Cub Fan - DIRECTV Man

Back in the 1980’s, when Harry Caray was still at the top of his broadcasting game, he liked to enjoy himself with a cold one or two. His link to Budweiser went all the way back to the days when he was a broadcaster in St. Louis for the Cardinals. There are more than a few stories as to why he abruptly left St. Louis for his one-year exile in Oakland before joining Jimmy Piersall in the White Sox booth. Some of those stories involve the King of Beers and in fact, you can read Harry’s 1989 book, "Holy Cow” if you want to dig deeper into that story.

It's hard to believe but Harry spent a decade calling games on the South Side before he hopped on the Red Line for Wrigley Field in 1982. He was reunited with Budweiser when he joined the Cubs and a great marketing campaign was born – "Cub Fan, Bud Man" starring who else, but Harry. Now a lot of people think that Harry’s image of, how shall I say, a large consumer of the product was nothing more than great branding. But I’m here to tell you – it was no marketing ploy.

Back in the days when I was the General Manager of WXRT, we used to play softball against various celebrity teams at the late Thillens Stadium at Devon and Kedzie. One of those games featured our team, "The Diamonds”, getting demolished by a team featuring Chicago Blackhawk players. Now those mostly Canadian guys had never seen a Chicago sixteen-inch softball, but boy could they hit it! Harry joined us at that game, making an appearance, and of course, he was more popular than any Blackhawk or XRT personality.

After the game, I had the chance to spend the night (and well into the morning) with Harry – just him, one of his pals and me. We hit some of his favorite watering holes. Let me tell you that neither of us ever had to flash a wallet. Three things became clear to me amidst my alcoholic fog before I dropped him off at his apartment at the Ambassador East. First, Harry probably never paid for a drink during his entire time in Chicago. Secondly, Harry could really hold his liquor. And third, he was indeed a Bud Man.

Harry passed away in 1998 and Cub TV broadcasts have never quite been the same. These days, if you’re a Cub Fan, you can still easily (and expensively) be a Bud Man (Bud Person?) at the old ballpark. However, it’s not quite so easy to watch the team on television. Ever since the Cubs started their own Marquee Network in partnership with Sinclair Broadcast Group, the means by which to watch the team have been limited if you live in what’s known as Chicago Cub Territory. That’s especially true if you are not a cable subscriber. While most cable companies in Cub Territory carry Marquee and for that matter, NBC Sports Network (Sox, Hawks and Bulls), you will generally be charged what’s called a "Regional Sports Fee” for the privilege. In the case of Comcast, that fee is $18.35 per month, which you pay whether you watch sports on TV or not. They also charge as much as $21.50 for local TV channels, but that’s a subject for another day.

With prices on the rise, people are looking for alternatives to cable but alas, the choices are few for Cub fans. If you want to watch them without cable, you're limited to just a few services. You can opt for DIRECTV satellite, but don’t even think about DISH as they don’t offer Marquee. That leaves just a couple of other streaming options for local Cub fans – fubo or DIRECTV’s streaming service. In a previous post called, "fubo is a no-go for Sports Fans”, I wrote about why fubo is not a good option for sports on TV since it doesn't offer TBS or TNT. Now if you don’t care about NBA or NHL games (or March Madness for that matter), then fubo is a good streaming option for a Cub fan. However, if you like that other stuff, it only leaves DIRECTV as a choice for Cub fans. It should be noted that Sox fans have more choices with both You Tube TV and Hulu + Live TV offering NBC Sports Network in addition to DIRECTV and fubo.

The bottom line is for Cub fans, if you want to cut the cord and like other sports, DIRECTV is the best streaming option available. That is until one of two things happen. Either the Cubs and Marquee start to stream directly to the consumer (known as DTC) like Bally Sports Wisconsin does with the Brewers, or you can move out of Cub territory and subscribe to MLB.TV. That’s a rather rash decision for a Cub fan, so before you call Bekins and move to Des Moines or Decatur, check the MLB territory map because those places are still considered Cubland.

Since I retired, I started Lower Tech Bills because I found myself with the time to do both in-store and online research in the Televison, Cell and Internet businesses. I’ve been able to save people form hundreds to even thousands of dollars on those costs with some ongoing. I’m also available to help guide you in making crucial decisions regarding those services. For a free look at your bills, email hmwellsradio@gmail.com or visit www.lowertechbills.com because you may not have the time to do all that research, but I do.