It’s about baseball. I’m a huge fan of my St. Louis Team, the Cardinals. Whether it’s a good year or a bad year, I am still a fan, and I hate missing games. I often plan my evenings around whether or not there is a game being televised. I see most of the games on Fox Sports (Midwest for us), and have come to enjoy and appreciate the skill of our local game callers. I could pay for MLB.tv if I wanted, but I would not have my local commentary with the game. And that would be a hard thing for me to give up. On the rare occasions when Cardinals games are broadcast on ESPN, I spend half the game annoyed online announcers, who can’t pronounce things properly, and often are spending commentary time digging up dirt on the winning team so they can talk bad about them. The usual ESPN guy also sounds like he went to the Harry Carey School of Sports Broadcasting, and failed. It makes my baseball-watching much less enjoyable, and I often find myself turning off the volume on the television and turning on the radio where I can hear our regular, local sports announcers broadcast the game through an AM station.
Losing baseball, especially local baseball, would be the hardest thing about giving up pay television. If I could solve this problem easily, I’d do it in a heartbeat. I hate paying that bill every month. Had to pay it this morning and I just bristle every time. I just know I’m not getting $80-worth of enjoyment out of the satellite television every month. Unless it’s baseball. Then, for a couple bucks a day or so, I’m getting something I really enjoy out of it.
How are others feeding their sports addictions yet getting rid of their pay television?