I"m in a good mood today. San Francisco took two of three from Mos Eisley, the early struggles of Tim Lincecum have been forgotten, and I have the day off to watch my daughter. Good times. Daughter-watching is serious business, mind you. It takes skill to use one eye to pay attention to a six-month-old while the other eye is watching the MLB Network all day. And by "pay attention to a six-month-old," I mean, "make sure she doesn't a stuffed giraffe too far up her nasal cavity while my mostly undivided attention is on the MLB Network."
My goal isn't to act as a blogomercial for MLB Network, though that's inevitable. I'm mostly interested in neener neener neenering those of you who don't have it. The benefits so far, bullet-point style:
- After the Giants game, the MLB Network has their version of "Baseball Tonight" on a loop. So I can read a book or futz around on the computer while the loop plays in the background. It's almost white noise, but I actually know what's going on in the non-Giants world. For the last couple of years, September would roll around, and I'd say something like, "Huh. Raul Ibanez is a good hitter now? I thought he was waiver bait. I'm going to have to follow the entire league next year." But I never did. "Baseball Tonight" wasn't good enough to figure out when it was airing on a given night.
- The "MLB Tonight" commentators aren't all great, but they're leagues ahead of the "Baseball Tonight" crew. Most of the MLB Network guys, especially Dan Plesac, make comments that are more substantial than "Player X just always finds a way to get it done. He really gets it done. He's amazing in how he gets it done. A real get-doner. Done gets done hurr."
- Classic World Series films all freaking day. Maybe I'll tire of them at some point, but it's been an awesome history lesson so far.
I switched over to Comcast just to get the MLB Network, so I did have to make sacrifices:
Comcast: Oh, no, you do.
Me: No, I don't.
Comcast: Wait, I see the problem. You were signed up for the Entertainment Sports Package Tier. You need to sign up for the Entertainment Sportz Package Tier. It's totally different. They sound the same over the phone, so this happens all the time.
Me: OK. So can I switch?
Comcast: Sure. I think I did it right. If you don't see the channel by tomorrow night, please call back and navigate 18 different menus to wait on hold for a half-hour, and we might be able to help you.
Me: Hey, now none of my channels work.
Comcast: Oh, that's just an outage. We're sending someone to the problem area with a hairpin, some scotch tape, and the insides of an old Laserdisc player. It should be fixed by Tuesday of next week.
That's not the point, though. The point is this: neener neener neener, this channel is awesome. And now MLB Network is covering all three days of the draft? I can't imagine how that won't be awesome.
Those who are with: Open Gloating Thread. Those who are without: Open Bemoaning Thread.