Give it a week or so and Spring Training games will seem to be irrelevant, save for news of any injuries that occur.\u00c2\u00a0 However, right now the thought of listening to or watching some live baseball can’t help but make any baseball fan excited.\u00c2\u00a0 The games begin today and Gameday Audio\/MLB.tv subscribers in Britain will be eagerly logging on for the first time in 2009 this evening.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Video footage of Spring Training games is often thin on the ground simply because the games are not being broadcast by anyone.\u00c2\u00a0 The provisional schedule for this February\/March suggests that we’ll be able to watch more than usual this time around and the great thing about Spring Training games for Brits is that they normally take place at a convenient time for us.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
The first MLB.tv game of the season is a good example.\u00c2\u00a0 The reigning NL Cy Young winner Tim Lincecum will start his ’09 preparations from 20.05 GMT as the Giants play against the Indians.\u00c2\u00a0 Anyone staying up late can also see the Red Sox against the Twins from five past midnight.<\/p>\n
Times listed on the Watch\/Listen page at MLB.com are all in Eastern Time, which is currently five hours behind GMT.\u00c2\u00a0 This will change to four hours on 8 March as America moves to daylight saving time (DST), before moving back to five hours on 29 March\u00c2\u00a0when\u00c2\u00a0our clocks change\u00c2\u00a0to British Summer Time (BST).<\/p>\n
There are four games being shown on Thursday evening: Astros v Braves (18.05), Marlins v Mets (18.10), Rays v Yankees (18.15) and D-Backs v Indians (20.05).\u00c2\u00a0 Friday brings us two games on MLB.tv: Cardinals v Mets (18.10) and Padres v Indians (20.05).\u00c2\u00a0 Fans of the Tribe are certainly being well-catered for early on this year.<\/p>\n
On top of this coverage, radio commentary from the majority (although not all) of the games will be available via Gameday Audio.\u00c2\u00a0 Baseball, like cricket, lends itself brilliantly to the radio medium and Spring Training games are a particular joy when followed by this method.<\/p>\n
No one is really concerned about the scoreline.\u00c2\u00a0 The announcers will therefore spend more time bringing you the sights and sounds of the baseball carnival going on in the stands and the surrounding area.\u00c2\u00a0 Sit back and be transported to Arizona or Florida.<\/p>\n
It’s a lot of fun listening to the announcers discussing baseball news and the culinary treats on offer at the ballpark, with the sound of bat hitting ball and the murmur of the crowd serving as a backdrop.\u00c2\u00a0 Typically key members from the Front Office and the scouting departments of teams will often pop into the booth as well, passing on lots of useful information about prospects and fringe players hoping to make the twenty-five man roster.<\/p>\n
Listening to Spring Training games has become an annual ritual for me.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s nothing like tuning in for the first time and hearing your team playing once again.\u00c2\u00a0 The A’s play their first game of ’09 against the Brewers from 20.05 tonight and that first pitch will signal the end of the long baseball-free winter months.<\/p>\n
It can’t come soon enough.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Give it a week or so and Spring Training games will seem to be irrelevant, save for news of any injuries that occur.\u00c2\u00a0 However, right now the thought of listening to or watching some live baseball can’t help but make any baseball fan excited.\u00c2\u00a0 The games begin today and Gameday Audio\/MLB.tv subscribers in Britain will […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[70,553,66],"class_list":["post-2126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-baseball-coverage","tag-gamedayaudio","tag-mlb-2","tag-mlb-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2126"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2126\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5254,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2126\/revisions\/5254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}