Slingin’ off of Sherb

It’s tough being a displaced Red Sox fan. Especially when you’re in a town that doesn’t have a MLB team of its own [no offense Salt Lake Bees (or whatever your name happens to be this season)].


Daisuke wants me to watch him pitch. I'm trying, brother. Really.

The douches that run MLB have made it even tougher by trying to give exclusive rights to broadcast the MLB Extra Innings package solely to DirecTV. Extra Innings is an additional premium service that allows viewers to watch up to 60 baseball games per week; more importantly, it’s allowed me to watch Sox games, even though I haven’t lived in Boston in years. Until this season, Extra Innings has been available with all major cable and satellite providers. (Technically, it’s not official, but it’s pretty clear what MLB is partial to the exclusive deal with DirecTV.)

Bastards.

Luckily, due to an increase in Red Sox Nation population, the Sox are scheduled for 14 national broadcasts this year. But that still leaves 148 games. That’s where my buddy Sherb comes in.

He lives in western Maine, well within the broadcast area of NESN, where the majority of the games are televised. Sherb picked up a fancy doohickey pretty recently: a Slingbox.


A blessed piece of technology.

Essentially, it’s connected to his cable box and his internet feed and allows him (or me) to watch his local cable from anywhere in the world.

Thank goodness.