Hey, sorry i havent been keeping up with my blog but here is my next rant.

This rant is about MLB.com’s Baseballchannel.tv.

OK here goes, when I started listening/watching to the Baseball Channel or at that time it was MLBradio it was full of programming from Under The Lights with Pete McCarthy, Baseball Today, Fantasy 411, Midday and Stayin’ Hot. Then when Darryl “Ham Bone” Hamilton left to go to work at the commish office Stayin Hot went. So they brought in the Hot Stove Show with Casey Stern. Under The Lights stayed as well as the 411. Baseball Today then went to, to be replaced with Leading Off with Vinny Micucci and the late John Marzano. So there was programming on the channel from in my time zone 3pm til 6am. Which was great for me as I would be just finishing up work and I would put on John and Vinny to finish off my day, just getting home for the end of the 411. I would then settle down to watch the Midday whilst eating my dinner, then watch Bottom Line the sports talk show spin off from the Midday with Casey Stern. Which then would take me to nearly game time which was great as it would pump me up for a long and late night of baseball.

Then at the start on the 08 season MLBAM/MLB.com decided to do away with the radio/talk show aspect of their programming, which sucked to go to a very video scripted format of the shows.  So, here are the list of the shows that went, Under the Lights, “Leading Off”, Midday and Bottom Line. They kept hyping up that there was a cool show called the “Whiparound” that was going to be taking us inside the ball parks of all teams on game nights. It was going to be split into a East Show, a Central Show and a West Show. This didn’t happen it just became a 1hr show with some information but not as indepth. They resurrected Leading Off with Vinny and John but that didn’t last long because of Johns untimely passing. Which i have no problem with it being postponed. Casey Stern joined the 411 with Mike Siano, Cory Schwartz, the programme at the start grew critisim at the start for not being as viewer/podcast listener interactive. I was one of the critics of the new show format but i grew to love it again. They brought in the fave 5 which is a lot of fun. On Friday, July 11th the news came out that the 411 is moving to 4pm my time and is only going to be a 30 min show. Which in my opinion stinks. I know 30 mins is better than nothing, but why change and mess with a good thing.

As an international fan of the beautiful game, the Baseball Channel and the odd podcast show is the only way of us getting our information. In one place instead of going through millions of websites getting information.

I hope they might put some other programming onto the channel but i don’t think they will. As it looks at the moment there will only be 1hr of new daily programming and then lots of reruns of the shows that have just been aired. They spent money on doing up the studios in Manhattan for them not to be used. There is no baseball update news show now. Is MLBAM not caring about this side of programming and just waiting for the new tv channel on cable to come online.

Also in my opinion, the on air talent that is on the baseball channel are the best but MLBAM are not using them the way they should.

Pete McCarthy – Great host and talk show guy but wasting away in the wee hours of the morning doing the Game Recaps. Get Pete back to live programming where he is great.

Vinny Micucci – Also a great talk show host, now doing little segments for shows or on the website. Vinny needs to be back on a show as soon as possible, with a co-host where he belongs.

Casey Stern - Like the above guys a great host but isn’t showing his full potential on a now going to be a 30 min show. He needs in my opinion some show that he can just be let loose on to give his frank and honest opinions like what he did on the Bottom Line and Midday and i miss that from him.

Noah Coslov – Is a really funny guy and this “Whiparound” show for me isn’t for him.

Mike Siano/ Cory Schwartz- great guys on the show and doing the show for “free” as its not part of their day jobs i commend them for all the work they have done.  Their fantasy advice has helped me not to suck in my leagues.

Come on MLBAM do something to show off the talent of these individuals.

In my opinion the changes MLBAM made at the start of the season were awful decisions and i am bitterly dissappointed.

I love you all, i hope you don’t think bad of me but i have held my tongue long enough but that is my opinion. When the day comes that there is no programming on the website i will be heartbroken as i have taken you all to my heart and will miss you all dearly.