It's 1996 All Over Again

Today (Friday the 12th) is the date of the big permanent switch over to digital TV, and I don't have a converter box and, since moving to my new apartment, I also no longer have cable TV. With no roommate to help cover the cost, it just wasn't worth it anymore, considering I don't even watch much TV these days--just sports, SportsCenter, and the occasional episode of The Golden Girls. My Netflix subscription pretty much takes care of the rest, and since I decided I didn't want to give Charter money anymore, I'm relying exclusively on Netflix, my internet connection (oh wait, that's also Charter--dang), and my Colecovision for in-home entertainment needs.

The only problem this presents is that my access to televised sports has pretty much dropped off completely. The opportunities to see sports on TV are now limited to when I visit my parents on weekends, when I'm sucking down platters of cheeseburgers at a local eatery, or when I visit my cool friend down the street who has a satellite dish and a Nintendo system.

That's when I realized that my sports-watching ability has reverted back to what I could do in 1996. In those days (I am not an old man, but I seem to use that phrase a lot), we didn't have satellite TV or Channel 49 yet, and our TV antenna was too weak to pick up Channel 11 out of St. Louis, so the only baseball games I saw were the playoffs and whatever they showed on the Fox Saturday Game of the Week. If I wanted to otherwise catch a Cardinals game, it had to be on the radio.

Strangely enough, these days I seem to be back in the same position. I don't have cable, satellite, or any network stations anymore, so the only baseball games I see are on Sundays at Mom and Dad's house. If I want to catch a game during the week, I have MLB Gameday Audio on my computer, or the radio in my car if I'm out and about. If I miss a game, I can read up on what happened on the internet or in my local newspaper.

The only downside to relying so much on radio coverage is the commercials. Gameday Audio has the feed from KTRS out of St. Louis, and they play the same commercials over and over again, and they all feature an audio clip of John Rooney or Mike Shannon making some dramatic call from a game last season. This is very confusing because I'll be in another room doing something, and suddenly I hear "Albert swings and hits it deep...way back...it's a GONER!" And I come running into the room to find out that it was only a commercial for plumbing. What a tease. I've tried to memorize these canned calls so I know when Pujols is actually hitting a home run and when it's just a commercial, but they still trick me most of the time.

Fortunately, the absence of sports on television hasn't been all that noticeable. I seem to be able to absorb enough information through a combination of print, the internet, and sports talk radio to counteract the lack of TV. And being able to listen to games on the radio makes it easier to do other things at the same time, instead of feeling the need to plop down in front of the TV and stay there the rest of the night. Nevertheless, when I do have the opportunity to watch a game on TV, I've come to appreciate it.

Well, so long as the Rockies aren't tearing it up against the Cardinals, anyway.