Dealing with sports withdrawal in Baltimore

By: Eric Goodman

Posted: 4/24/08

Back at home (Westchester, N.Y. - just north of New York City) there is a commercial for the cable company in which they repeatedly mention how the New York metro area has nine major men's professional sports teams. Nine teams, spread out over four major sports. This means that I am usually never at a loss when it comes to wanting to watch the 'home' team.

It did not hit me until I got cable a few weeks into the school year that I would not be able to watch my beloved Yankees as they tried to catch the Red Sox at the top of the American League East division, or watch the Mets as they were trying to avoid a colossal late season collapse. I couldn't watch the Knicks, despite the worst season in team history, or the Rangers, who recently played another N.Y.-metro area team, the Devils, in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

I got another cold, hard slap in the face during football season. I have two teams to root for - the Jets and the Giants. So when I woke up on December 16 to watch my Jets played the then undefeated New England Patriots, I was stunned to realize that the only game on television at the time was the Ravens taking on the winless Miami Dolphins.

There are people who probably think I have no right to complain. ESPN does tend to show a disproportionate amount of games featuring New York teams for marketing reasons. But for someone who is a die-hard New York sports junkie, the last few months have been somewhat trying.

I know that I am not alone in this boat. Freshman David Moorshead, who is from the suburbs of Kansas City, Mo., feels the same way.

"I feel like I'm missing out on the play-by-play of Chiefs football games. Even though I'm now living in Baltimore, I'd rather watch sports teams from Kansas City," Moorshead said.

There are some people, however, who actually fall into the opposite boat. Eric Lubben, another freshman, hails from Stamford, Conn., but is actually a die-hard Orioles fan.

"I've liked the Orioles since I was five, so living in the Baltimore area provides opportunities not only to watch the games on TV, but also to go to the Yard and watch the games," Lubben said. "It's great because for any home game I can go down to the stadium and get a really cheap ticket and watch my team play."

I was very excited this past weekend when the Yankees came to town to take on the Orioles at Camden Yards. My friend and I went down to the game on Friday night, when tickets for college students are $5 each. Perched up high atop the bleachers on the first base side of the field, we were surrounded by other college students from this area - from Loyola, Towson, UMBC, Maryland - many of whom were, presumably, also from the New York area. This led to about a 65-35 distribution of Orioles to Yankee fans. I found myself comfortably rooting for my home team, without a gigantic backlash. While the Yankees lost the game, it still served as almost a relief from the withdrawal I had been suffering at not being able to see my beloved Yankees in person, or on television, for the first couple of weeks of the season.

But all hope is not lost for those in the same precarious position that I am in. One option for those suffering from sports withdrawal (and who miss their local television provider in general) is the Slingbox. This is a device which enables its users to view their local cable or satellite provider through their home computer. I could be sitting in my room on a Sunday morning, writing a News-Letter column in one window, and watching the defending Super Bowl champion Giants in another. The price tag can get a little steep with this type of technology, but it would also allow you to possibly bypass paying for cable for your dorm room (which may not be so bad, unless you really want to watch the Orioles or Ravens). Another viable option is to watch the games through the league internet feeds. MLB.com can give you access to the local feeds for all major league games, but it does not come cheap either. A third option, for those who live off campus, would be to order a package such as Direct TV's NFL Sunday Ticket, which offers fans a chance to watch up to fourteen games per week (cable usually has four, two during Sunday afternoon, featuring local teams, which for us is the Ravens and Redskins, and Sunday and Monday night football, which are nationally broadcast). But this package costs over $250 for the whole season.

In the grand scheme of things, this is really not such a big deal. I probably should not be watching sports on television so much, as I have more important things to do here at Hopkins. But at least I'll be prepared when I come back to Hopkins in the fall, around the time football season starts, to watch my teams play. And you can be too.