Reviews, Sports

MLB.com At Bat v1.0.0 | Published by MLB.com | Via App Store | $4.99 | Released: 5-30-08

Overview

It’s not a product that is totally novel; MLB.com has long had a mobile site for convenient score viewing, and there are other iPhone apps that give you sports scores. But, unlike any other mobile site or app, MLB.com At Bat is the place to go for breaking video from every Major League Baseball game, as it unfolds.

Baseball fans without television or computer access, this thing will be a lifesaver.

Functionality

When you open MLB.com At Bat, you’ll be taken to a scoreboard showing all of today’s games. You can click backwards and forwards to go to past days’ scoreboards, or check out future scheduled matches. So if you missed yesterday’s game and want to see the highlights, just go back one, find your game, and click on it.

That’s the first step. Clicking on the game, you’ll be given the line score, as well as who is pitching and who is at the plate. The scores are in real time, so no worries about lag or being behind on what’s going on in the game.

The function that sells this app, however, isn’t the real time scoreboard, as useful as that is. Instead, it’s the up-to-the-minute game highlights, sent in video form directly to your phone.

To access them, you just select the little camera button next to the individual game on the scoreboard, and you’re taken to a menu loaded with videos, one that is constantly updated as game highlights pour in. It’s almost like having SportsCenter on command.

Review

As a baseball fan and blogger, this app is great for me in many ways. If I’m missing a game, I can follow the score in real time, and get the highlights I’m unfortunately missing. That’s priceless, because before this, there was basically no way for me to do so on my iPhone, at least as the game was occuring. For that reason alone, this app is a favorite of mine.

However, there are also some downsides to it. One, the videos are streamed through YouTube, so, on an original EDGE iPhone, the load and then buffer time is obnoxious if you’re dying to see that highlight. It doesn’t take forever, but a game winning hit in the bottom of the ninth is something you want to see with instant gratification.

Second, as a crazy baseball fan, I want to see the box score, something MLB’s mobile site allows you to do, but something, unfortunately, you cannot do with this application. That’s a very large ommission, and though I can always find it through MLB.com, if I’m paying $5 for half a season, it seems very little to ask if an application is able to stream instant video highlights.

Which brings up another point; you have to be willing to pay $5 for just half a season, as after the World Series, the app is no longer updated. You’ll have to buy it again, or at least renew it, next season. Still, $5 is a small price to pay for the half a season, plus playoffs if you care about baseball like I do.

Summary

A great tool providing hours of exciting entertainment and endless life-saving updates for real baseball fans. Slow video on the EDGE, but still better than anything else out there, and something a hardcore fan will not be able to go without now that it’s available. There are some omissions that weaken the product, but it’s still worth it in the end.

Usability: 4 / 5
Value: 4 / 5
Utility: 4 / 5
Aesthetics: 4 / 5

Overall Rating: 4 / 5