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thunderlounge

Certifiably Surly
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Posts posted by thunderlounge

  1. Quote

    On the heels of a 2025 season that saw large viewership increases -- including the most watched postseason in eight yearsand a World Series Game 7 that was the most watched Major League Baseball game in 34 years -- MLB announced Wednesday that it has formed new three-year media rights agreements with Netflix, NBCUniversal and ESPN.

    As part of the rights agreements, which cover the 2026-2028 MLB seasons, the league’s longstanding relationship with ESPN will reach 39 consecutive seasons, NBC will return to regularly airing games on its broadcast network for the first time in a quarter century, and Netflix’s engagement with MLB will expand from documentaries to live baseball event coverage for the first time.

    Sunday Night Baseball will shift from ESPN, where it aired since 1990, to NBCUniversal, which also secured the rights to Sunday Leadoff and the Wild Card Series in the postseason for NBC and Peacock.

    Netflix will now air the T-Mobile Home Run Derby, an Opening Night exclusive and special event games set to include the 2026 MLB at Field of Dreams Game and the World Baseball Classic in Japan.

    And ESPN will receive a national midweek game package throughout the season while also acquiring the rights to sell MLB.TV, the league’s out-of-market streaming service that set a record with 19.4 billion minutes watched in 2025.

    “Our new media rights agreements with ESPN, NBCUniversal and Netflix provide us with a great opportunity to expand our reach to fans through three powerful destinations for live sports, entertainment, and marquee events,” said Commissioner Robert D. Manfred, Jr. “Following our last World Series game that averaged more than 51 million viewers globally, these partnerships build on MLB’s growing momentum that includes generational stars setting new standards for excellence, new rules which have improved the game on the field, and increases in important fan engagement metrics like viewership, attendance, participation and social media consumption.

    “We’re looking forward to tapping into the unique areas of expertise that ESPN, NBCUniversal and Netflix each bring to the sport for the benefit of our fans.”

    Several elements of MLB’s national broadcast rights will remain unchanged.

    FOX/FS1 will continue to be the home of the All-Star Game and regular season games, as well as the World Series, League Championship Series and Division Series presented by Booking.com. TBS will continue to house LCS and Division Series telecasts, plus regular season games on Tuesday nights. Apple TV will continue to stream "Friday Night Baseball" doubleheaders throughout the regular season.

    Here’s more on each of the three new media rights agreements:

    Netflix

    MLB and Netflix have previously collaborated on globally distributed documentaries, including the Emmy Award-winning “The Turnaround” and “The Comeback: 2004 Boston Red Sox,” both from 2024. There was also “The Clubhouse,” an eight-part docuseries that went behind the scenes with the 2024 Red Sox.

    Now, as the streaming giant continues to branch out into more live sporting events, Netflix is bringing game action to its service, which has more than 90 million subscribers in the U.S. and Canada and over 300 million globally.

    Netflix will open the MLB season the next three years with a single game on Opening Night, the evening prior to a full schedule of traditional Opening Day games. In 2026, the Opening Night game will pit Aaron Judge and the Yankees against Rafael Devers and the Giants on Wednesday, March 25.

     

    There’s the mlb notes. Here’s the linky:

     

    https://www.mlb.com/news/mlb-announces-media-rights-deals-with-espn-nbc-netflix

  2. 1 hour ago, miguelito said:

    What about out-of-market for those teams?

     

    Same as usual is my understanding: mlb.tv

    The difference on those teams is instead of an RSN, their home games will also be through mlb.tv. 

     

    It’s the start of what MLB has been after long-term in getting it all combined under one roof.

    How espn is playing into that specifically, in terms of distribution, I dunno how that works yet. I need to read more here in a few. 
     

    So whether ESPN is going to be where you go for mlb.tv, or if they mean you can buy it through espn is where I’m uncertain.

    Or maybe you’ll be able to link your mlb account and use either the mov app, or the espn app.

     

    What’s more on top of that, I just saw that NBC is getting Sunday night and some other shit. Saw a ticker, have to dig that up. 

  3. 15 minutes ago, TejasPedro said:

    Where do all former Texas coaches who allegedly have lady and drinking problems go?

     

    FIU?

     

     

    10 minutes ago, David Dennison said:

    He's going to walk away from all the money Texas owes him and accept a job at a much reduced salary? 

    I bet Jimmy Sexton is thrilled at that prospect.

     

    That statement is absolutely fucking stupid. If a coach gets fired for cause, kiss that payday goodbye. And we're not firing him this round unless there is cause.

     

    • Hook 'Em 2
  4. 12 minutes ago, Incredulity said:

    The car that made these two, equal-length tire marks had positraction. You can't make these marks without positraction, which was not available on the '64 Buick Skylark!

     

    What about a Plymouth? 

    How’s it work?

  5. 54 minutes ago, JGrayDBU said:

    dang, I can't find the post about the restaurant in Austin that will smoke a brisket for you for $1 per pound. 

    I thought it was from this thread, looked back a year and a half.  

    Can somebody help with this? 

     

    thx

    @immamac might know?

  6. 3 hours ago, nnm said:

    So that’s where our tax dollars have been going. 
     

    Brightline West High-Speed Rail Project (Rancho Cucamonga, CA to Las Vegas, NV)

    The project you’re referring to is Brightline West, a privately led, 218-mile high-speed rail line (with trains up to ~200 mph) running mostly in the median of Interstate 15. It will connect Rancho Cucamonga (with Metrolink connections to greater Los Angeles) to Las Vegas, with intermediate stops in Apple Valley/Hesperia and Victor Valley.

     

    How come Uncle Elroy gets a train?

  7. 58 minutes ago, whereiend said:

    I think he is wearing too many hats and possibly has some personal life shit going on, but regardless lacks the time and energy to properly do his job as OC. Or properly do any of his jobs for that matter.  Needs to hire a goddamn OC and focus on being the head coach.

     

    This is absolutely part of the problem, and not just with Sark and Texas. Everyone is dealing with the increased demands, scouting, NIL, and all of that shit. He has to learn to delegate more efficiently. If more assistants are needed, so be it. However, that still does not address the elephant in the room. That elephant being his ability to adapt, especially in game.

     

     

    43 minutes ago, wood said:

    It's a question as old as sports, and it's how I evaluate coaches in any sport: Does the coach try to force players into the coach's system or does the coach adapt to the strengths and weaknesses of the players on the time at a given time.

    Adaptability to the talent on hand is far and away the most important attribute of a good coach imho. The ability to adapt gameplans, to find ways to highlight the players' strengths while diminishing their weaknesses is the surest sign of coaching prowess imho, and it is rare indeed.


    Exactly. And if these coaches are so fucking "smart" about their sport to the point they get the guru/genius tag, then why the fuck can't they see the forest for the trees? It's a bit fucking ridiculous. Maybe they need an average Joe to help point shit out that the meatheads are seeing.

     

     

    33 minutes ago, BurgleBro said:

    The simple aspect of seeing the overall field is something so simple and easy to explain yet I never seen Sark defenders explain why he makes it work down on the ground. 

    Right?

    A few coaches do it, and do it well (overall.) Take Andy Reid for example. It's his offense, he's calling the shots, and he's on the sidelines. However, the big difference between having success in that aspect and failure is whom you put in the sky. You have to have top shelf personnel that can make all of those assessments, be able to relay pertinent information, and maybe even suggest a few play options. Or at the very least they should be able to tell the coach what/who/when/where to exploit, and let the coach figure out which part of the playbook to get into.

    That's not happening here, and if Sark's coaching here next season that is something that needs to be fixed. Either that or let him build the McLaren and then hire a driver.

    But I guess we can debate that all off-season, but whatever the end result is we'll have plenty to talk about.

    • Hook 'Em 2
  8. 18 minutes ago, mdmost said:

    Well I guess we'll find out next year for Day unless the mutual parting of ways occurs. I think he's Mack against Stoops when it comes to Kirby. He'll need a VY type to do it. We struggled against both Clemson and Arizona State last year when we were clearly superior to both. He hardly ever exhibits the killer instinct that's needed outside of OU. 

     

    This is what I can't grasp on whole. Sark, and other coaches, are supposed to be excellent offensive/defensive type minds, and know all this shit about football. Yet many fail to see the forest for the trees.

    If Sark were truly an offensive genius, wouldn't he be able to comprehend shit that average Joe's and Jill's understand? The whole square peg round hole thing. You'd think he'd be bright enough to scheme to what his players can do, not what grand plan he had dreamed up. Fall camp should have shown him exactly what he was working with. He would have known more if they had a spring game or better spring camp.

    So now we get his grand scheme shoved down our throats for consumption, whether we like it or not. We've seen with our own eyes what can happen if he does that (ou), but he keeps insisting on going with shit that's such over-complicated asswater that the players can't get a damn thing going and look like fucking clown shoes.

    So what gives? It's not just Sark, others have had similar issues.

    Is it ego? Meathead shit? What keeps a coach that you would think should see the obvious from actually seeing the obvious?

    Looking back from the first of the year, it's like he's trying to get fired or some shit. It's plain reckless how the off-season has been handled, let alone in-season.

     

    • Hook 'Em 2
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