For most baseball enthusiasts, there is nothing more exhilarating than going to the ballpark to cheer for your favorite MLB team in the company of other fans. This option is affordable, and offers a completely unique experience compared to watching the game on your screen.
Unfortunately, this option may not be available to you due to geographical factors, or conflict with your daily schedules. So what do you do?
Major League Baseball (MLB) has thought of multiple ways that their fans can watch and stream MLB online. Baseball fans can choose to tune into the MLB network live online stream for free, pay for a premium subscription, or simply make monthly payments for a streaming package.
So, fans who are not willing to pay for cable or buy a subscription can still stream live MLB games online. The following are some popular options for baseball fans to stream MLB games online for free or at a small fee:
The MLB network live stream
The MLB network is unique compared to other sports networks since it is entirely devoted to baseball; offering baseball games 24/7. This means that you can tune into MLB for continuous baseball games from the moment you wake up, to the time you go to bed. When there are no games, you can watch free-agent signings, trade talks, off-season leagues, like the Arizona Fall League, and even baseball movies.
Since the launch of MLB network on January 1, 2009, it has been a reliable source of live baseball games for all fanatics, with a coverage of about 150 regular season games, another 150 Spring Training games, two-exclusive for League Division Series game-telecasts, and a multitude of other special event game telecasts.
During regular season, MLB network will air multiple live MLB games per week, though they be blacked out in the local markets of participating teams, whereby those markets will have to view an alternate programming, unless listed otherwise.
MLB Network is extremely accessible since it is widely distributed across telco, cable and satellite systems. MLB Network live stream is available on major systems including Cox, Comcast, Time Warner, DirecTV, Cablevision, Charter, Verizon FiOS, Dish Network, and AT&T U-verse.
Online Live stream with MLB.TV
MLB provides all its fans with the entire season schedule via its MLB.tv website, as well as the MLB AT Bat 2 app at a price. The standard MLB.tv package streams Major League Baseball, out-of-market games live in HD video on your PC for a monthly fee of $19.99 or $109.99 for the entire season. With this package, you will be able to view complete games live or on-demand afterwards.
This package also features a set of controls with pausing and rewinding capabilities, in addition to Mosaic and Picture-in-Picture view modes that allows absolute-fantasy baseball fans to view up to four games simultaneously. This means that you can catch a New York Yankees live stream on a quarter of your screen, while viewing another 3 games on the same screen, at the same time.
As good as this package may seem, you would rather go for the MLB.tv premium option for a monthly fee of only $24.99 or $129.99 for the whole season. The extra $5 per month caters for the additional functionalists, which include a free subscription to the stream live baseball app – the MLB.tv AT Bat mobile app for android and Apple iOS devices, and the option to select the announcing team – home or away – when listening to MLB broadcasts.
The premium package allows you to stream MLB games on your iPhone or iPad without incurring additional costs. Basically, all you have to do log into your mobile or other connected device’s browser using your MLB.com account information, and you can start viewing.
With the premium package, you can also stream live baseball online using other devices like Apple TV, a PlayStation 3/4, Xbox, or Roku set-top box
MLB.tv free trial and free game of the day
As the season approaches, MLB gives baseball fans the option to get several days or weeks of viewing full MLB games online free, for purchasing one of their two-tier subscription models. In addition, MLB offers free online viewing of a single MLB game, every day, for the entire MLB regular season: a little treat they like to call “free game of the day”.
This implies that you will be able to view one of the MLB.tv games on a live HD video stream for free, daily, until the season ends. You can view the free game by checking the MLB.tv game schedule. You will be required to sign up for a free MLB.tv account, so that you can log in to view the free game.
Unfortunately, regional blackout restrictions apply, irrespective of the package you have, and even for the free game of the day. This implies that some locations may not be able to watch each day’s free MLB game. For instance, an Atlanta Braves live stream would be unavailable for Atlanta, Georgia residents. The assumption is that local in-market games are typically offered on one of the TV channels in your location.
However, you can still view local MLB games if you stream through a VPN that allows you to select an IP server from another state other than the two states from which the playing teams come from. You may be required to make some adjustments to the network settings.
If your VPN provider does not have such a server, stream through an IP address from another country. A better alternative would be to stream via a nearby server that does not belong to either of the states playing the game, if your VPN offers multiple US servers to choose from. This option provides the best buffering and streaming speeds.
Do you mind listening to MLB online?
There is another more affordable option for tuning in to live baseball games: audio only streams. With MLB GameDay Audio, you can listen to MLB games online, live from your PC. MLB Gameday Audio is a subscribed streaming service that allows you to choose between home and away radio announcers in each MLB game, for a monthly fee of $2.99, or $19.99 for the entire season.
Unlike the live online video streams, this audio stream has no regional blackouts, and you get to listen to each and every game in the whole 2014 MLB season, as well as the playoffs and the World Series.
Android and Apple mobile device users with the MLB AT Bat app can also access the audio streams after paying the fee (pay once for multiple platforms). This stream live baseball app also gives viewers an accurate animated representation of the batter at the plate and the ballpark where the game is taking place.