Finally! Baseball is back!
I can’t tell you how relieved I am. Growing up in the household of a classic Phillies Phanatic, I was brought up on a healthy respect for Baseball, from singing along to ‘Centerfield’, ‘Glory Days’, & ‘Talkin Baseball’ to memorizing the transcript of ‘Field of Dreams’.
To be honest, I never really got into it until around High school, as I was more interested in reading and video games. And even though my Home Team was always a on the bottom of the standings, the tickets were still cheaper than a movie, so Baseball was a frequent throughout middle school and high school.
At first glance, 2012 seemed to be the year of the happy marriage between the Internet and Sports. The Super Bowl was broadcast online and the MLB was launching their new MLB.TV Premium Package. This blew my mind. I love baseball, but working a 9-5 on the east coast means about ½ of the games throughout the season are in that 1p-3p timeframe, and I think my boss would notice if I took a 4 hour lunch break for 18 days this season. Because I work at my desk, MLB.TV Premium would let me watch the games from my Mac at work, Pick up the game on my Android for my ride home, catch a couple innings at the gym on my iPad, be back home for the pitching change on my PC, and watch the extra innings on my xbox360 or PS3. It covered virtually every device. I’ve been meaning to drop cable for a while, and this was just the push that I needed. Pay for the package while dropping cable for a higher internet speed. It’s perfect. But we can’t always have nice things. I will illustrate the next portion of this post in what I imagine would be a conversation between myself and the geniuses at MLB.TV.
MLB: Hey you! I bet you like baseball
ME: You’re right I love baseball!
MLB: I bet you probably have a favorite team.
ME: I sure do! I really feel like this is the season the Tampa Bay Rays go all the way!
MLB: I’m sure they will… Wait, do you live within the drive market of the rays?
ME: No, I wish I did. That way I could go to the games.
MLB: Well we’ve got just the product that suits your needs.
ME: Really? What is it?
MLB: It’s MLB.TV! Watch any-asterisk- game on any device!
ME: Wow any? Wait. What’s that?
MLB: What? Oh that? ’-asterisk-’? That’s just an asterisk.
ME: What does that mean?
MLB: Oh, it just means you can’t watch any Rays games.
ME: What? Why?
MLB: Well, you live in Florida. Therefore you can’t watch any Rays games.
ME: But I’m not even in the drive market! I live in Orlando; over 2 hours away.
MLB: Or the Marlins for that matter.
ME: Five hour drive. dude, you’re not making this any easier.
MLB: That’s too bad. Hey, do you like the seattle Mariners?
ME: No, I like the rays. Can at least watch the away games?
MLB: The games when the Rays are playing outside of your drive market?
ME: Yeah!
MLB: Nope. What about the Astros?
ME: That doesn’t make sense! why can’t i watch away games?
MLB: well do you live in florida?
ME: yes.
MLB: Then you can’t watch the Rays game, even if they’re playing in Milwaukee.
ME: How am I supposed to watch it?
MLB: You’ll just have to pay for cable and watch it there.
ME: But I just paid YOU to watch it on my xbox
MLB: Too bad.
ME: Why would anyone buy your stupid service
MLB: We don’t know.
Click here to see a map of the MLB.TV Blackout territories
Under the Influence of Free Time 
Could be worse. You could live in Iowa and never see any baseball on it ever.
I can understand the blackouts for local games. Even though I live hours upon hours away from my team. I cannot understand why I can’t watch away games. This has to be one of the most asinine policies ever. I have yet to watch a live game. This is absolute bull!
If you’re willing to pay for premium, you can spend spend an extra $4/month for a proxy server that can spoof MLB.tv to think you live in the UK and you can watch any MLB game. Then use Firefox preferences to connect to that proxy.
or just do the research before buying something
Check out “Unblock Us” – it works with MLB.tv and it’s a good deal at $5/month.