BASEBALL IN BANGKOK

There are three sports channels on cable here in Bangkok. They carry 5 to 7 soccer matches daily. Soccer seems to have no season so they carry games year round.

Watching the highlights is interesting because they show only the goals and spectacular saves. In the actual matches, goals are rare. One team recently played a season of something like 30 games and allowed only 13 goals. It’s a long wait between highlights.

I’ve tried but I just can’t get into it. I think the big attraction for the fans is getting drunk and singing in the stands.

Matheny hit a grand slam today (as I am writing this) for the Giants while I was monitoring his at bat on the internet. There was no picture but there was pitch by pitch results.

Last season the cable TV carried about 3 baseball games a week, some were delayed. Day games in the east start at 1 AM our time. Night games in the west start at 10 AM usually. Sometimes the telecast would be repeated once or twice.

I found 3 games a week to be enough. That satisfied me. This season there have been no games on. Perhaps it’s because the NBA is still going. They telecast several NBA games a week. I have little interest in that. Their season seems to go on forever.

I found a good remedy for the absence of baseball telecasts. CBS Sports has a great on- line baseball scoreboard. I can follow every pitch of every game being played. It’s the best
scoreboard I’ve ever seen, totally satisfying my baseball hunger.