How Do You Plan on Following the Twins in 2021?

[wabene]

Very timely I appreciate this. We are getting rid of our satellite deal this month, $175 seems ridiculous. Thanks for pointing out the fine print I missed when looking at the AT&T deal. Figures. I'm assuming I'm blacked out for MLB TV up here in Duluth. That is the part that doesn't make sense to me. I would gladly pay for it even more than it is but hey the whole thing is frustrating. I recently hung a big TV in the garage...gah!!

[terrydactyls]

Maybe you should have put a smaller TV in the garage and kept DirecTV?

[jrod23]

I truly enjoy the listening to games on WCCO.  Like you Tom, I invested in the simplest, yet effective hand held radio last year.  WCCO here at home and 103.5 or 94.3 while up at the lake (depending on weather).  Nothing like sitting on the lake in the evening casting or jigging as Gladden and Provus talk you through the game, or sitting in the screened in porch during a thunderstorm.  I truly miss Gordon's voice.

 

Aside from that, how crazy would it be for the Twins and Wolves to go in on a TV station together?  All kidding aside.  This might be Dunning-Kruger Syndrome at it's finest, but the money to be made off of this, control of the airwaves, deciding what gets played, etc. would all be so beneficial to the fans.  Or is this a headache s-storm the owners wouldn't want to embark on?

 

I'm just so sick of Sinclair.  They place the blame on YouTube and Hulu, but YouTube and Hulu do the same right back.  Just dumb, because this is all due to rich people wanting to get richer.

[Joey Self]

I'm in Arkansas, and have Roku with the MLB Extra Inning package.  I only miss Twins games when they play Houston, Texas, Kansas City and St. Louis.  The Houston ban is goofy.  It's 7:40 from my house to the stadium in Houston according to Google Maps, but I guess since South Arkansas is closer, the whole state gets put under the ban. 

St. Louis is 6 1/2 hours, but I get why Arkansas is included; even though the Rangers and Royals are closer for a lot of us, this is Cardinal country.  

EDIT: I just looked, and Oklahoma seems to have the same teams under the blackout; that doesn't make sense that West Memphis (extreme eastern part of Arkansas) and Tulsa have the same restrictions. 

I can--and do--watch the games an hour and a half after they are completed.  If I make it to the next morning without hearing the score, I watch it like I do any other--with my finger on the advance button.

JcS

[bobs]

Until I was 20 years old, there was basically one way to follow the Twins.....Herb Carneal on WNAX Yankton, SD.  Some of my best memories involve me, my dad and my grandpa while the Twins were on the radio.

Now I live close enough to attend a few games (only a few b/c I can't afford more than that).  I can certainly enjoy being outside with Corey and Danny on the radio.

[denarded]

Kind of a side note, I use MLB TV so the only games I don't get are the Chicago games (which is fine because they're on cable and and I don't have to listen to Hawk anymore (Dagummit). Is it true that if you subscribe to MLB TV in Iowa you don't get Chicago, KC, MPLS, St. Louis, and Milwaukee?

[adorduan]

 

Kind of a side note, I use MLB TV so the only games I don't get are the Chicago games (which is fine because they're on cable and and I don't have to listen to Hawk anymore (Dagummit). Is it true that if you subscribe to MLB TV in Iowa you don't get Chicago, KC, MPLS, St. Louis, and Milwaukee?

Yes, at least if you live in Des Moines.It's a freaking joke!

[EbbyCalvin]

Mlb package and a VPN gets it done for me. The radio isn't a bad way to follow a game when on the boat though.

[Tom Froemming]

 

I don't understand this entire debate/topic. I pay $120 per month for Spectrum. I get more television channels that I could possibly watch along with the full sports package (which includes FSN). I'm not overly pleased with the value, although it gets me all the Twins games and I use the Spectrum TV app quite a bit along with access to college football on the ESPN app. The headache of cutting the cord and chasing a better deal (with FSN) for the difference between $120 and whatever the streaming services cost doesn't seem worth it. I cut costs in other areas of my budget. And, I cannot and will not listen on the radio.

 

I seriously only need live TV for Twins games. That's it. Everything else I can find elsewhere or don't really care enough about to pay for at all. So not only is the cable package more expensive than a streaming service, I wouldn't be using it at all for a big chunk of the year.

 

If a traditional cable provider would allow customers to go month-to-month, I'd go for that. In addition to simply not needing a cable package for much of the year, I'd be concerned Sinclair would pull FSN off the provider I have within the term of my contract. I believe that happened to Dish customers.

 

Sounds like you're finding other value from your cable package, just trying to explain where I'm coming from.

[sampleSizeOfOne]

Am i permitted to be a creature of habit and follow the Twins on game threads?

 

That's good enough for me.

[wabene]

Maybe you should have put a smaller TV in the garage and kept DirecTV?

Ha ha! True but I got the tv free as it was rejected by the avid indoorsmen who inhabit my basement (they got new TV's). It's not really the money is is the whole business model where customer loyalty is rewarded with jacking up the rates. It creates animus,I mean who likes their cable or satellite company? And $175 is just plain wrong especially considering all the commercials you are expected to sit through.

[LanceJS]

Living outside of the viewing area, I will do the same thing I have done for years - MLB.tv

[KFEY93]

Free streaming on Reddit like the past two years. Works great. 

[twinfan]

In NC there is also a problem with hockey telecasts. I have DirecTV and sometimes get a break in the over-charges they have. You gotta keep calling. I generally follow my teams until the second half of the season then can subscribe to the Extra Innings package and get all Twins games except vs Baltimore and Washington (we have both MASN channels). However, this year- without leaving the house much due to COVID (yes, it will continue into June at least then return in the fall), I will probably pay for the full season for all teams (didn't know you could do just 1 team but the full season is only about $150). 

But radio (not available that I know) would bring me back to the days of sneaking a transistor under my pillow as a kid.

[VandyTwinsFan]

Mlb.tv and a vpn. If you have a somewhat tech savvy (or experienced in google fu) friend that lives outside the region they can set up openvpn on their router and give you the client files. You can also just buy vpn service and choose a server outside the region and then mlb.tv won't block you.

[woolywoolhouse]

The Opera browser has a built-in free VPN. For what it's worth.

[James Rivah Twins Fan]

The MLB streaming package and Sirius XM for times in the car. The MLB channel (89) on Sirius XM has great baseball discussions for following all baseball news.