid fan who follows one particular team.

MLB.tv however is the perfect solution to watch every single game, and being in the UK, there is no blackout restrictions at all. The downside is that MLB.tv is too a premium product, although it is understandable why, the quality of the video is simply amazing. I subscribed this year to MLB.tv for the first time ever, having just subscribed to gameday audio in previous years. I’ve always been very suspicious about video streamed over the internet, but I’d heard some good vibes coming out of this seasons offering from several experts in the field of internet broadcasting, so I thought I’d take the plunge. Boy am I glad I did, the quality, especially with the nexdef plugin is actually better than that of ESPN America, a premium satelite channel! There are inevitably however, two negatives with the MLB.tv coverage. Firstly, during commercial breaks of the host broadcaster, a loop of the features of MLB.tv is played, which I think is quite pointless since I already know what the features are as I learned about them before I signed up. Also, sometimes the powers at be forget to switch the feed back to the game, so quite a few pitches per game are regularly missed and on one occasion a whole inning was missed! Secondly, the stream has a tendancy to just stop, and then when reloaded, takes you back to the start of the inning, which can be annoying when wanting to see the game as live as possible!

Because of the two downsides with MLB.tv, I tend to watch Yankee’s games through ESPN America when they are showing them, and for the rest use MLB.tv costing me around £35 per month for the two. Not bad for something I use everyday, and it saves going to the pub and blowing nearly that on drinks and food. Overall, a good deal I’d say.

Simply Astonishing

mlblogsukyankee — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 07:43:41 +0000

Well, the only game this season that I haven’t watched was yesterday’s humiliating defeat at the hands of the Cleveland Indians, to a 14 run second inning, with the final game score of 22 to 4 to the indians. It seems that it was a good job I was out and about doing other things because I think I would have been throwing my baseball at the television had I watched the game.

Chien Ming Wang pitched another dreadful game, the second despairingly bad game by the otherwise very talented starting pitcher, and things didn’t improve when the bullpen tried to come to the rescue. This season, and I know its still early on, the bullpen has been the butt of the yankee’s problems so far.

Here in the UK, the biggest sport is football, and if the richest, most powerful clubs perform as badly as the Yankee’s have started off this season (even though the Yankees are 6-6 in games played), the fans would be looking for heads to roll. Is it time Joe Girardi to go? Not yet, but I’d want to see significant improvement over the coming weeks, although I fear for the potential bloodbath at the hands of the Sox who come to town later this coming week.

If the performance continues to be middling to poor in say a months time? I’d have to seriously consider joining the “He’s Gotta Go!” bandwagon.