The Major League Baseball Network will launch across the United States at 6ET on January 1, 2009. This is a huge step for the league, as they have never previously had their own TV channel. The question most people are asking is, how will this new channel affect me as a New York baseball fan? The network will be broadcasted in complete high definition so you will see games at its highest quality. The Major League Baseball Network will be on channel 149 for Cablevision customers, channel 213 for DirecTV and channel 86 for Verizon Fios. The first problem I find with the network is that they will only being showing a total of twenty-six live games throughout the lengthy MLB season. To make matters worse there will only be one live game on every Thursday night. In my opinion Thursday is a very undesirable day to be showing an MLB game compared to the very popular Sunday Night Baseball as shown on ESPN. From my point of view, after a long day of school or work I doubt I would remember to watch Thursday night baseball. I am definitely more likely to watch Sunday Night Baseball after I relaxed the entire day leading up to the game. A key upside to the channel is that you can follow this year’s World Baseball Classic in depth. They will be showing many of these games when hardly any other networks will be broadcasting them. If you are a Mets or Yankees fan this network will have hardly any value to you because you can see all of your team’s games on either the YES Network or SNY. The channel is a positive if you live in New York and you are a fan of an out of market team. Then you have the possibility once per week to see your team play live instead of just reading about it in your local newspaper. On another note, the network features an average set of analysts and show hosts. The most notable studio analysts are former pitcher Al Leiter; past Cincinnati Reds star Barry Larkin and former ESPN analyst Harold Reynolds. A well-known show host for the network is Matt Vasgersian whose voice has been made famous on multiple video games and as the play-by-play man for the San Diego Padres and Milwaukee Brewers. Overall the Major League Baseball Network will be a work in progress. I’m sure throughout the year changes will be to improve the channel but for it to compete with ESPN it has to show more games. Over the next few years they will begin to show more games but for this year as either a Mets or Yankees fan stick to the basics with YES or SNY.
Daniel Weberman
NYchalktalk.com
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