I Was Skeptical, But Apple Sports Won Me Over

iPhone Sports App

iPhone Sports App: A Convert's Perspective

For years, iPhone users have relied on third-party apps for sports scores and updates. But Apple recently stepped into the game with its own Sports app, and after some initial skepticism, I'm now a convert. The Apple Sports app was introduced on the iPhone on February 21, 2024. I initially tried it back in February, but it lacked customization, so I didn't use it for long. However, I've returned to using the app for the past two months, and I'm enjoying it much more. Apple has made several improvements that enhance usability, including displaying live games I follow on my lock screen and Apple Watch. Adding or removing games from my "followed" list is now a breeze.

While other apps on my phone (e.g., ESPN, MLB, NFL) offer game tracking, I particularly appreciate how Apple Sports displays real-time countdowns on my lock screen and Apple Watch. Often, the countdown is ahead of what I see on TV, giving me a more "live" feel.

Follow a Specific Game

Following a Specific Game

The screenshot shows the games I'm currently following. In this case, there are NFL games and college basketball games. To follow a game on your lock screen or Apple Sports, simply open the game in the app and tap the icon in the upper right corner of the game details. Tapping the icon again unfollows the game.

The ability to display followed games on the lock screen is a relatively recent addition, introduced within the last two or three months. This feature wasn't available at the app's initial launch and has been a game-changer for me. I often close live updates from other apps like NFL or ESPN, relying on Apple Sports for at-a-glance updates.

Followed Game on Lock Screen

Lock Screen Updates

As shown in the screenshots, Apple Sports provides clear updates on the lock screen and Apple Watch. On my Apple Watch, I receive notifications for scores, end of quarters, and halftime/game endings. These notifications can be customized if you only want to see score updates.

Final Thoughts

I am currently using Apple Sports as my primary app for following my teams. I appreciate the real-time updates, which seem faster than those in other apps. Occasionally, a game might not update correctly, requiring me to force-close and restart the app, but this is a minor inconvenience.

I'm optimistic that Apple will continue to update and improve the Apple Sports experience. If you haven't tried it recently, I encourage you to check it out.

Summer Fun at the Ballpark

Royals Game Friday Night

Friday night found me at the Royals game. Erin and Greg were planning to go into the game and asked if I wanted to go when Carrie had to work that night. I took them up on it and go my ticket. They were in another section with another friend and no seats available around them, but I was able to get a seat a section away and it worked out perfectly. About the third inning I was able to move over to where they were sitting and sit right in front of them for the remainder of the game. 

Selfie at the Game

We watched a fun game with the Royals winning 7 - 4 over the Phillies. A beautiful night for a game with a cool breeze blowing most of the night. We picked a good night to go into a game with the temperatures rising on Saturday through Thursday. Not to mention on Saturday the Royals lost 11 - 2 which I watched from home in my lounge chair. We had a great time at the game and it was good to be able to sit with Stacy, Erin, and Greg and topped off with a Royals win.

Friday Night Fireworks

Friday also happened to be fireworks night. We watched as we walked back to our car where we hung out watching fireworks, chatting, and snacking. They put on a good show after the game although I did not get any photos they were fun to watch.

While we were at the game, Carrie was working. She checked in with us through the night and it even sounded as though she was following the game. We got back to Topeka late. She confirmed when I got home that the event went well.  This was my fourth Royals game to attend on the year and I think Carrie has attended two. I am hoping to get in 2 - 5 more Royals games before the post season. 

It was good to be able to go to the Royals game after a long week. Our AC is working again as of last Tuesday. Classes started and that is always a busy time. It was a good first week of classes though although still hard to believe that the fall semester has started again. 

Until next time, have a great week! 

Royals Win on a Beautiful Friday Night!

Royals Game on May 17

Another Great Night at the Ballpark

This past Friday night, I headed to my second Royals game of the season with Greg, Eddie, and Chris. It was a beautiful evening, and the best part? The Royals pulled off a win against the A's!

We arrived early to enjoy some pre-game tailgating. It had been a while since I'd been able to do that, and it was a great way to kick things off. Greg whipped up some hot dogs, Eddie brought the beers, and Chris supplied the peanuts. All I had to do was show up and enjoy the delicious food and drinks!

Greg and me in our Seats

Greg got our seats and parking permit and then we all paid him back. I thought I got a picture of Eddie, Chris, and me, but I was using the BallPark app and apparently it did not post or did not take, so I have the picture to the right of Greg and me at the game. 

Royals Perfect When I Attend (So Far!)

While I wasn't able to find a picture of everyone together (seems the BallPark app failed me this time!), I did snag one of Greg and me at the game. Interestingly, the BallPark app tracks your attendance and win/loss record for the games you go to. With two games under my belt this season, the Royals are undefeated when I'm in the stands! (Just sayin') 

Stats from BallPark App

BallPark App Fun Facts

For anyone who's been using the BallPark app for a while, like me, checking your team stats can be a fun way to relive past games. To find yours, just tap your initials in the top left corner. My profile shows I've checked in to 33 games, seen 16 different teams, and visited 3 ballparks.

The app even tells me my earliest recorded game was on June 8th, 2013 (guessing the app launched around then?). Most of my Royals game attendance came in the magical 2014 season, where I saw 10 games throughout the regular and post-season. What a ride that was! And of course, who can forget the back-to-back World Series appearances in 2014 and 2015? Carrie and I were lucky enough to attend game one of the 2015 Series – an experience I'll never forget.

Royals Win!!!!

Here's to More Games and Ballpark Memories!

I'm looking forward to catching more Royals games this season and adding to my BallPark app stats. Maybe I'll even visit some new ballparks in the coming years! (Though I've definitely been to more than three, some pre-date the app's existence). Those attendance records are a fun way to see how my teams perform when I cheer them on in person.

Until next time, have a great week and Go Royals!

Washburn Basketball, Movies, Weather, and NFL in this Update to Start the 2024 Year

Carrie and John at Washburn Game

Carrie and I attended our third game of the season. We have missed a number of early games in the season, but hope to make the remaining games of the season. With traveling, holidays, etc., we were unable to make games earlier in the season. We had a great time on Saturday. Washburn came away with the win. We attended the Washburn game on Thursday too and we won that game too.

While we were at the game, we decided we are going to attend one of the home track meets Washburn plays through January. I have never been to a track meet although I have watched them online, so I am looking forward to attending our first track meet at our very own Indoor Athletic Facility on the Washburn University campus.

Friday night, we stayed home and enjoyed watching movies. During the holiday break, we watched a movie, or two, every night. There were a few we did not get to, so we watched on Friday night. We were able to watch The Holdovers and it was fantastic! We watched The Holdovers on Peacock, but I know it is playing at Liberty Hall in Lawrence, KS. Worth checking out as the whole cast did a great job. From the same director who did Sideways (2004), Alexander Payne put together a good story that was heartwarming and brought tears to my eyes. After watching The Holdovers, we decided we would watch Sideways as it had been a long time since we had seen Sideways. Fun low key Friday night for us.

Trees and Lights in the Snow

Friday also brought our second snow to Topeka. It was not supposed to amount to much, but it did snow all day long and left the trees and shrubs looking pretty. A wet snow that covered trees, so Carrie snapped a picture of our trees and lit up snowman in front of our house as it was pretty. The forecast is for significant snow fall Monday through Tuesday, so we will see what happens. 

This is the last weekend of the regular season for the NFL. Many teams are playing backup players to save their starters for the playoffs which includes the Kansas City Chiefs who are not starting Mahomes and others to keep them fresh for the postseason. So I am looking forward to watching football all afternoon although Carrie is not thrilled as she will be happy when the season is over and no more football. 

A wondering ramble of topics for this week. Short week last week with New Years Day on Monday, but it was back to work. It was a good productive work week. I hope your year started out well and I will talk to you soon.

Tough Thursday Night for Washburn and Chiefs Plus First Home Soccer Game and Other Ramblings...

Tailgating Spot

Officially it feels like fall with the start of home football games at Washburn University. Thursday night started the home schedule for Washburn and it was a beautiful night. It also happened to be the first game of the season for the Kansas City Chiefs. We had a new spot to park our car, so Carrie took a picture of me in front of our car in our new spot. Much better location as it is directly in front of where we tailgate which will be nice for unloading, packing up, and having the car right there if needed.

Washburn football started the week prior on the road at Pitt State losing 34 - 7. Granted, Pitt State is ranked #4 so it was a tough game. We then played our first home game of the season against Missouri Southern and while it was close, we lost the game 30 - 23. We had a chance to win the game going down to the wire, but turned it over and it was all over.

Washburn Stadium

The weather was perfect for the first game of the season. It was good to catch up with friends who were tailgating and had not seen since the last game of the season last year. The tailgate started at 4 pm although Carrie and I both worked until 5 and got out there about 5:15 or so. Could not have asked for a better evening for tailgating and football.

Washburn is now 0 - 2 to start the season and we are on the road for our next game. We need to get a W on the road to get our first win of the season and put us back on track.

Beautiful Skies Did Not Help Chiefs

The same night Washburn was playing, the Kansas City Chiefs were playing. Kickoff for the Chiefs was a little later, so I was able to watch the end of the game after we got home. We were without Travis Kelce for the Chiefs game and it showed with KC losing 21 - 20 and starting the season 0 - 1. The last time the Kansas City Chiefs started 0 - 1 was in 2014 when we lost our season opener to the Tennessee Titans 26 - 10. We have only started the season 0 - 2 once in our history (1977) and I am hoping we do not repeat that this year. I have faith we will bounce back and get the next win. The rumor is that Kelce will return for week two, but we are a week out, so probably a little early, but feeling confident.

After two loses for my teams Thursday night, we went to the Washburn Women's Soccer game on Friday night. We had a good crowd for the home opener for Women's Soccer and we won 4 - 0. I am hoping to make it to more soccer games this year as we only went to one last year and it was toward the end of the season. The same night Washburn Volleyball played too which we also plan to get to some games this season.

I would be remiss not to mention that Kansas Football won Friday night. I was unable to watch most of the game, but I was tracking on my phone. Good start for KU and it is going to be fun to see how the rest of their season progresses.

Today is Sunday and although Chiefs played Thursday, I am looking forward to watching games throughout the day. I have had YouTube TV for a few years now and now that YouTube TV owns the rights to Sunday Ticket, I bought the package so I can watch all of the NFL games. Much to the dismay of Carrie, I will be able to watch football all day long. 

Enjoy your Sunday and have a great week! Until next time, happy sport watching...

Kansas City Royals Start of Season Brief Update and Looking Forward to Attending a Game

Royals Stadium from 2008

Not a very good end to March or start to April. The Kansas City Royals started off the season 0 - 3. We went two full games without a single run. That makes it difficult to win a game. We finally got a run in the third game, but lost that game after getting four runs. Not an ideal start to the season. I was looking forward to watching a competitive season. Granted, the season is young and there is still a lot of baseball to play. We did finally get our first win on Monday night, but then lost the second game of the series Tuesday night. 

Here we are on Thursday night writing and the Royals lost again today. We have won one game this season.We have had a total of 36 hits during our first seven games and only 17 runs. Our pitching has not been all that bad, but our batting has completely failed us in at least three games so far scoring zero points in those three games. Pitiful!

I write this update for Sunday on Thursday night and we start a new series on Friday against the Giants. Our first road game of the season and I am not expecting much. The Giants are 3-3 to start the season, so there is a chance we could go zero runs for all three games or get lucky and win the one game. At this point, that is about as good as I see it getting the way the season has started.

It is so enjoyable to visit Kauffman Stadium to watch our Kansas City Royals and while I have not made it to one of the early season games, I do plan to get to a few games this season. My hope is that when I do finally make it to see a game this summer, we are competitive and have an exciting game.

Until next time, have a great week! Here is to hoping we play well the next three days and manage to get at least one win. I am not asking much, two would be great, but being realistic, I would take one win for the next three games. Go Royals!

I had this post lined up and ready to post for Sunday night at midnight, but here I am on Friday evening updating that the Royals got their second win of the season this afternoon. We beat the Giants 3 - 1 Friday afternoon. I might need to not watch, listen, or follow their games more often. I truly thought we were going to be swept this weekend, so I am happy to get this Friday win.

Me again, it is now Saturday evening as I write and once again, I missed the game today. I saw the score and I see that we won again. Ok, I think the baseball Gods are telling me something that I need to not watch or only partially watch and the Royals will win. Your welcome!

I wrote the majority of this on early in the week. I decided to leave it as I think it is a bit funny and then if it is helping the Royals win, I am good with that too. I would like to eventually be able to watch the Royals and have them win the game. 

This will post at midnight this evening (Saturday), so I am interested to see how it goes tomorrow. I will not be watching or following the game tomorrow. Go Royals!

Changes with Twitter Sent Me to Reddit for Discussing Shows, Sports, and Most Social Media Interactions

January Post Regarding Twitter Changes

Back in January Twitter changed how third party applications can interact with Twitter (see post) which ultimately made various applications to stop working. The decisions by Elon Musk continue to cause issues for Twitter. Yes, I still have my account, but I rarely use, or interact, with Twitter. It is not where I go for news, discussing sports, shows, etc., but more of an afterthought after I have been interacting on other social media sites such as Reddit. 

For years I have used connectors to auto post to FaceBook, Twitter, and LinkedIn when I post to my site. In March auto posting from IFTTT, which is a site used to publish to many other social media sites, will stop working for Twitter. This is a huge impact on sharing tweets for many companies and bloggers. It is an easy way to share information from web sites to Twitter which will suddenly stop working for many. It is not clear how this can help Twitter as it seems to be causing people to leave the social media service in mass. However, it is also causing traffic to not go to Twitter with these changes. No longer are tweets being generated from millions of sites to publicize on Twitter, so instead, there will be nothing at all. No connections and possibly more people leaving the Twitter service.

While I still have my Twitter account, I use Reddit to interact with others on shows, movies, and especially sports. My frequent sites for sports include  /r/CollegeBasketball, /r/CFB, /r/KansasCityChiefs, /r/KCRoyals, and /r/jayhawks. I like Reddit to interact with others as there are game threads for each and every game where then I can comment, respond, etc. to posts from others on that sport. I will say it took me a while to figure out the best approach for interacting with others on Reddit for a sporting event as there can be 1,000’s of replies to a game thread which makes it fast paced and a lot of information, so I looked for other options interacting with others via Reddit on a specific post.

• Reddit-Stream.com is a great site that works in a web browser. It is cheap as I paid for a lifetime account, but you can do a 30 day trial to test it out. Basically, it takes a thread and makes it easy to follow, comment, and follow up to comments from others. The web site lists some interesting posts, but you can use this site for anything simply by replacing the URL of a Reddit discussion with “-stream” following the reddit.com link (i.e. reddit-stream). I use Reddit-Stream.com frequently for discussions and with most game threads also including score, recent plays, etc., it is also a good way to keep up with a game. I have also used Reddit-Stream.com for discussing shows, award shows, etc. I highly recommend if you are looking to try out Reddit for discussions.

• Sideline is an app for iOS and Android that allows for easy discussion of game threads. It is only for games and specially Sideline application supports NCAA MBB, NBA, NHL, MLB, NFL, and NCAA CFB. This is a fairly new application as I just started using Sideline about a year ago. I can set favorites which will display at the top of the app and makes it easy to get to my sports topics or to switch back and forth between two events happening at the same time. I highly recommend Sideline for interacting via Reddit on sporting events. There is not an iPad option, but I am told that this is being worked on.

Granted, you can access Reddit directly to interact on a thread, but I found the above items to help with presentation of the comments and tracking what is said or my responding to others. If you have not used Reddit, the site has a wealth of information with topics for just about anything you can imagine. When I am researching a technical question, I often find that Google searches will link to a Reddit post about the same thing where I can then jump into the discussion and post follow ups or read what others wrote and solutions were provided in the thread. Very handy!

To connect with me on Reddit, or see what I have been posting, please visit my Reddit Profile.

Until next time, have a great week and I look forward to connecting with you on Reddit.

Diamond Sports Group Expected to File Bankruptcy Impacting Bally Sports Which has Rights to MLB, Soccer, etc.

Parent company Diamond Sports Group, which owns Bally Sports, is expected to file for bankruptcy next week (see article from Sportico). As you can imagine, there are all kinds of rumors about what this means for sports streaming with rants about losing viewing of all sports to some services (such as MLB) going to providing all of their games on MLB.TV but charging $300 - $400 per year. All rumors at this point as no one knows what will happen.

I hope this opens up the ability for providers, such as YouTube TV, to be able to provide local sports once again. Again, rumors are flowing that the company going bankrupt means YouTube TV, and others, would not be in the market to provide the sports streams at all. It might be a bit early to figure out what will happen with sports streaming after the dust settles, but I have to think it will be a better arrangement for the fan.

Time will tell if this will help or hinder fans from watching their teams. I am hopeful this will help and there is the possibility that leagues could take over their broadcasts meaning no more blackouts. I cannot help but wonder if part of the reason Bally Sports is failing is because of how limited they were in their reach for customers. Bally Sports was available as a pay service which I am not sure many people purchased. Others had the Bally Sports network through their provider such as Cox, Direct Stream, or recently fuboTV. I know many others who simply did not watch as it was too much of a hassle to get their channels as they were not available on their selected platform or they did not want to pay extra for Bally Sports. Many others that acquired the broadcasts through other means. Make it difficult to watch sports and people will find other ways or stop watching entirely.

To early to tell how the upcoming bankruptcy will impact streaming, but have to believe it will have impact on this season that is fast approaching for MLB. What exactly will be impacted is rumor and guessing, but I expect we will hear something impacting Bally Sports in the near future. I will continue to hope for improvement to the current structure to make it easier and better for fans to watch sports.

Until next time, have a great week! I am prepping for the Super Bowl later this evening. I cannot wait! Go Chiefs!

Nothing to Say First Part of February… So Rambling Away I Go…

One of those weeks where I cannot think of anything to write about, so I see this as being a rambling post for this Sunday update. Let’s see where this takes me as I write.

We are already five days into February 2023. Hard to believe that January has come and gone. With Carrie being in the hospital in January (see Not a Fun Start to 2023), that made the month fly by and not in a good way. She finished up her last IV appointment this past weekend, but will be taking antibiotics orally for the next two weeks. She is doing well and I appreciate everything who has asked about her status since I did the update a few weeks ago on her hospital stay. Carrie and I will be happy once she is off of the antibiotics and the infection is completely gone.

Now that we are into the month of February, I find myself starting to wonder about our camping sites for this year. We have not made any plans, but we have begun to think about spots. We have thrown out the idea of visiting a camping site near an away football location for Washburn next Fall, but still discussing to see what would make sense and whether it would work out. I think we want to try some new places for our camping sites, but no decisions made yet. Hoping by March we will have some sites booked and planned out for the summer.

In about a month, we will have March Madness, but still a lot of basketball to play before the madness begins. We continue to enjoy attending home Washburn basketball games. We are 8-2 at home, but 1-8 on the road. We missed a few home games when Carrie was in the hospital, but we have been back to the most recent games. Our next home game is February 11 and only three more home games for the season for Washburn.

Kansas Jayhawks have been frustrating to watch here recently too. We lost three games in a row a week or so ago and we were swept by Iowa State this season. KU is 18-5 on the season but 6-4 in conference play. Frustrating to watch at times, but still a lot of season to play.

Baseball season is right around the corner. Recent news from YouTube TV is that MLB Network is gone from the service. While we have not had Royals broadcasts in a few years, I was able to watch MLB Network or even subscribe to MLB.TV through YouTube TV to watch games, but all of that is gone. Contract disputes between MLB and YouTube TV have the service removed. 

I have read a few thoughts from others that they think it will be renewed as Spring Training begins, but guessing that is not the case and lose it completely. While it makes sense it would be removed around this time as it was added a year ago at this time just before Spring Training was starting. I am surprised that only a one year contract was done between the two entities. Granted, I will be able to watch games that are on ESPN, TBS, etc., but it was nice to have all the games (except my local Royals) to watch.

I would be remiss if I did not share that the Kansas City Chiefs are in the Super Bowl a week from today. I am a bit superstitious, so it will be interesting as we lead up to kickoff next week for the big game. Yes, I realize what I do has no impact on the outcome, but it makes me feel better and connects me to the team. So, get ready for the big game and hoping that two weeks of being off will give time for us to heal and be ready to play.

That is all the rambling I can do for today, so have a great week. 

Rambling Along on a Weekend About Sports, Books, Camping, and Whatever Else Comes to Mind

Carrie and John from 2013

Rambling along on a Sunday is what this post is about. Not one specific thing to discuss or talk about today, but various items that may or may not connect together. That’s what happens sometimes as I go to think about what to write for my Sunday update. In this edition, I will talk sports, books, camping, and anything else that comes to mind that I feel like sharing. I hope you find these as interesting as my other weeks posts about specific events or topics.

Sports

The days are getting shorter and believe it or not, the temperature is starting to drop too. We have had some really nice weather the past week or two, so we can see fall is approaching. Granted, we had at least two days this past week that were in the upper 90s, but the evenings are so nice. The shorter days and lower temperatures mean only one thing… football is starting. 

Washburn Football

Washburn plays our first game of the season at home on Thursday, September 1. I cannot wait! We finally have a parking spot in the tailgate this year, so I am excited to have that although it is a ways from our “spot” it will be nice to have the car close for everything we pack and not having to walk a distance to get it to our “spot”. We will still be by the flag pole in the northeast corner of the field. I am doing Weight Watchers, so planning to eat a little better at this tailgate with Subway for dinner and some Michelob Ultra beers for watching the game. We only have five home games and we will miss at least one which will be the last game of the season. I might find a way to get out for part of the game, but too early to say at this point. 

We had a great season last year and I expect to see another great season this year too. Last year we had some memorable victories at home and even one where our neighbor ran on to the field after we won. Good times! I am looking forward to another fun round of games at home and on the road. I renewed my subscription for streaming Washburn sports as well as our season tickets to football in case we decide to go into the stadium. I think it is going to be a fun season and I cannot wait to get it started on Thursday. Go Bods!

Washburn Volleyball

We love going to volleyball games. I watched the whole season streaming last year and it was a wonderful season. Every year we say we are going to go to a lot of volleyball games and the season flies by with us only going to a few. I am hoping to get to a lot more games this year. I have them on my calendar and I know Carrie is interested in going to more of them this year too, so we will plan to cheer on the volleyball team at home this year in-person. I am watching an away game this morning as I write this update on Saturday morning with Washburn playing Midwestern. We started the season Thursday and we are already off to a good start… season is young, but expect great things from the team again this season. 

If you have not been out to a volleyball game, you should make it a point to get out to a match. It is so fun! Even though I do not know/recall all of the rules for volleyball, we have fun cheering on our team. I love the fact that as the final point is about to be scored the home crowd stands and claps until the point is won. Yes, I realize this is not unique to Washburn volleyball, but it makes it a fun environment and us as fans like we are helping the team along to the win.

Fantasy Football and Baseball

The baseball season is coming to an end. The Royals are in another struggling year, but still having fun watching their games and the new talent. I am in two fantasy baseball leagues and while I am not sure I have ever won a fantasy baseball league, I have fun setting my rosters each day and following the games for each of my players. Fantasy sports is a lot of making the right decision on who to play, who to draft, and when to bench a player, but it is also a lot of luck. At one point during this season, I had the majority of my roster in one league on the IR. With all of the “good” players drafted, it makes it difficult to go out to the waiver wire to pick up quality players, so sometimes it is necessary to use up spots on the roster with injured players. Again, this is what makes it fun to struggle through IR instances or survive the season without a single injured player where when I have had this occur, I am toward the top of the rankings. All part of the game and it is so fun!

Fantasy football is starting up and this week I will be drafting in the two leagues I take part. One league is a free league and the other is one where we put in money for fun. Both are a lot of fun and both I am in with friends, so it is a good time. I love baseball, but I really like fantasy football. Unlike baseball where I have to check my roster daily, make changes, etc., in fantasy football I check a few times a week to make changes. Typically prior to Thursday, when there are games, prior to Sunday, and then again on Monday. A final check to see who I can pick up on waivers to prepare for the next week of play. It is so fun!

Typically at some point during the season, usually for football, the league finds a time to meet up at a local establishment to watch a game and talk some trash. I love it when we are able to connect during the season (baseball or football) to watch a game, have a few drinks, and what some of “our” players in a game. All part of the fun of the season.

Kansas City Chiefs

Speaking of football, who is ready for the Chiefs season to begin? We came up short last year and looking to have a great season this year, I cannot wait for it to start. It all starts on Sunday, September 11 with Kansas City Chiefs playing Arizona Cardinals. Looking forward to seeing us on the field and Mahomes leading us down the field. Football happens to be one of the sports Carrie does not enjoy to watch, but it is one of my favorite things to do on a Sunday. Football all afternoon and even better when my Chiefs are playing. 

Last season I remember we started out slow losing some early season games. I recall social media saying our season was over and then we came to life and started winning. I am hoping not to start off slow this year and have game mode at the start of the season. Do not let teams back into games, but finish them early and keep the heat on throughout the game to the end. We lost the first four of seven games last year and people were saying our season was over, but yet we turned it around. Let’s not start that way this season! Let’s go Chiefs!

Books and Reading

Reading with Kindle

I continue the enjoyment of reading. I started January 2022 with the goal of reading 20 books for the year and so far I have read 14 books. I have read every day since January 1, 2022 which has been a nice change. I typically read every night before going to sleep, so sometimes I read for just a few minutes to thirty or 40 minutes before falling asleep. It is a nice way to wind down, ignore the phone, email, and social media to just relax and enjoy a book. I continue to read on my Kindle which I love and I have anywhere from two to three books downloaded at any one time to the device in airplane mode so I do not lose them when they are due back at the library. Work out nice except sometimes I miss books I have reserved because I cannot come out of airplane mode or I will lose some of my books. 

Currently I am reading “Where the Crawdads Sing” which happens to also be in theaters. I am really enjoying this book and I look forward to seeing the movie. Prior to this book, I had been reading a lot of series. An eight book series by L.T. Ryan, I only have one book left. I had to take a break from the series though, but I plan to finish up that last book in the near future. I have another series Carrie started me on by C.J. Box which as been really good and I am about three books into that series. Again, I took a little break while I read some other books that were on my list.

At the rate I am going, I think I will exceed my 20 book goal for the year. Only a few short months and the year will be changing, but I think I can finish strong and go a ways past my twenty book target. It will be the most books I have read in one year. It has been a fun process and I look forward to continuing the goal for next year.

Camping

We have only been camping once this year. It was early spring that we went. We were hoping to go again, but it was a busy summer and the fall is turning out to be busy too. I have hope we can fit in one more weekend get away to go camping. The difficult part is that there are sports happening that I want to see, blue festival in early October, and other events happening that prevent us from taking a weekend. Still, I hope we can find a weekend to take Oliver and get to be lakeside somewhere to enjoy the outdoors and some good books.

Next year, I hope we can make it to more than four camp sites. We went to three sites last summer with four total as we went to one spot twice, so I am hoping to make it to just as many next summer if not more. Start a little earlier in the spring and go later in the fall, we might be able to beat that camping number.

End of Rambling

The end of August is right around the corner and I wish the days would slow down just a little. Going by way too fast as we watch 2022 speed by. I hope to have some future posts about sports that we attend as well as books I am reading. Of course, I also hope to have a camping trip in the near future, but not sure when that will occur. For now, I am trying to slow down the days and enjoy reading a good book or enjoying a sporting event. 

I hope you have a great rest of the weekend and can enjoy some quiet time before the busy week starts again.

Bally Sports+ Planned Release in Second Quarter for MLB, Soccer, etc. Streaming with a Subscription Required

Bally Sports has finally confirmed that they will be releasing Bally Sports+ here in the second quarter according to an article from The Streamable. How many more things can we have created that are called “+”? This is an aside, but maybe you are wondering the cost to sign up for Bally Sports+. The soft launch will be $19.99 a month or $189.99 a year. Holy crap! $189.99 a year for streaming of sports. This seems rather high to me and not worth the money.

 

I am already using Bally Sports to watch the Royals allbeit from my Mom’s account who lives in Lawrence. I have YouTube TV which does not have Bally Sports because of contract disagreements, but Sling and Dish Network customers are in the same boat where only Direct TV Stream has Bally Sports. I wil note that the Bally Sports app on my Roku, iPad, and iPhone have worked really well since the start of the season, but lately, the app on Roku does not work at all. On my iPhone and iPad, I can watch for a few minutes and then it locks up and has to be restarted. When I read the announcement from The Streamable regarding Bally Sports+ being released soon, that made me wonder if this is on purpose to force us over to the paid subscription.

 

On Roku the Bally Sports app starts, I can go to go to Teams and then the Royals, but if I try to play a recorded or live game, the app shuts down and returns to the main Roku window. This has been happening for three or four weeks now. However, if I open the Bally Sports app on Apple TV, the app works fine and I can watch games. Annoying though that the app is broken on Roku.

 

Just as annoying is that the Bally Sports app on iPad or iPhone simply stops playing video. I have to go out to the main screen of the app and start the feed again. Before long, less than five minutes, it will stop playing stating there is an error. 

 

If Bally Sports decides to make changes so that I can no longer watch Royals through their app from my a TV provider that subscribes to Bally Sports, like Midco in Lawrence, then I will not be paying for their add-on service to simply watch the Royals. I will rely on video clips from YouTube and listen to the radio broadcast. Paying $20 a month to watch the my team is not worth it let alone paying almost $200 a year to be able to watch. Instead, Bally Sports should re-work their deals with YouTube TV, Sling, Dish, Hulu, etc. so that other streaming options are available and likely do it much better than Bally Sports.

 

The season for the Royals has not gone very well thus far. Friday night was our first win in what seemed like many weeks… We had won games on Wednesday and Sunday the past week, but still, it seemed like a long time. We are 11 - 20 or 6.5 games out of first in the AL Central. We have not seen production from some we were expecting and some we would like to leave the team. The way social media is discussing, a complete management replacement is needed. I love my Royals and it makes it difficult to watch when we are struggling, but us Royals fans are used to this too. I just hope that I can continue to watch the Royals even if they are not very good, but hoping that turns around too. 

 

Baseball is Back! Excited to Watch and Attend Games Plus Fantasy Baseball to Return

 

Spring is right around the corner. In a typical year, spring training would have started with catchers and picthers reporting. This year though, a MLB strike was in effect since December 2021. On Thursday, March 10 while at home for a snow day and between meetings that were scheduled, I read where the MLB lockout had ended. Suddenly, every social media outlet as well as news outlet was talking about baseball season starting. After feeling the past few weeks that baseball was not going to happen, or be severly delayed, it is good to have it back and know that opening day is set for April 7. Basically, the whole season is pushed back a week, but expect to get in all the games that were planned.

 

Of course, we are gearing up for the end of college basketball with March Madness in full swing and NCAA tournament happening next week, it is good to once again have MLB back in our sites. The day after the announcement sparked conversations with fantasy baseball leagues talking about who is playing this year, when we will draft, etc., so a lot to work out for fantasy baseball leagues as the start of the season is announced. 

 

Anthony Castrovince from MLB.com outlines when Spring Training begins as well as the changes for the season in his article MLB 2022 season FAQ. To quote/reference a few items from his article, Spring Training will tentatively start on March 18. As mentioned earlier, opening day is scheduled for April 7 with the games that were scheduled March 31 through April 6 to be played following the regular season.

 

Castrovince shares that doubleheaders will “revert back to the pre-pandemic era” where we will once again see doubleheaders be nine innings and “there will not be an automatic running at second base at the start of extra innings” (MLB 2022 season FAQ). For those of us that are fans in the American League, a change was made to no longer have a spot in the batting order for the pitcher. Often a debate between fans of American or National League’s, at least for 2022 the DH will be in both leagues. I am sure the debate and conversation will continue througout this year between the two fan bases.

 

Changes also took place in regard to playoffs on how many teams play as well as no longer re-seeding for division series. Plus there will there will no longer be play-in games to decide the playoff spots as noted by Castrovince in the MLB 2022 season FAQ article.

 

A few changes, and some being major changes, the MLB season begins. Not exactly how we thought it would be starting, but it is good to have Spring Training starting and the regular season to start in early April… I cannot wait! Hoping to make it to at least one Royals game this year as I did not make it to any last year. Enjoy the season!

 

Rumor of Apple Possibly Streaming MLB Games for 2022… Yes Please and no Blackouts!

Recent rumors about Apple being involved in MLB streaming (see NY Post) has a lot of buzz happening the past few weeks. Apparently following ESPN losing the contract for weeknight games, Apple might take over the chance to get into the sports world and stream games. I am interested to see what happens with this news. I was happy that YouTube TV added MLB TV to their line up as an add-on option, but with blackouts it really did not do a whole lot for me this past season. I had to watch all of the games this past season through my Mom’s account in Lawrence through her streaming service. It worked, but it would be nice to have a streaming service where I could watch the game with my own account.

With ESPN losing regular Monday and Wednesday games, it does open up a potential for another streaming service to take those spots. As rumored through news releases of Bally Sports with their possibly released streaming service, I like the Apple angle much more. Bally Sports has been rumored to be trying to spin off their own streaming service with a subscription fee separate from providing their feed to services. If they go this direction, I do not plan to by a subscription to Bally Sports. In the same manner, I do not intend to renew my MLB TV subscription through YouTube TV as I could not watch the games live. Yes, I did enjoy watching other games and catching up on games or following out-of-market teams, but I am not sure that is enough for me to spend $100+ this next season.

The price point Apple decides to do for the games if they get the contract will be interesting. I would hope it would be $4.99 or less if only looking at Monday/Wednesday games.

I hold out a hope that MLB will return to YouTube TV, but I know that is far fetched unless Bally Sports changes their model or works with companies such as YouTube TV, Sling, or Dish for a contract that those companies can accept and not impact heavily their customers.

Attending Arkansas Game in Kansas City T-Mobile Center Tuesday Night and Even Watched some KSU Basketball that Night Too

T-Mobile Center Holiday Classic
Kansas State vs. Illinois

This past Tuesday, I had the chance to go to the Hall of Fame Classic in Kansas City. Eddie knew that the Arkansas Razorbacks were playing in the tournament and wanted to go watch them if the Hogs could make it to the championship game on Tuesday night. On Monday night, Arkansas played the Kansas State Wildcats. The Hogs were able to advance to the championship game Tuesday night with a victory over the Wildcats. So, he got us tickets and we were set for the Tuesday night games.

This would be my first time at the T-Mobile Center (formally the "Sprint Center") and it did not disappoint. It is a fun environment and while there were not a lot of fans in attendance to the games, the space seems like it would have no issues handling the crowds. Even the parking was pretty simple. I had been to the College Basketball Experience many years ago, but I had never been in the T-Mobile Center. So, I was excited to have the opportunity to go to the game. We got into Kansas City in time to see a little bit of the first half of the KSU vs. Ill game.

On the way to Kansas City for the game, we called T-Bo to let him know we were going to see his Hogs. There was some woo pig sooie said a few times during the call. Our seats were great as the pictures show although as Greg said, I am not sure there is a bad seat in the house. They did not have the upper tier open for public seating, but there were a lot of open seats. The Arkansas crowd was strong with chants, cheering, and yelling during the game. I know Arkansas travels well, so it was fun to see them at the game. We connected with some Arkansas fans that were around us which was fun. The couple in front of us had a  daughter attending Arkansas but they were from Kansas City. The couple in back of us I believe were also from Arkansas but living in KC area.

We were able to watch a fun game. Neither team started off great, but it went down to the wire which made it fun. Cincinnati played a tough game.

T-Mobile Center Holiday Classic
Cincinnati vs. Arkansas

Fun night in Kansas City. Although, we did not get anything to eat at the game. Waffle House was mentioned at some point, so we tried to go there on our way home, but it was take out only. What? For Waffles? No thanks. So, we ended up not eating anything, but had a great time. We saw a good game, the Hogs won, and we made some good memories. 

It was a good way to lead into the holiday weekend and to be able to participate in Feast Week of Tournaments. Such a fun time of year and some really good games. 

Working Out, Washburn Sports, Chiefs, Lawn Care, and Other Odds and Ends

My workout routine worked for about a week and then I stopped being motivated to get up early to ride the bike. This past week, I did not ride once and have today (Sunday) to get back on track. The previous two weeks, I was able to get up at 6 am and ride the bike. Tuesday and Thursday this week, my alarm was set, but I could not get up to start my ride. 

I plan to change it again this week and go back to working out in the evening instead of trying to so first thing during the week. I will revert to riding Tuesday and Thursday in the evening after work and I believe that will help me to stick to the plan. More on my progress in another week or two as I post a full monthly update for how it is going.

Yesterday, Washburn played in the first-round of the NCAA tournament. We had a fantastic season with some huge wins and great memories. Washburn lost yesterday 30 - 14 in the first-round. The season will go down as one of the greats in my memory. We now turn our focus to basketball. We actually missed the first home Washburn game yesterday as we were out at Johnny's Tavern to watch the Washburn game. I followed along on the basketball game and we won 90 - 47 over Baker.

This afternoon we have the Chiefs playing Dallas. We sit in first place in the AFC West. Not too bad after the first few weeks where no one was sure what was happening with our Chiefs. I am looking forward to the game and for a win over the Cowboys. Let's GO Chiefs!

Thanksgiving is this next week and it is one of my favorite holidays. I love the food and I cannot wait. This time of year is also when everyone is out doing their leaves. Our lawn, patio, driveway, and curbs were packed with leaves. I was going to do them, but they got out of hand, so I reached out to business I thought had shut down, but they continue to do lawn work and more importantly clearing leaves. On Tuesday, I called Green Boys LawnCare, Inc. and asked if they could add us to the schedule. They told me with all the wind, recent rain, etc., it might be a little bit before they could get to us. They got to us the next day. Yard, driveway, curbside, and back yard looked great... well, until the next day. More wind and now can hardly tell they were at our house. I told them when we spoke, it will probably be a two or three time visit for our house to clean leaves. So trees, now is the time to drop your leaves and prepare for winter.

Short work week, so enjoy your Sunday and a few days of work. Until next time...

Where Has October Gone and What is Next?

Is it hard for others to believe we are in the middle of October? It seems like a blur the past year and half and it only keeps going faster through the days and months. Before long it will be 2022 and I will be talking about it being hard to believe we are half-way through 2022. Wow! I know time seems to speed up as I get older, but I could use it slowing down just a little. 

Speaking of things going by fast, baseball season is nearing an end. The regular season ended just two weeks ago and we are into the playoffs. I am having fun watching the games although I really do not have a dog in the fight, but enjoy watching the games. Of course football season is chugging right along. Not anywhere near where I thought the Chiefs would be at this point in the season (2 - 3) so we need to be careful or we might end up missing out on the playoffs. The start of practices started for college basketball and here before long we will have the first games of the 2021-2022 season. I cannot wait!

We are preparing for another camping trip. Like our first time we went back in April, this will be a chilly camping trip. We are excited and looking forward to a few days outside. We are planning to take Oliver, but with it being 39 degrees on Saturday morning when I am writing this update, I am a little concerned it might be too cold for Oliver. We will have him in a sweater and fires going every night, but he has been shivering just about every time we let him outside here the past week or so and today is the coldest it has been thus far. So, we will see how he does on our camping adventure. Carrie and I cannot wait to get out there to camp and relax. We are taking lawn games to play during the day and look forward to just relaxing for a few days. 

Overall, a relaxing weekend and I am looking forward to a lazy Sunday with football, naps, and grilling in the evening for dinner. Oh, I do have to mow Sunday morning. Our yard is doing great after over seeding a few weeks ago. The bare spots in our yard are now covered with nice green grass. Keeping the watering going and hopefully through the winter months and the grass will still be in the yard. In the spring, I plan to work on the flower beds in our front yard to get them looking presentable. There is always something to be done.

The end of October, Carrie and I are hoping to connect with a friend for dinner and then pop into Lawrence another weekend to meet my Uncle and Aunt for dinner that we have not seen in a long-time. We are also trying to line up a time for Javier to come visit us in November for Washburn football and hanging out, so hopefully a lot more to write about as October ends and November gets started. There I go again putting us into November and making the months fly by…

Until the next time, have a great week!

Fun Weekend with Sports, Nice Weather, and More Sports

We started off the weekend by attending a Washburn volleyball game Friday night. Washburn volleyball team is ranked #1 in the country and has a seven game winning streak. The first two sets were fast winning by a huge margin. The third set we lost a bit of focus and lost but came right back and won the last set to win the match. Carrie and I went to the game and had a great time. Only six home games remain on the regular season, so hoping we can make it to a few more before the regular season ends. Washburn volleyball plays again this evening, but we are headed to the Washburn football game, so likely will not make it to the volleyball game tonight.

Saturday, we had talked about a few of us going to the tailgate and game. When it came time to leave for the tailgate (around 11 am) others decided they were going to skip as it was going to be hot. I took a few chairs and a tent earlier in the day as I took the car for work. So, when I went at 11, I only took a cooler. I saw fellow fans and hung out at the spot. The game started and I got a notice on my phone of activity at our front door. I also got a notice that Carrie was leaving the house, so I checked our Ring app and I could see Carrie leaving with a cooler. I thought, well, that is kind of odd. I could then see her heading my way on Find My app and eventually Carrie and Greg came walking up. It was pretty cool! They came and joined me for the game. 

It was supposed to be hot (low 90s) but it turned out to be really nice. A breeze that was blowing and overcast, so it helped with the heat. We had a good time and talked with our neighbor, John, about combining our tailgate spots in the future as both of us are struggling to get others to join our spots. I told him I was certainly open to doing so. Washburn won 23-20 in overtime. It was a strolling end to the game.  We hung out a while after the game before eventually cleaning up and heading home. 

Carrie and I thought about going to another volleyball as they were playing at 6 again Saturday night, but we both decided we were tired after doing the tailgate and game. We had a fun day and I am looking forward to Chiefs playing tonight. 

Normally at this time of year, I would be on the road back from Helena, Arkansas from the King Biscuit Blues Festival, but with it being canceled this year, missing out on the festival, seeing friends, and the travel to/from Helena. I miss seeing all of our family and friends for the King Biscuit Blues Festival, but hopefully we will be back in a year. It has been fun seeing family and friends post memories from past festivals, but I cannot wait to get down there again. 

Until next time, have a great week and I will talk to you later…

MLB, Streaming Services for Television, Blackouts, Fox Sports Midwest, RSN, and Contract Disputes -- Time for a Change by MLB for Live Game Viewing

Background on Blackouts, Streaming Services, and MLB

As of today, it will not be possible to watch Kansas City Royals baseball when it starts later this year on a variety of streaming services which currently includes YouTubeTV, Sling, Hulu+, and Dish to name a few. It is important to note that Sling is owned by Dish, but all of this has to do with the contracts, or lack thereof; these television viewing services have not been able to agree to contracts with Sinclair Broadcast Group for Fox Sports Midwest to play Royals games but many other events too. The companies in contract disputes means that not only do their viewers (i.e. ME) are not able to watch Royals games but we do not get the channels at all. They were completely removed from YouTubeTV, Sling, Hulu+, and Dish.

A recent article (Sports Networks Are Losing Their Grip on Your Television) from The Motely Fool  provides a detailed background on how the contracts are done with viewing services, why this happened, and possibly the future of how this will work.

It is important to note that this is not only affecting the fans of Kansas City Royals, but other markets too that want to watch their favorites teams whether that is baseball or hockey. Recently, I have been reading a lot of customers complaining regarding not being able to watch their local hockey team because their Fox Sports Network is gone. All of which is because the provider and Sinclair have not been able to come to agreement on a contract.

Typical cable providers such as AT&T or ComCast (note Xfinity bought ComCast) keep the contracts because they are large and that’s how it has been for years, but it is the streaming services that have lost out. I recall when we were a Dish customer that it seemed that almost every year it would be threatened that we would lose our ability to view games. Sometimes the channel would go out for a few days while they were making negotiations and suddenly the channel would be back. Then they started to lose the channel out of season of the sport such as baseball. Now it is gone completely from all these services with no end game for when or if it will return.

Meanwhile, there is a Major League Baseball app (MLB) that is available to listen or watch games that are out of market. Sounds great, right? Well, with the MLB local games are blacked out so you can only watch them after they finish. The radio option is available to listen to the game live, but sometimes it is nice to be able to relax on a weekend, drink a beer, and watch my local sports team.

The process of blackouts has never made sense going back to when I was a Cox customer years ago and there would be two channels with one broadcast out of Topeka and the other from Kansas City. One channel would blackout during different times of the day as they wanted us to watch it on the other local channel. What? That made no sense then... Today, I understand why MLB blacked out local games years ago, but why does it still happen? 

Request for Change by MLB

Let us be fans. Let us watch the games. My request is directed to MLB and their agreements with various providers to ask if we are fans to be able to watch and not have blackouts for live games. Especially if we are paying MLB to be able to watch the games we should be able to watch them no matter in market or not. The whole process seems to be antiquated and out of touch from what is happening in the streaming service industry. We are paying you for the access to your app and we should be able to watch live games through the app whether in market or not.

The whole idea of having blackouts reminds me of having an old TV sitting in a field and not being able to watch the TV because there is no power. Here we are with the power but the games are blacked out because of agreements between MLB, major television providers, and local affiliates. 

The reasons for the blackouts is simple and twofold: the first reason is cable providers' desire for exclusive broadcasting rights in their local networks. The second, is MLB's desire to get fans into the stadium for attendance purposes. -- from SportingNews

This is an old practice dating back to agreements with cable providers and the desire to get people into games. Having a blackout in my view does not make me attend the games. Instead, I will either listen to the game or not pay attention at all. When we pay for a service we should be able to watch the live games and not have to watch the game after the live event has ended.

MLB , please change the process and lift the antiquated process of blackouts!

What Happens Next?

Even though YouTubeTV has increased their prices, we are happy with their service. DVR options are awesome! I am hopeful that Sinclair Broadcast Group and YouTubeTV can come to an agreement so that when baseball starts later this year, I can watch the games. However, I am not holding my breath as it has been an ongoing battle for a few years as mentioned earlier. What if nothing happens and no live television baseball for me in the spring or through the summer? Well, I will try to bum access from friends who have DirectTV so I can use their service to watch the games. Or, simply, I will listen to my $2.99 a month MLB Audio so I can listen to the games will be how I will follow my team. I have no plans to change television service because of a contract dispute. I will be frustrated and blame MLB and Sinclair Broadcast Group.

Spring training is right around the corner. How are you doing to follow your team?