Such was the case this past weekend when Martin, who is a reporter at WCJW in Rochester, NY and will be The Cardinal Nation’s Batavia correspondent this summer, took exception to sexist comments from Chicago Sun-Times columnist Joe Cowley shared on Twitter.

In a follow-on series of tweets, Cowley then directed additional inappropriate remarks at Martin before his account was deleted. She maintained her dignity throughout the episode and afterward while the Chicagoan clearly did not.

As if the job isn’t difficult enough already for women, we have reporter Julie Tristan from KSDK Channel 5 in St. Louis. Tristan offers Exhibit A of what the Cowleys of the world dream about.

Assigned to do a David Freese feature, Tristan completely abandoned any shred of professionalism, flirting with the St. Louis Cardinals star and directing a series of embarrassing comments toward him while on camera. She ended her segment by telling the player, “I love you.” (See a summary of Tristan’s remarks and full video here.)

Can you imagine the ramifications had a male reporter attempted such a stunt with a female athlete? How can these kinds of double-standards be allowed to exist in this day and age?

It is a shame that there are still Tristans out there masquerading as professionals, while providing fuel for sexists like Cowley. They make life more difficult for the Martins of the world who are trying to make a living as credible journalists.

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Those outside of the Cardinals-designated markets, however, must continue to rely on pay packages such as MLB Extra Innings or MLB.TV to catch their club on live video. Another vehicle to remember – one that is available on many cable and satellite systems – is MLB Network.

Despite it being owned by the sport about which it reports, MLB Network offers the best major league baseball coverage of any national broadcast entity, in my opinion. That includes selected live game telecasts. Though still blacked out in home markets, they provide another opportunity for displaced fans to view their favorite club in action.

MLB Network has announced its  live game schedule for May. The Cardinals will be presented in a primary or alternate telecast five times during the upcoming month, including one contest with MLBN broadcasters instead of team feeds. Two are road games with the other three originating from Busch Stadium.

May 11: vs. Atlanta
May 12: vs. Atlanta
May 19: at Dodgers
May 24: vs. Philadelphia (Bob Costas and Tom Verducci on the call)
May 28: at Atlanta

As always, check your local TV listings for games to be shown on your specific system.

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MLB Network has announced its spring training telecast schedule. Included in the 150-game national slate are eight St. Louis Cardinals contests. Seven of the eight are telecasts previously announced on other networks, however.

The unique-to-MLB Network live telecast will be the Cardinals’ March 10 outing against the Miami Marlins in Jupiter. (Update: Though the Marlins official site does not indicate this, the broadcast of the 3/10 game will originate with FOX Sports Florida.)  That increases the total number of Cardinals Florida spring training games to be televised to eight of 28.

Six of the other seven MLB Network Cardinals games will be delayed broadcasts, including several that will re-run the following morning. For specific times of these replays, check the detailed schedule on the MLB Network website. Also, all eight games will be shown live on MLB.TV for subscribers. The Cardinals will not appear nationally on ESPN this spring.

The Cardinals spring opener, to be covered by KMOX radio, is just seven days away. All radio broadcasts, whether originating from KMOX or from the Cardinals opponent, will be available through MLB Gameday Audio. It is included with an MLB.TV subscription and is also separately orderable.

The first of the eight televised spring games will be the very next day, live at 1:05 P.M. Eastern on Tuesday, March 6. MLB Network will re-play that St. Louis contest, against the New York Mets, at 9:00 A.M. Eastern on Wednesday morning. A majority of the Cardinals televised games, five, will once again originate from FOX Sports Midwest.

The full Cardinals spring schedule, including all television and radio, home and away, from friend and foe, follows. Satellite radio details are announced week-by-week so will be updated as available.

St. Louis Cardinals 2012 spring training broadcast schedule (as of March 25)

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For any sporting event, watching and listening to the familiar home broadcasters is usually preferred. Yet in the case of spring training, a time when game coverage is less than 100 percent, catching any broadcast is better than the alternative, isn’t it?

To that end, I have compiled a master list of all St. Louis Cardinals spring television and radio plans no matter who will be originating the broadcast.

The Cardinals are slated to play 28 spring training games in Florida in 2012. Previously announced was a subset of 18 to be covered by either FOX Sports Midwest television (five games), KMOX radio (16 games) or in the case of three games, by both.

That leaves 10 uncovered.

Now that the broadcast schedules of the Cardinals’ eight spring opponents have been posted on MLB.com, we find that five of those other ten St. Louis games will be covered by one of their affiliates.

This includes two televised games against the Mets on SportsNet New York on March 6 and 13, one radio contest against the Twins on the 15^th, and two Marlins games on Miami radio on March 16 and 29.

The final tally lists 23 of the Cardinals 28 Florida games that can either be watched or listened-to, a solid coverage rate of 82 percent.

To receive the out-of-market feeds, consider a subscription to MLB.TV (television and radio) and MLB Gameday Audio (radio only). Though I have found support to be hit and miss, these services are good values overall. If you are going to subscribe for the 2012 season anyway, there is no reason to not do it in time for spring training as well.

If you are only interested in audio on your PC and want a deal, take a look at joining “Cardinals Nation,” a fan club program run by the St. Louis Cardinals organization. For just $19.95, you receive a variety of benefits, including two game tickets and a season subscription to MLB Gameday Audio.

I will update this broadcast information when the satellite radio and television providers disclose their spring schedules as well.

St. Louis Cardinals 2012 spring training television schedule (as of February 17)

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Apparently, other television networks across the Major League Baseball landscape – whether regional or national – are not particularly interested in seeing the World Champion St. Louis Cardinals this spring.

In spring training broadcast schedules posted at MLB.com, only two of the Cardinals’ eight spring opponents will be televising even one Florida contest with St. Louis. They are the New York Mets (three games) and the Houston Astros (one game).

While ESPN has already announced a slate of spring games, St. Louis is not scheduled to appear. MLB Network has not disclosed its plans, but last year, they did not originate new telecasts, instead picking up ones already covered by team-focused regional networks.

Further, two of those four Mets and Astros games with St. Louis are overlapping telecasts with the five Cardinals games tentatively planned by FOX Sports Midwest.

That leaves a bottom line of just seven unique Cardinals spring telecasts currently scheduled to be available on any channel. With a 28-game Florida slate for St. Louis, that is a mediocre .250 spring average (7 of 28).

To compare, last spring, almost one in every three Cardinals spring training games were available somewhere on television (10 of 31).

FOX Sports Midwest is doing its part, with an increase from three spring telecasts in 2011 to five this year. It is the rest of baseball that is giving the Cards the cold shoulder.

Larger market clubs televise more spring games. Even excluding ESPN and any opposing team broadcasts, the Phillies and Yankees have 17 spring games on their TV slate. The Mets have 15, Red Sox 13, Braves 10, etc. compared to St. Louis’ five.

Before the five Cardinals games on FS Midwest kick in, starting on March 17, the New Yorkers will be in the leadoff position. The first two Cardinals television appearances will be against the Mets on SportsNet New York (SNY), on March 6 and 13. The March 6 game will be very early in camp – game two of the Cardinals’ 28-game Florida slate.

Though their schedules have not yet been divulged, it is expected that both the home and away telecasts should be available via MLB.com’s subscription service (with appropriate blackout rules) and perhaps via your satellite provider (depending on your service packages). More details will be provided as they become available.

February 15 update: KMOX has announced its 16 Cardinals spring radio broadcasts, including the spring opener on March 5. The table below has been updated to reflect that.

I will add satellite TV and radio as well as MLB audio and video plans when disclosed.

St. Louis Cardinals 2012 spring training television schedule (as of February 15)

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During the Reds’ game on 700 WLW radio Monday evening against the Cubs, Cincinnati broadcaster and Hall of Famer Marty Brennaman offered some choice words about the Cardinals. They included:

On Chris Carpenter: “…whiner and excuse maker…”

On the Cardinals: “…you might be the most disliked team in baseball…”

On the pitching coach: “…that infantile Dave Duncan…”

Through the courtesy of KMOX radio, one can listen to the audio clip of Brennaman here.

It works both ways.

On the other side of the fence, St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Bernie Miklasz drew what appeared to be considerable fire from Reds fans on Twitter immediately after Sunday’s Cardinals loss as they responded to his tweets such as these:

“Reds are awfully cocky for a team that’s had one good season over a very long time.”

“…Cardinals got punked by Phillips on Saturday and did nothing about it. Don Tony wouldn’t have put up with that”

“Scott Rolen or someone with a brain over there needs to tell the Reds: act like you’ve won something before.”

“Cardinals had an opportunity to take a stand and declined. Let themselves get punked by Phillips on Saturday and gave Cueto a pass.”

“So obviously the Reds think they can pretty much do what they want. No wonder (Cordero) is hollering and pointing at dugout.”

Providing balance, Miklasz followed with a number of explanatory and conciliatory tweets (see above link to his Twitter page) and he wrote a very measured view of the weekend proceedings in his post-series column.

Yet some only focus on the negatives. Social media clearly increases the immediacy and intensity of the exchanges just as the internet has made Brennaman’s critical remarks more widely distributed.

That is the new world in which we live.

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The sixth and seventh of the 20 contests in dispute occurred the last two days as both Sunday’s finale from Atlanta and Monday’s Marlins series opener at Busch Stadium were not carried on those systems.

As the standoff moves into its second month and more games are missed, a resolution satisfactory to customers seems more remote.

The heat will surely increase in ten days as two of the three important Cardinals-Reds contests in Cincinnati on Friday, May 13 and Sunday, May 15 are next on the list of excluded contests. (For the complete list of affected games, click here.)

As is seemingly always the case with all these types of problems, the root issue is money.

In 2011, FOX Sports Midwest picked up the 20 Cardinals games previously carried by KSDK Channel 5. Due to production costs and rights fees associated with the increased number of televised contests, FOX Midwest raised their price charged to cable and satellite providers accordingly.

Most systems agreed, representing 95 percent of customers in FOX Sports Midwest’s footprint. The others, including AT&T U-Verse, balked, leaving those Cardinals fans in their wake. (Click here for both lists – those providers carrying all 152 and those picking up 132 games only.)

I have learned that some frustrated Cardinals fans were successful in seeking relief from AT&T last month. Though it does not return the missing telecasts, it does raise awareness and perhaps increases the pressure level, while at least salving the wound for those unable to view games due to the dispute.

Options reportedly offered customers threatening to cancel service include reduction in phone, internet and or/cable bills for six to 12 months, account credits, faster internet service, no-charge high-definition premium channels and free movie channel packages.

These offers seem to differ by the services the customer already has and with whom the customer speaks. A number of those who have been successful suggest calling AT&T U-Verse Tier two customer retention directly at 1-877-377-0414 as satisfaction with the first level of support personnel was not always achieved.

Obviously, your mileage may vary, but if you are an unhappy AT&T U-Verse customer and want to take action, you have an option short of switching providers.

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As many fans know, MLB offers a free data-filled window into each contest called MLB Gameday. It provides an in-game box score, play-by-play and pitch-by-pitch data. (The latter is not available during spring training.)

I have several friends who enter this data in various MLB pressboxes on an interactive basis during the regular season and know this job is taken very seriously.

You can get into MLB Gameday quickly for any game by clicking onto the baseball diamond icon in the scoreboard area at the upper left of the MLB.com homepage.

Anyway, putting all the background aside, a really neat new twist I noticed for this season is the integration of another feature, MLB Gameday Audio, into the Gameday page.

I know the terms may be a bit confusing, but here is the bottom line. One can watch the game stats and listen to the broadcast from the same screen. This example is from today, with the audio window just above and to the right of the score.

One minor downside this season is the addition of advertisements into the center batter window between innings. You learn it is there pretty quickly when its audio is bled on top of the game audio. Fortunately, you can toggle off the ad audio once for the entire session instead of having to do it each half-inning.

Gameday Audio is not free like the Gameday function, but its cost of $19.99 for the season isn’t bad at all. In addition to PC, it is also supported on mobile devices like Blackberry. An alternative to subscribe to it is via its inclusion with MLB.TV, Major League Baseball’s online video streaming offering.

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While I have provided a master schedule of Cardinals spring games on radio and television, I am getting questions about how to access them. With Thursday being the first of 10 televised St. Louis games this spring, I thought this would be a good time to go into more detail.

First of all, the basics. One Cardinals squad is remaining home in Jupiter, Fla. to face the visiting Washington Nationals. The rest of the team is traveling the 30-some miles to Port St. Lucie to take on the New York Mets. As is customary in the spring, both games start just after 1:00 P.M. Eastern.

In an interesting twist, the home game will be available on radio only while they away game is exclusively being televised. The other options are not available.

Nationals-Cardinals on audio only

The Nationals-Cardinals game audio will be on KMOX, XM satellite radio 186 and MLB Gameday Audio.

The audio originates from KMOX radio in St. Louis with the familiar voices of Mike Shannon and John Rooney expected on the call. The game will be available over the air via the 50,000 watt 1120 AM as well as selected stations in the Cardinals network. These are local decisions, so you’ll have to check in your town if your nearby radio affiliate is covering the game. You’ll have a better chance finding weekend games on your local Cardinals network station in the spring.

Though some radio stations like KMOX offer live streaming of their programming over the internet, you won’t be able to listen to baseball games that way. Due to MLB regulations, stations are not allowed to stream Major League games. Period.

There are at least two pay routes to listen to games.

XM satellite radio will be picking up the radio broadcast on channel 186.

MLB Gameday Audio is another subscription service that offers home and away radio broadcasts over the internet for spring and regular season games. There are never any blackouts with audio. One neat feature is that games are archived so if you miss the live event, you can come back that evening and listen to the “tape”. You can either subscribe to MLB Gameday Audio separately for $19.95 per season, or it is included in the price of MLB.TV. More on that in a moment.

Cardinals-Mets on television only

Thursday’s Cardinals-Mets game will be televised live on SportsNet New York or SNY. I don’t know who is assigned to work the game today, but their regular season booth is Gary Cohen, Ron Darling and former Cardinals first baseman Keith Hernandez.

If you subscribe to a sports package from your cable or satellite provider, you may have the SNY channel. This is the only way to see the 1 PM ET/noon CT game live on television.

A general comment. One good thing about spring television broadcasts is that the normal regular season blackouts are not enforced. Otherwise, those outside the SNY viewing area would not be able to see the game even if you have the channel. In other words, this route works great in March, but come April, you’ll be blacked out.

The Cards-Mets telecast will also be live over the internet on MLB.TV, a pay service. Like MLB Gameday Audio, game broadcasts are also archived for later viewing. This is the only way to watch games after the fact on-demand. The MLB.TV offering costs either $119.95 or $99.95 per season depending on the features you want.

Today’s game will be run on a three-hour delayed basis on MLB Network, starting at 4 PM ET/3 PM CT. This channel is included in many but not all satellite and cable packages. If you don’t have MLB Network, you don’t know what you are missing. It is excellent.

As always, you can find lineups, links to live in-game stats and all-day chatter on special threads for each day’s game (or in today’s case, games) at The Cardinal Nation message board.

If after reading this, you still have questions, please post them below.

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Not all broadcasts will have familiar announcers, but after all, isn’t it better to listen to or watch the opposing team’s crew than to miss the game entirely?

The 2011 spring radio and television schedule opens with the Cardinals-Marlins on Tuesday, March 1. The radio broadcast will originate via St. Louis’ flagship KMOX and will also be picked by XM satellite radio.

Further, all radio games should be available as part of the MLB Gameday audio subscription service. (Note that MLB rules prohibit local stations from live streaming games. For example, though KMOX offers audio streaming through their website, the games will not be available in that manner.)

In the schedule below, some radio games will be broadcast on both the Cardinals network and by the opposition club’s station. I listed KMOX if available and if not, the other team’s station is noted as it should be available via Gameday and perhaps also XM. XM releases their subset of games covered on a weekly basis throughout the month, so I will be updating that part of the schedule as announced.

In terms of television, all networks covering ten Cardinals spring games to be shown are listed. The first TV game is this Thursday, carried live on SportsNet New York and that evening on a delayed basis by MLB Network (as part of their 83-game MLB spring schedule). Among the other ways the following nine games can be viewed is via the internet through the MLB.TV subscription service (offering 150+ spring games across baseball with no spring blackouts).

Keep this page bookmarked as I will be updating it throughout the month as appropriate.

March 3 update: FOX Sports Tennessee announced they will be carrying the same five games as FOX Midwest. The table below is updated to reflect this. More details here.

March 4 update: XM games through March 11 added.

March 12 update: XM games through March 20 added.

St. Louis Cardinals 2011 Spring Training Broadcast Schedule

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Update 2/25: MLB.TV has now published their 150+ game spring schedule that includes nine Cardinals contests. The information is added below. The fee of $119.95 for HD and $99.95 for standard def includes spring and the regular season. Boxes supported include PC, Mac, iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad and more.

Update 2/17: MLB Network has announced their spring slate of 83 games, four of which include the Cardinals. This does not increase the previous total of ten games as all were previously scheduled on regional networks. However with MLB Network’s national reach, more Cardinals fans have a better chance of seeing these contests now. See the updates in the table below.

Update 2/9: The official slate of games, spring and regular season, has been announced by the Cardinals and FOX Sports Midwest. This includes five spring games, two more than I had previously reported. The March 16 game, already announced on FOX Detroit will also be on FOX Midwest. The March 19 split-squad game at Kissimmee against Houston is new. The table below reflects these updates with the total of spring games televised on any network now up to ten.

My original 2/5 post follows…

Though there has been no announcement, official or otherwise, from the St. Louis Cardinals or FOX Sports Midwest regarding their spring training television schedule, I have learned from other sources there are tentative plans to telecast three games from Florida. This includes the March 26 game against Florida which will be simulcast on FOX Sports Midwest and FOX Sports Florida, brought to viewers via a shared booth of Rick Horton (Cardinals play-by-play) and Tommy Hutton (Marlins analyst).

In addition, while not all of St. Louis’ Florida opponents have divulged their spring television plans, most have. Specifically, the Cardinals’ nearest residents, the Marlins and the Mets, against whom the Cardinals play most often each spring, have announced their March broadcast schedules.

The New Yorkers have picked up three games against St. Louis, two of which will run on SportsNet New York and the other on over-the-air WPIX. This includes an opportunity for early viewing as SNY will be showing the Cardinals’ third game of the spring, on Thursday, March 3.

The schedule includes a game against Detroit on FOX Sports Detroit on the 16th, a Boston contest picked up by New England Sports Network (NESN) on the 20^th and a national ESPN match versus the Mets on March 23.

In fact, during the final week of camp, that ESPN telecast kicks off a run of four consecutive St. Louis games being televised. That includes the Cardinals’ only night contest in Florida this spring, from Viera against the Nationals on Friday, March 25, on FOX Sports Midwest.

All in all, the tentative Cardinals spring training television docket currently sits at nine games.

Which games you will be able see in your area is dependent on a number of factors. Though their schedules have not yet been divulged, it is expected that both the home and away telecasts should be available via MLB.com’s subscription service (with appropriate blackout rules) and perhaps via your satellite provider (depending on your service packages). More details will be provided as they become available.

Cardinals spring radio broadcasts on KMOX, previously announced, are included in the table below.

Tentative Cardinals 2011 Spring Training Broadcast Schedule

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For example, a group is planning a rally to show their support for the two sides to come to terms. Other suggestions are intended to “help” the club identify additional revenue sources, which they could then deploy in paying Pujols.

One proposal is for the Cardinals to create their own regional television network in the image of the Yankees’ wildly successful YES Network. Unfortunately, any such change would not occur quickly enough to impact the current situation.

First of all, there are major market differences between St. Louis and New York. In fact, St. Louis ranks 24^th of the 30 metro markets using Nielsen DMA data, according to team president Bill DeWitt III. While he acknowledged that does not take into account “outer markets” where the Cardinals are regionally strong, it wouldn’t close the gap with The Big Apple.

Yet there is clearly considerable money to be made in team broadcast rights.

Last fall, the Texas Rangers inked a landmark 20-year contract extension with FOX Sports Southwest that takes effect in 2015. The total value of the deal is said to be a whopping $1.6 billion.

That $80 million average per season is a huge increase over the $45 million the club reportedly receives under the current contact. An additional $35 million each and every year could buy a lot of anything, including the services of several baseball players in their prime.

With the Texas situation firmly in mind, during the recent Winter Warm-Up I asked DeWitt III if conditions could be right for a similar windfall for his club.

DeWitt characterized the Texas situation as “the perfect storm” with a change in team leadership due to the previous owner who “had overly-leveraged the franchise and got into trouble that probably started with the A-Rod contract. I won’t draw any parallels,” he quipped. DeWitt also observed the Rangers cable TV footprint ranges from Arlington to Dallas to Houston.

One major reason these conditions won’t be developing soon in St. Louis is that the Cardinals have seven years remaining in their current contract with FOX Sports Midwest. The deal had been extended prior to the 2007 season.

A provision in the revised agreement that was picked up stipulates that starting in 2011, all Cardinals games not telecast nationally, about 150, will be found exclusively on the regional sports network. Available via cable and satellite, FOX Sports Midwest was rated number one among all such networks across MLB during the 2010 season. Free, on-air Sunday games, most recently shown on KSDK and a regional network, have likely disappeared forever, DeWitt acknowledged.

The team president further pointed out that there are risks in long-term deals like the one made in Texas that might limit the Cardinals’ flexibility down the road.

“To get into an extension (with FOX Sports Midwest) might be a bit premature but we are looking at everything that is happening in the industry,” DeWitt said. “Some clubs have extended very long into the future – 20-year deals. The Oakland A’s have done that (with Comcast SportsNet) and a few others.”

The Cardinals don’t seem to see a clear benefit in the trend.

“We are kind of scratching our heads thinking about that because… is that good for the club? Or is it risky if it is one of those things where sure, you might be able to lock in some big increases and maybe even bump up revenues and payrolls and so forth, but are you limiting your flexibility and options for the future – perhaps do your own cable network of things of that nature?” DeWitt asked.

With at least seven years of the status quo ahead, don’t expect incremental cash to begin flowing in to fund Pujols’ impending contract – unless a tremendous portion of his money is deferred.

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One game will be broadcast on delay due to a conflict with a Blues hockey game and three others are on Cardinals split squad days, March 3, 19 and 29. The basic schedule posted on KMOX’ site does not specify which of the split squad games will be covered, so in the schedule below, I assumed they will be the home contests in Jupiter. The radio games are not yet reflected at MLB.com, but will likely be added soon.

The usual spring Tuesday-Thursday-Saturday-Sunday schedule is generally followed, but there are several deviations. The details are below, with the opponents listed, not included in the KMOX announcement.

It is likely that all these games will be also available via subscription at MLB.com and some will likely be picked up Sirius/XM satellite radio, but those schedules are not yet available. Some opposing team’s broadcasts will also be included in these pay packages, and I will share that information when announced.

In addition, there is one television game announced so far with more coming. The March 23 home game against the New York Mets will be on ESPN as well as KMOX.

Update: The games with the Detroit Tigers on March 16, Boston Red Sox on March 20 and Florida Marlins on March 26 have been added to those clubs’ spring television schedules and are noted below. Though FOX Sports Midwest has yet to announce their slate of games, the 26th game will be among them.

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ESPN and the FOX network have announced a partial state of Major League Baseball games to be televised nationally during the 2011 season. 15 of them involve the St. Louis Cardinals, starting with Opening Day and game two, on Thursday, March 31 and Saturday, April 2, respectively.

12 of the 15 will originate from Busch Stadium. A total of five are in March/April, three in May, one in June, followed by two each in July, August and September. Cincinnati leads the way with four games, followed by the Cubs with three and the Padres and Rockies with two each. Single contests with the Mets, Braves, Phillies and Giants are also on the schedule.

Here is the link to the webpage where new updates should be added when available.

Of course, more games will be added later on these networks as well as by TBS and MLB Network and the remainder of the Cardinals’ 162-game schedule will be televised by FOX Sports Midwest in 2011.

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On Monday, some astonishing news apparently leaked out.

After suffering through former owner Tom Hicks’ bankruptcy, the Texas Rangers have reportedly come to terms on a 20-year extension with FOX Sports Southwest for their local television rights. The amount is said to be a jaw-dropping $3 billion, or an average of $150 million per season.

In comparison, USA Today, who reported the initial news, also cited the $45 million per year that the Los Angeles Dodgers make in their contract with FOX Prime Ticket. The Biz of Baseball mentioned the 2007 deal between the Seattle Mariners and FOX Sports Northwest, a 12-year contract “well in excess of $400 million,” on average over $33 million per year.

Update: The Houston Chronicle states the new 20-year Rangers deal is for $1.6 billion, or an average of $80 million per season starting in 2015. The article also notes the Astros current contract with FOX Sports Houston is in the vicinity of $45 million per year.

Closer to home, I am unaware of the terms of the St. Louis Cardinals current agreement with FOX Sports Midwest. Contacted on Monday, an FSM spokesman would not comment, stating that information is not made public.

What we do know is that the current multi-year contract was extended prior to the 2007 season. That revised deal allowed FS Midwest to increase its number of Cardinals games from 110 to 130. After four years, they exercised a contract provision to take the final 20 games previously telecast via free television locally by KSDK NewsChannel 5. As a result, starting in 2011, FS Midwest will carry all 150 Cardinals games not broadcast nationally.

In terms of viewership during the first half of the 2010 season, FS Midwest was number one among the 29 US-based regional sports networks with an average rating of 9.70. That represented a 41.6 percent increase over 2009. Nielsen data was reported by SportsBusiness Journal, a subset of which follows.

In terms of raw numbers of households (HH) tuning in, not surprisingly the New York teams are first and second, respectively. The Cardinals are sixth, ahead of all four clubs whose yearly financial terms are apparently known.

What that means for the future of Cardinals broadcast rights is unclear, but it would seem that if the team can remain competitive, it will be in a strong position whenever new talks are appropriate.

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I am not heavily into consumer advocacy or that kind of thing. However, I do care about how baseball broadcasts are delivered. This is the second consecutive night I cannot see the game I want to see in the manner for which I paid, continuing six mostly unhappy months.

Being a traveling type, the convenience of MLB.tv is hard to not like. Over the winter, I read a review on BizofBaseball.com about a new piece of technology first delivered late in the 2009 season that is intended to complement MLB.tv.

ROKU is a small electronic device that connects your television to the internet. Offering a number of channels including Netflix and Pandora, ROKU had established a growing customer base. What interested me was the announcement of a partnership with Major League Baseball to deliver MLB.tv via ROKU.

After reading the ROKU marketing materials, which promised HD-quality broadcasts and the ability to watch spring training games, I ordered a box in February to accompany my annual MLB.tv subscription.

In my case, it would allow me to watch games without having to connect my laptop to the television with bulky cables and see them with a better quality picture.

Immediately, the problems began. Though MLB materials said MLB.tv Premium was required, ROKU later said it was not. Money wasted.

Perhaps due to issues with the data stream, ROKU was not ready to deliver its 2010 MLB support during spring training. The regular season opened with the respective websites still bragging about the ability for their customers to see EVERY one of the 2,430 scheduled games this season (minus blackouts).

Still, no service. ROKU representatives stalled, buying time by offering participation in a beta program to unhappy customers like me. I later learned that during March, those who had previously complained about not being able to watch spring games were offered a beta program, but there was no follow through.

The promised beta program did not open until April 20, over two weeks after the MLB regular season was underway. ROKU waited all of three days, April 23, before declaring general availability despite the application being unreliable. The graphic is from a ROKU email dated April 24.

Early service was loaded with problems, many times so bad games could not be watched. Over the intervening weeks, ROKU provided several code updates, but were closed-lipped as to the precise nature of the problems.

They had the nerve to send me a customer satisfaction survey on one of the many days their service was not working. I stopped short of profanity, but just barely.

In the meantime, scores of dissatisfied ROKU MLB.tv users flooded the company forum with messages reporting their nightly frustrations trying to view games. Many users unable to secure refunds gave up and resold their ROKUs on ebay for whatever they could recover.

MLB.tv would not issue credit to dissatisfied ROKU users. A complaint call to MLB actually led them to point out their advertising says all 2,430 games can be seen live OR on demand, not necessarily AND. Not being able to watch games while they are actually being played was not grounds for them to grant a refund.

After several rough months, by summer, performance seemed to stabilize somewhat. It didn’t last long. This month, the old problems returned nightly – freezing, rebuffering, delays.

Almost any evening when the ROKU failed, I was still able to see the game of choice via my laptop, but in that case, why did I blow $100 on a ROKU?

At this point, the MLB application is what it is – undependable. The ROKU forum thread for user problems with MLB.tv has grown to 127 pages, 1900 posts!

I haven’t seen any ROKU employees bother to post anything in weeks. After all, what can they say? Whether it is MLB’s problem or ROKU’s doesn’t matter to the end user. The ROKU-MLB.tv offering is a failure.

Since BizofBaseball.com’s review was part of my decision-making process, I emailed the head of the site and directed him to the ROKU forum to learn the reality for himself. Apparently, he wasn’t interested in helping to get out the bad news.

As I noted before, ROKU has value to many with its other applications, but for MLB.tv, my warning is to stay away, far away. There are other far more dependable alternatives available for watching MLB games.

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“The best fans in baseball.”

When tossed around in reference to the followers of the St. Louis Cardinals, I don’t like it one bit. It has nothing to do with an outbreak of the wave at Busch Stadium while the home team is batting in the eighth inning of a tie game. It is just one of those terms that is better left unsaid.

Having the most rabid fans, on the other hand, can be suggested – and when using television ratings in support of one’s position, that debate can be won.

On Monday, SportsBusiness Journal published an analysis of Nielsen Media Research data through the All-Star break. The Cardinals regional sports network, FOX Sports Midwest, came in number one across all of major league baseball’s local markets with a 9.70 average rating. That represents over 120,000 households in the St. Louis market watching the telecast on the average and both numbers are a whopping 41.6 percent higher than last season.

The next closest club, the Minnesota Twins on FOX Sports North, have a 7.85 average rating in the Twin Cities DMA. The Oakland A’s on CSN California are last at 1.23. The leader for the past six years, the Boston Red Sox’ NESN, slipped to fifth at 6.25, causing much concern in Beantown. (These ratings do not account for viewers in outer markets.)

It was recently disclosed that starting in 2011, FS Midwest will be televising all Cardinals games not on national broadcasts. On the radio side, rumors persist that the team is considering a change from KTRS, despite holding a partial ownership stake in the station.

In the radio rankings, KTRS comes in ninth in MLB in terms of average listeners at 128,400. That is down five percent from last season. KTRS is third in MLB in average rating among the desirable 25-54 age male group at 19.1. Again, that is in decline, down 4.5 percent from 2009.

At the national level, ratings remained basically flat on every network except ESPN.

FOX averaged a 1.9 rating for their MLB game coverage during the first half of the season, same as last year. While that is slightly up, it isn’t great news as last season, FOX’s 1.8 average was a record low. ESPN’s 1.0 national rating for its games is down from last year’s 1.1, while ESPN2 averaged 0.74. Not surprisingly, TBS was the least-watched of the national networks with a 0.41 rating, even with last year.

Click on the above link to be taken to the detailed data.

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FOX Sports Midwest spokesman Geoff Goldman confirmed the network will be televising the full slate of St. Louis Cardinals games starting in 2011, taking those which had been televised by KSDK, primarily on Sundays.

“FOX Sports Midwest will be the exclusive television home of the Cardinals next season, showing every game that is not broadcast nationally,” Goldman said when contacted on Wednesday. “We are proud to add 20 games to our schedule starting in 2011.”

FS Midwest is televising all 130 of its 2010 games in high definition.

Gauging initial reaction to the news, the basic concerns seem to be related to the principle of the matter of games leaving over-the-air television.

Moving regional events to cable outlets is hardly new. The trend has been occurring across MLB for some time for teams to take their games to more lucrative networks. In St. Louis, the shift actually began 15 years ago. The Cardinals will soon be joining a number of other clubs whose games have already left free television.

Those actually affected by the loss of games on free television are part of a small minority. FOX Sports Midwest is available via basic or expanded basic packages on most all cable and satellite systems. According to Nielsen Media Research, St. Louis’ cable plus satellite penetration is 89 percent, just two percent under the national average.

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I am very proud this blog has been selected a fifth time overall and first this season to be highlighted by our good friends at Channel 5, the Sunday home of the St. Louis Cardinals.

For those outside the St. Louis viewing area or for those who miss Sunday’s show, depending on guidelines for showing game footage, if a copy of the segment can be loaded on KSDK.com, it will be added here as well.

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Last week, the local paper in the Quad Cities, The Quad-City Times, finally caught up with the news first reported here at The Cardinal Nation Blog back on February 9 that the River Bandits ended their radio broadcasts for financial reasons.

There was one encouraging bit of new information for local and remote fans alike. The Bandits have decided to assign their new Director of Media Relations, Tommy Thrall, the added role of play-by-play announcer for their 70 home games only.

Thrall, most recently of the Myrtle Beach Pelicans of the Carolina League, replaced the former voice of the River Bandits, Ben Chiswick, who departed over the winter to Midwest League competitor West Michigan due to the cutback decision.

These Quad Cities audio broadcasts will be streamed over the internet via MILB.com starting with the River Bandits’ home opener on April 11. Bandits’ road games will also be available for streaming if the home clubs initiate radio broadcasts.

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For a player that refuses to announce his retirement, former St. Louis Cardinals pitcher John Smoltz is making a lot of off-field commitments.

On Tuesday, the 42-year-old was announced as taking on three new jobs, all related to baseball, but none of them in uniform. The future Hall of Famer is joining broadcast teams at the MLB Network, Turner Sports (TBS) and Peachtree TV. The first two are national assignments while the later is Atlanta Braves-specific. TBS airs national games on Sunday while Smoltz’ Peachtree commitment is 45 games. He will be both an in-game and studio analyst for MLB Network.

While Smoltz admitted that he is “leaning” toward retirement, he isn’t prepared to make such an announcement.

“I’m just not prepared officially to say my playing days are over,” Smoltz said during a Tuesday afternoon conference call, reported by Fanhouse.

A Pedro Martinez-like mid-season comeback was not ruled out, either. “Right now the odds are not very high,” Smoltz said, “but it’s not totally closed, either.”

Recent rumors about the right-hander have ranged from a run for Congress in Georgia to replacing injured Minnesota closer Joe Nathan, but apparently, they were all unfounded.

Smoltz has prior broadcasting experience, including having served as a guest analyst for Turner during the 2007 and 2008 postseasons. Of course, he was busy pitching for the Cardinals in October 2009, though not as long as any St. Louis fans would have liked.

Note: Please check out my new Minor League Notebook, running this and every Wednesday at the St. Louis Globe-Democrat.

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Kill the supervisors…

The problems with MLB umpiring run deeper than the supervisors, but there are unions and processes to follow. Yet there have been three firings.

Geek-a-palooza

This past weekend in Boston, the fourth annual MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference was held, with over 1000 in attendance. Among the panelists discussing the use of analytics was Cardinals assistant GM John Abbamondi. Here is a very good recap.

Changing channels?

Though the blood of the Cardinals part-ownership of KTRS would seem to trump the history of the team’s relationship with KMOX, the subject of the radio broadcast rights shifting is at least being discussed again.

BP puts Cards at bottom

Baseball Prospectus has followed up their individual player rankings by system and their top 100 with their organizational rankings, with the Cardinals sitting at #30 of 30. Compared to some other rankings, this feels somewhat subjective, though there may be some methodology behind it that I cannot see.

HGH testing unclear

The commissioner says he doesn’t know if or when testing for HGH in minor leaguers will be ready. Doesn’t make you wonder why they announced it, then? (Also note Bud Selig’s comments defending MLB’s minority hiring near the bottom of the piece.)

In the spirit

This link was posted on The Cardinal Nation message board and the video is so well done I decided to share it here, as well. It should put any Cardinals fan in the right frame of mind for the upcoming season.

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Go to kxno.com for the live stream.

In great news for Cardinals fans in Iowa, KXnO recently announced their joining the Cardinals baseball network for the 2010.

For Scout.com subscribers who miss it, I will post the audio at TheCardinalNation.com following the segment.

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Updated 2/13: Though I first posted this four weeks ago, on January 17, with tentative TV games, I am republishing it with today’s date, February 13. The reason is to bring it up front now that the Cardinals full spring broadcast schedule has been filled in on MLB.com, confirming the rest of the television games and adding the radio ones, too.

Again, what makes this list different is it includes both Cardinals AND their opponents’ spring training radio and television plans. After all, with satellite and internet services, catching an away broadcast is far better than missing out entirely!

New radio notes: KTRS 550 radio will break from their regular Tuesday-Thursday-Saturday-Sunday schedule to also broadcast a pair of Friday games, on March 12 and April 2. The latter game will be from Minneapolis. KTRS’ first game will be on Saturday, March 6, the first of 17. Check local listings as always, but generally the 116 stations across the Cardinals radio network will broadcast Saturday and Sunday spring training contests.

New television notes: FOX Sports Midwest will be carrying five spring games, three of them in conjunction with other FOX regional sports networks. Another FSM game will also appear simultaneously on ESPN. The two KSDK 5 games have now been confirmed per MLB.com.

Though it is not new news, remember the very first Cardinals spring game on Thursday, March 4 against the Mets will be televised on SportsNet New York. It will be the first of a dozen (now 13 as of February 19) St. Louis spring games televised by some network.

Bookmark this page as it will be updated when additional information is made available. It is also always accessible from the task bar at the top of the page via “Events/Info” > “Television and Radio”.

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It was announced in December that Chiswick, Quad Cities Director of Broadcasting and Media Relations, had left the River Bandits after five years. The radio voice of the St. Louis Cardinals Class A affiliate for 140 games each season was the club’s longest-tenured full-time employee, going back prior to the ownership change following the 2007 season. Chiswick has since taken the similar job with Midwest League competitor West Michigan Whitecaps.

The same day Chiswick’s departure was made public, his replacement was introduced, Tommy Thrall. Thrall had been the Director of Broadcasting and Communications for the Myrtle Beach Pelicans of the Carolina League.

It was not clearly stated that Thrall’s new position is simply Director of Media Relations. I have since received emails from Thrall, but did not catch the subtlety in his signature block, the missing Director of Broadcasting part.

The blank was filled in for me when I happened upon the blog of South Bend’s broadcaster Owen Serey. As he recapped the various moves among his Midwest League peers, Serey noted that Quad Cities has discontinued radio broadcasts of their games for 2010.

Finally, the light bulb came on for me; or should I say it went off? Obviously the Bandits don’t need a broadcaster if they aren’t going to be broadcasting games. Very disappointing news.

Back in March 2008, the River Bandits and Miller Media Group, the owner of WYEC (93.9 FM, Geneseo, Illinois), had announced a three-year agreement to air the team’s 140-game schedule on the station. Games were also streamed on the team’s website.

Ending the deal a year early seems especially counterintuitive as the Quad Cities baseball operation is definitely on the rise. Total attendance (236,401) and average attendance (3,694) last season were both the highest since 1995 and rank among the top five years the history of the franchise. Since the ownership change, attendance has grown 64 percent on a per-game basis (from 2,254 in 2007) and 59 percent on an annual view (from 148,773).

A 2009 study by Street & Smith’s SportsBusiness Journal ranked the Quad Cities #31 of 239 minor league sports markets, best of all Cardinals minor league affiliate metro areas.

In confirming the news, Miller Media Group’s Kewanee, Illinois cluster sales manager Fletcher M. Ford was quite direct. He explained how the change was made and communicated.

“Your Easy Choice 93.9 WYEC was served notice from Kirk A. Goodman, Vice President and General Manager in late 2009 explaining the intention of the Quad City River Bandits not having a radio broadcast partner in the upcoming season for its fans,” Ford explained.

Ford wanted to make it clear that Miller Media Group was not a part of any evaluation process.

“This decision was made solely by the management of the Quad City River Bandits,” Ford said.

Goodman offered further details.

“We are indeed discontinuing our radio broadcast,” Goodman stated Monday. “We were being charged a very high rate to be on a station located 55 miles from our ballpark and in addition to that cost and the expense of paying for the salary and travel for a broadcaster did not make fiscal sense for our team.”

Apparently no alternatives that offered a match could be found.

“We made an effort to bring the broadcast to a more local station but none of the formats of the stations for the two main radio groups in our market worked with what we were willing to offer in return.

“It was strictly a financial decision…to pay what was necessary for our broadcast to be on the air was not worth the return we saw from having a broadcast,” Goodman said.

At least one lower-level Cardinals affiliate in a smaller metropolitan area continues with radio, the Batavia Muckdogs of the New York-Penn League, a short-season club.

All may not be lost for River Bandits fans with stronger radios or internet service as the team will still be heard as the opponent on some broadcasts. Other clubs in the 14-team Midwest League continuing with radio include South Bend and West Michigan (obviously) along with Fort Wayne, Burlington, Kane County and Dayton.

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Though the St. Louis Cardinals official spring training and regular season broadcast schedule may be a week or more away from announcement, we are starting to get a partial view, led by eight confirmed games on the FOX Network.

In addition, in 2010, FOX Sports’ 15th straight season as the national broadcast home of MLB, the network will cover the All-Star Game from Anaheim, California, the National League Championship Series and the World Series.

2010 MLB on FOX REGULAR SEASON BROADCAST SCHEDULE (Cardinals subset)

(Note: Schedule Subject to Change; All Times 4:00 PM Eastern Unless Noted)

Saturday, April 10, 2010 (*3:00 PM ET)
St. Louis Cardinals at Milwaukee Brewers

Saturday, April 17, 2009
New York Mets at St. Louis Cardinals

Saturday, May 29, 2010
St. Louis Cardinals at Chicago Cubs

Saturday, June 5, 2010
Milwaukee Brewers at St. Louis Cardinals

Saturday, July 3, 2010
Milwaukee Brewers at St. Louis Cardinals

Saturday, July 17, 2010
Los Angeles Dodgers at St. Louis Cardinals

Saturday, August 14, 2010
Chicago Cubs at St. Louis Cardinals

Saturday, September 11, 2010
St. Louis Cardinals at Atlanta Braves

Click here to see the entire 2010 FOX Network MLB schedule.

Previously disclosed: In addition to opening day at Cincinnati on Monday, April 5, ESPN will carry these early-season Cardinals Sunday night games: April 11 at Milwaukee and April 18 vs. the New York Mets.

For a preliminary view of Cardinals spring training broadcasts, click here.

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Note: This post has been superceded by a newer version of this information.

As I do each spring, I will maintain a post with the most complete and current plans for St. Louis Cardinals radio and television coverage. This list varies from the official site in that it covers all known sources, including away team television coverage as well as satellite radio.

Keep checking this page as I will update it as more information is known. It is also always accessible from the task bar at the top of the page via “Events/Info” > “Television and radio”.

First confirmation of two televised 2010 spring games

The ESPN schedule for MLB spring games include two Cardinals Florida contests on March 25 and 29. Opponents are the New York Mets and Minnesota Twins, respectively.

Spring schedule reminders

For those with satellite radio and television, I will also be watching the Cardinals’ spring opponents’ plans as they announce which games they plan to cover. In addition to the two from ESPN, I have very preliminary, unconfirmed word that five spring contests may reach the television airwaves this spring. One overlaps with the 3/25 ESPN game. They are penciled in below.

Spring radio plans not announced

On the radio side, in past years the Cardinals have originated broadcasts for Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday games. Though there has been no announcement yet, I expect the pattern to continue.

WWU coverage on FS Midwest

Fox Sports Midwest is planning two post-Winter Warm-Up shows starting Monday, January 18. For those who can’t attend the real thing, this will be the next best alternative. Dates and times here.

The regular schedule

In case you don’t have your 2010 Cardinals one-page printable schedule for the regular season, you can download a copy here. While game times are known, some of the weekend contests are subject to the whims of the television networks.

Regular season TV schedule not yet available

None of the regular season televised games are listed yet. We may still be several weeks away from confirmed schedules. As soon as they are released, I will get them posted.

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The primary focus will be the St. Louis Cardinals minor league system with recent topics such as the Rule 5 Draft, prospects added to the 40-man roster, winter league play, the Arizona Fall League, the top 40 prospect countdown at TheCardinalNation.com, the system’s relative ranking and much more.

Devotees of XM Satellite Radio are likely already aware of the long-running Fantasy Focus show. In 2009, it moved from XM to Blog Talk Radio. Listen live, Monday through Friday, or on demand.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/RotoWire

Jeff Erickson is the Senior Editor of RotoWire.com and host of Fantasy Focus. His show covers fantasy baseball from a wide variety of angles, talking with the major forces within the industry, and also offers listener interaction. Among the expert leagues in which we both compete is Tout Wars. Jeff is the 2007 American League champion while I won the 2009 National League title.

Our focus will be on fantasy baseball, specifically on my 2009 championship in National League Tout Wars, one of the industry’s most prestigious and challenging leagues. It was a fantastic season, with Lenny and Paul among my league competitors. Of course, we will also discuss the Cardinals quick exit from the post-season.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/TalkingBaseballLive

Lenny Melnick and Paul Greco of FantasyPros911.com bring their unique style of Fantasy Baseball expertise to Fantasy Baseball owners across the Internet. Lenny, a two-time LABR champion, has also padded his long Fantasy Baseball resume with a Tout Wars championship. Paul has a varied fantasy sports resume. He is part owner of Gotham Sports Media and is Associate Editor of BaseballDigest.com, bringing Fantasy Baseball to the online version of the popular magazine.