Want to "get back into baseball" (1 Viewer)

[Steve Tasker]

Is this threadworthy? I don't know, but, hell, I've been drinking.

I used to consider myself a big baseball fan, serious fantasy player, etc. Over the last 5-6 years, my interest has slowly waned, to the point where last year I only watched probably less than 9 innings TOTAL of the entire regular season (save for 2 trips to Toronto for Jays games) and the playoffs from the 7th inning on (and only if the games were close). I was flipping through the channels last night and was stunned to find out that Carl Crawford was on the Red Sox? It really made me realize how far out of the game I am.

I live in a very non baseball-market. There are a handful of Yankees and Red Sox fans here and there, and that's pretty much it. I've always considered myself both a Blue Jays (closest geographical team, I usually make it up for a handful of games each summer) and a Dodgers fan (not really sure why here). The problem is that other than the Yankees on YES Network, Mets on MSG, and an occasional ESPN game or Blue Jays game on CBC, there's very little baseball on TV here. Plus, well...the Jays suck, and the Dodgers are 3000 miles away.

WTF do I do? Gotta be some out-of-market folks here. Good websites to follow and read? Ways to watch your teams play out-of-market? #### like that. TIA

 

[shuke]

Joing a fantasy league.

Get the MLB Extra Innings.

Schedule roadtrips to see games.

Collect a current baseball card set.

 

[Sudoku_in_the_Bathtub]

JMO As you get older, interest goes down. You're not able to spend the time keep up with 162 games/year.

Used to be a huge baseball fan. I couldn't tell you half of the Cubs players nowadays. I hit up 2-3 spring training games (and maybe back to Chicago to catch a reg. game/two, but it's impossible to keep up.

I just don't like spending the spare time I have to watch baseball anymore. I don't think I've watched a full inning of baseball in it's entirely in 3-4 years.

I go to Rotoworld & ESPN.com and check up on baseball news every now and then.

 

[Dr. Awesome]

Join a fantasy league. You'll eventually find some players you really like. At some point you'll make some team your favorite. Fantasy baseball really will help get you back into the sport.

With the MLB package and the internet distance doesn't matter. You can follow any team from anywhere.

I'm an A's fan and live in SoCal. I've also lived in Florida and a few other places. Never had trouble following my team.

 

[Eephus]

stick w/ soccer

 

[Time Kibitzer]

Joing a fantasy league.

Get the MLB Extra Innings.

Schedule roadtrips to see games.

Collect a current baseball card set.

Don't do the bolded.

 

[Northern Voice]

Jays are on the upswing and you're an hour away, seems pretty simple... but then again, one of your points is that the Jays suck (despite an 85-77 record last year and one of the youngest teams/best farms in the majors), so go with what Eephus said.

 

[Dr. Awesome]

Also, welcome back!

 

[Eephus]

Seriously, it's all about what happens between the lines. Watch a few games, hopefully they'll be good ones. If you enjoy what's happening on the field, the rest of the interest will follow.

 

[dparker713]

Join a fantasy league. You'll eventually find some players you really like. At some point you'll make some team your favorite. Fantasy baseball really will help get you back into the sport.

With the MLB package and the internet distance doesn't matter. You can follow any team from anywhere.

I'm an A's fan and live in SoCal. I've also lived in Florida and a few other places. Never had trouble following my team.

You have to be outside of the team's home market. For instance, I can't get the package to follow the Mets, I have to watch them on SNY here in NJ. I think you should try watching some of MLB TV's nightly coverage. They do live look-ins like 4 nights a week. Its pretty great, especially if you just ant to watch baseball and not a specific game.

 

[SuperAwesomeDude]

 

[belljr]

Are you willing to vomit on a child, get tazed while running on the field, get really drunk and shout obsceneties for no reason, get thrown out of a game for being an ahole

Well then we would love to have you.

 

[pollardsvision]

It's a good time to like the Jays and Dodgers, I think.

The Jays are pretty good and should stay in it all year at least. More importantly (for you), they are very exciting. Great offense with some mashers and alot of young talent. The pitching as a whole isn't great, but they've a got some good young guys worth seeing (Morrow, Romero, Drabek).

All in all, it's about the best case scenario for a team that likely can't win it all, from a fan's point of view. They are young and will score runs.

You could do alot worse than having the Jays as a close team. (For example, living in southern Virginia, where the most exciting live baseball within 3-4 hours is a good pitching match-up in the high-A Carolina League).

As others have mentioned, Extra Innings is a great investment. If you don't want to do that watching the MLB Network at nights is great regardless. It's basically baseball's Red Zone channel and it's every night.

 

[Tom Servo]

Get the Extra Innings package and pick a team, any team and follow them. There's great teams out there, good individual players to watch. You don't have to be a fan of any team; if you love the game and want to enjoy it, you can move from game to game and get primo matchups pretty much any night of the week. A lot of times I'll watch the Indians games from the other team's station just to get an idea of what they think of the team. Plus, there are some good announcer teams out there - Minnesota comes to mind.

Depending on where you live, there's great minor league action all over New England. If you're soured on MLB...

 

[rodg12]

If you get Extra Innings, you can always just watch the Game Mix channel too if you don't want to tune in to just one team. 8 games at once...

 

[Steve Tasker]

I'm not looking to follow a new team, I like the Jays and, to a lesser extent, the Dodgers. Saying that the Jays suck was a bit of hyperbole, sure, but it's hard to get up for an out-of-market team that is realistically the 4th best team in arguably the best division in the league (the Rays are still good, right?). I mean, ####, they haven't made the playoffs since I was 6 years old...that's even worse than the Bills

Fantasy baseball isn't for me. I can't even follow fantasy football and have dropped all my leagues. I used to be a big fantasy baseball player, but I became "that guy" who stops making lineup changes in mid-May and ends up with 3 guys on the 60-day DL in his starting lineup for 1/2 the season.

There's nothing I like more than going to baseball games. A few friends and I took a very awesome road trip 2 summers ago and made it to Toronto, Detroit, Chicago (White Sox), St. Louis, and Cincinnati for games. I can go to a game and have a great time without knowing half the players in the game - which, sadly, has become the norm for me.

I think that it's just been a byproduct of me getting older and the fact that (1) I don't understand the game inside and out like a former player would and have trouble watching two random teams play (unlike with soccer or football) and (2) there's very few games on television here, especially games with my teams in it.

I recently discovered that we get MLB Network. I don't know if it's a free preview week thing or what, but I hope it's permanent.