Baseball. Blogging. Whenever.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Thumbs up for the MLB Network


At least according to advertisers and the people who care about them:

IT is rare that media buyers form a consensus on anything, but in the case of the neophyte Major League Baseball Network, which had its premiere in January, they seem to agree that they like its chances of becoming a successful player in the television sports marketplace.

Executives at the network, two-thirds owned by Major League Baseball and one-third owned by a group of cable and satellite operators, said that it was on target to meet its first-quarter ad revenue projections, with major advertisers like Sprint, I.B.M., Kraft, Domino’s Pizza, Geico, Progressive, Sony PlayStation, 2K Sports and Viagra, among others, already on the air. And none of them are among the 18 official M.L.B. sponsors, who, at some point this year, also are expected to jump in with varying amounts of advertising-dollar support.

Great. Now how about Insight Communications getting over its snit about competing cable companies partially owning the thing and finding a spot for it on my dial, because I'm getting really sick of getting seven Animal Planets and not one MLB Network.
Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 6:14am (3) Comments

Today at THT


Things to read as you wonder whether your kids would be in a constant state of contracting and/or getting over colds from October through April if you didn't live in the Midwest:

  • Sean Smith has five questions about the Los Angeles Angels. Question number six: Is this cleared up yet?

  • Josh Kalk looks at some lesser known pitchers from Korea and Japan. And you should look at this article, because as Josh notes, it's the last one you'll see from him at THT for the foreseeable future. He doesn't explain why, but I'm pretty sure it's because, like Poochie, his own planet needs him.


  • Peter Schilling interviews Paul Dickson, the author/editor of the Dickson Baseball Dictionary. Such a beast has to be an absolutely gigantic freaking undertaking, and to reward Mr. Dickson for his hard work, I think one of you should buy it for me.


  • Over at Fantasy Focus, Eriq Gardner asks whether Auto Pick is evil. He tends to think not, but that's what they said about SkyNET, and we all saw what happened when it became self-aware.


  • Finally, Paul Singman has some various fantasy tidbits. This article is really more for your wife or girlfriend, inasmuch as it presents the kind of information that, should you find yourself spending time independently researching it, will likely get you dumped in short order. Ask yourself: is knowing Emmanuel Burriss' status really worth the end of your relationship?
    • Posted by Craig Calcaterra at 5:25am (0) Comments

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