Christopher Schroeder

Tag: Chicago Cubs

  • A Money-Hungry MLB

    A Money-Hungry MLB

    Major League Baseballs reminded me again at the start of spring training this year how much more it cares about money than fans.

    It notified me last week that MLB at Bat, which is its online radio subscription, was now called MLB+. It also indicated that the annual cost had been doubled.

    I have always been ambivalent about this service. However, I cannot get a good AM radio signal in the building where I live, cannot find an online radio stream that isn’t substantially delayed, and am not always within the broadcast area or even near a radio.

    For these reasons, I had been reluctantly spending about thirty dollars each season, or about five dollars a month, to stream the Cubs radio broadcasts, and to listen to Pat and Ron without trouble, anywhere I was. Why not spend a little to avoid complicating one of the perennial joys of life?

    This answer was complicated by this notification from MLB. The online renewal price, which I checked after receiving this news, was still the same as it was last year, so I called MLB customer service.

    The rep insisted that MLB hadn’t actually doubled the price — it technically had more than doubled it, I guess, but why would he highlight that? — and reported that it hadn’t added any features or services.

    This rep claimed he would disable my auto-renew, but I thought I already had done that. I then also removed my credit card and deleted my account.

    MLB wants its radio subscribers to spend twice as much for the same service. This one hundred percent increase moreover is happing at a time that many are predicting a lockout after this season as owners and players squabble over a salary cap, especially after the Dodgers signed Kyle Tucker in the offseason and continue spending for a three-peat.

    Such disregard for fans isn’t new. Major league baseball for example has had nine strikes or lockouts since 1972. The longest, which occurred in 1994-1995, canceled 938 games, and the entire 1994 postseason. The most recent, which happened in 2021-2022, didn’t cancel any games but delayed the 2022 opening day.

    This disregard appears in other ways. For example, the Chicago Cubs and the Chicago White Sox have their own sports networks, and now charge local fans who want to watch games from the comfort of their living rooms, which many previously had done on free television, about twenty dollars a month.

    Neither even offers good reasons for such expenses. The Cubs have lost the division title to the rivals Brewers or Cardinals, who play in smaller markets, for the last five seasons. The Sox have lost over one hundred games for the last three.

    The problem is that enough fans will likely spend for the radio and television subscriptions, and the tickets, concessions, and merchandise. Such expenses, whatever the costs, seem especially appealing in the middle of February.

    I however might have an alternative this season. One of my kids recently gave me a solar-or-crank-powered portable radio with an extendable antenna. With it, I might be able to find a crackly yet discernible sound of the play-by-play from Hall-of-Famer Pat Hughes, who will begin his forty-third season calling Cubs games, and his most recent partner, and former Cub from the metro-Chicago area, Ron Coomer.

    I gotta get cranking, and searching for the strongest signals. Spring training games start tomorrow.

  • An Unfortunate Event

    An Unfortunate Event

    I revisited the 3rd St. Market Hall last week while in Milwaukee for a baseball game after such a good experience in the spring.

    At that time, I eventually chose barbecue chicken mac-and-cheese for lunch, which I leisurely enjoyed before going to the art museum. I stopped again later for some coffee before my return train to, and something sweet for my wife in, Chicago.

    This time, I found a quiet table — the space around 10am was nearly empty — where I could decide whether to eat before or after the baseball game. In the meantime, I was planning my route to and from the stadium and finishing some fruit and vegetables I had brought on the train.

    I was soon approached by someone who had been in a group gathered around computers at a long table. He informed me without any introduction that purchases paid for the table and chair I was using and that signs at the nearby entrance prohibited outside food.

    This person should have known from the technofeudalism and capitalism book on the table between us that I needn’t an economics explanation. He also would have know had he asked any questions that I was planning to purchase lunch either before or after the game, and that I hadn’t used the entrance to which he gestured.

    I assured him that I would put the produce back in my back, and then left after resolving to skip lunch altogether. I did relent after the game, and stopped on my way to the train station again for something sweet for my spouse without this time using any tables or chairs.

    I’ve never had such an experience at any of Chicago food halls, not even when I’m in one just to work. I also didn’t expect such an experience in a place that invites people into its space, offers them something to drink, and encourages them with games and screens to linger.

    I can imagine the pressures of decimated downtowns as well as the desire for paying patrons. At the same time, I suspect such strategies can only drive potential, and previous, customers from such spaces.

    I intend to return to Milwaukee later this summer but will likely as a result skip this place. I wonder what I’ll say anytime anyone asks about these trips, but do know what I will remember, which I fear won’t be the baseball game, and not just because the Cubs lost.