For those with MLB Extra Innings Package
 

I've never purchased this but am tempted this year. Do you guys who have it find that you get your money's worth by watching games or do you feel at the end of the season that it was too much for how little you watched.

I've had it for two years now. The first year I had it, I didn't feel I got my money's worth. Last year I felt I did. The biggest factor for me is that my team was in the race last year so I mainly used it to watch the competition. When my team sucks, I'm less inclined to watch other games.

This is my second year having it and I feel like it is a pretty good deal, this year I am working more so probably going to watch less but still for the number of games available to watch it is hard to beat.

does anyone know if you can pay on a month to month basis?

we are moving midway through the season

You can break it down into 4 payments.

right, but my point is that when we move we won't have the same cable company

No, you have to pay for the whole thing.

MLB.tv does have a monthly subscription, though.

yeah, I used the internet package last year, I do like the mosaic

I am getting it this year...I have got the MLB.tv before, but didn't like not being able to use the computer during games. I'm a Giants fan, so I'll probably not get my money's worth this year, but I like being able to watch the games and some of the A's games as well. Oklahoma City sucks because it's in FOUR teams blackout market (including KC which doesn't even have games on TV here anymore). However, I'm glad I got it on TV even though I'm going to be gone for six weeks this summer.

What is that, Astros/Rangers/Royals/Cards? That's outrageous. The retarded blackout zones have been in sore need of fixing for a long time. It's 2008 -- this should not be difficult. If you get the games locally, they're blacked out. Otherwise, not. The NBA figured this out about a decade ago, as League Pass has always worked pretty smoothly in this regard. As on many other issues, MLB is perpetually clueless.

It's even worse in other areas -- Vegas most famously, with SIX teams blacked out.

That said, with only two blacked out teams for me, I always thought the EI package was a tremendous value for 160 bucks. I absolutely wear it out. And it's really improved in the last few years, now probably covering 95% of games played (except for the stupid Fox Saturday afternoon blackouts).

Yep, those are the teams. Granted we get over 100 Rangers and Cards games through FSN or the Cox channel and probably 70-80 Astros games that don't conflict with Rangers games on FSN. The Royals had a deal here with an IND station a few years ago, but there doesn't appear to be anymore.

My roommate wanted League Pass this year, so we got it, and I agree, the system they incorporate is really good. While I don't use it for League Pass, I wish they would let us use MLB.tv if we are Extra Innings subscribers for when I'm out of town.

I am curious about the MLB extra innings also since we are moving out to Denver in a few weeks and want to be able to see the Red Sox games. One question is this like the NFL Ticket thing where you can see any game you want except for those blacked out in your area or is it justa selection. In otherwords, if I can't see most of the Sox' games it isn't worth it.

Most to all games, only the games carried natioanlly (ESPN, Fox) and the area blackouts are not offered.

+1

And when my FioS is ready, 6 games @ 1.2 Mbps is going to rock the party that ricks the body. Definitely going to invest in a video card I can hook to my TV.

Sweet!

Do any of the games come in HD? If not, I'll pass.

Almost all non-Saturday Red Sox games are carried. I would say roughly 95% of games are on the EI package -- again, outside of Saturday afternoon. Very occasionally, there is a game not covered on television at all. These are still carried by MLB.tv (they show the footage from the stadium jumbotron/in-stadium closed circuit TV, and mix it with the radio announcers). But they are not picked up by EI.

To answer another question, I don't have high-def myself, but taking a glance at today's schedule screen, it looks like 3 of the 11 games are in HD.

The Royals have a deal with one of the FSN channels. They plan on showing around 130-140 games this year. You likely get the games but just haven't seen it yet.

We have Fox Sports Southwest. We only get the Cards games because the Cox channel picks up the feed from FSN Midwest (or whatever your FSN is) and the local channel that picks up the games.

My mom suggested picking this up for my dad for fathers day, I've never really looked at it before, but it doesn't really seem like a great deal at this point in the season.

Is the current price ($210) the normal full season price for MLB Extra Innings? If so, does DirectTV normally reduce the price at some point for the second half of the season?

I don't know, dude. Is your dad a "watch baseball every chance he gets" type person? If so, I say definitely go for it, as it's a gift that he might actually use and not have unless you had given it to him. As far as gift ideas go, this one sounds pretty nice.

They'll reduce the price at the all-star break.

Holy smokes- are they really asking $210 almost half way through the season. I signed up 4 years ago and am locked in now @ $160 -and I thought that was high. I am getting about 70-80% of the games in HD though- which is much better than last year..Plus, last year, they made you pay an additional "superfan" fee to get the HD content- at least here in Ohio.

Basically he will watch every single Cubs game and nothing else. WGN doesn't broadcast nearly as many games as they used to. Looks like there are 46 games the rest of the season he would be able to watch w/ the DTV package that we wouldn't get here otherwise(err, minus however many of those are against the nationals, which apparently is our 'local' team here in the middle of North Carolina). Or if we wait til the all-star break, 35 games in the second half of the season that we can get w/ Extra Innings that we wouldn't otherwise get.

Thanks for the info guys.

OK, I was having an argument with someone about NC. We were talking about the "United Countries of Baseball" map and I said the Nationals (my actual home team) were way over represented on the map. He claimed that NC is accurate and I called shenanigans. What would you consider your current location's "home" team?

http://www.unitedcountriesofbaseball...B-1280x960.jpg

The Atlanta Braves have been the most popular team in the area at least since TBS came about, growing up in the 80s most of my friends/teammates in little league were Braves fans. I seriously doubt the Expos moving to Washington has changed that!

The Braves are what I told him. He laughed at such an idea and suggested it would more likely be Baltimore. But my understanding has been tat the Braves territory went all the way to Richmond.

The Mariners are probably overrepresented. I went to game against the Red Sox last month and I felt bad for the Mariners players because at least 30% of the crowd was pro-red sox.

Baseball isn't big here unless you mention Griffey.

EDIT: I have pics somewhere. The amount of Red in the stands that day was amazing. When I say at least, I really do mean at least 30%.

Lots of Cal Ripken fans, but not many Orioles fans.

On the other hand, before the Carolinas got a NFL franchise, the Redskins were the most popular team locally. There is a radio station around here that still carries the Redskins radio broadcasts that I can pick up from Raleigh most of the way to Charlotte(I used to plan my drives from Raleigh-Atlanta around football so I could listen to a game or two on the radio, in some areas I could pick up the Redskins but not the Panthers)

But baseball there is zero question that its the Braves.

I flip through a number of games on a nightly basis (I rarely watch games from beginning to end, usually I watch the end of games or parts of interesting games). Even though I have favorite teams, I watch pretty much everything. So I definitely get my money's worth. And quite a few of the games are in HD, at no extra cost.

Yeah, there's always a price break that comes up during the season. Should be just around the corner.

That's exactly how I use it. I can't say I ever watch a game from start to finish but I probably bounce around between 3 or 4 games a night.

How does the "local blackouts" work? I live 250+ miles from Wrigley Field and yet my home team is listed as the Cubs/White Sox/Reds for blackout purposes. I'm looking at the TV schedule and it seems that quite a few (a majority even) of the Cubs games are going to broadcast on CSN Chicago, it looks like many of the games against the Reds will be on Fox Sports Ohio, and many of the games out west will be broadcast on Fox Sports West.

I have zero of these channels in my lineup due to my location. I get alternate versions of them instead. Will these games on these networks be blacked out on the extra innings service? I've got the top sports package offered to me and the Cubs set up to a series recording and it looks like I will get about 1-3 games a week at the start of the season. Basically if they are on WGN, ESPN, or MLB Network I get the game. If they play on anything else I'm SOL. Would this fill in that blank or would I get the big black out?