Long time readers of this blog will know that I am no fan of Major League Baseball’s comprehensive takeover of the minor leagues in 2020/21. It has systematically removed the unique nature of the minor league game, played in cities large, medium, and small across the country, and made it into just one more appendage of MLBs global baseball conglomerate/money making endeavor. So, it was with no small amount of skepticism that I read the recent e-mails/tweets from MiLB announcing that minor league games will be on MLB.tv this season. Yes, you read that correctly: MiLB games on MLB.tv.
The price for MLB.tv is going up this season to reflect the additional games you’ll be able to watch on top of all of the major league games. They are also beefing up the AtBat audio package to include MiLB tv games to go with the radio feeds of the MLB games. MLB has provided this somewhat helpful chart for fans to review:
How will this work you ask?! Great question! It seems like you’ll get to watch the minor league games from your favorite team’s affiliates on MLB.tv, but if you want to watch other games – as I do, especially since my beloved Jumbo Shrimp aren’t the affiliate of my favorite MLB team – you’ll then need to take your log-in and go over to MiLB.com to do so. Sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it? MiLB.tv worked just fine by itself, so combining the two seems unnecessary. That said, here’s an explainer from Jacob Resnick at MLB.com that clarifies things somewhat.
Hopefully MLB has invested some time and effort into this move and it’s not just some sort of cost cutting endeavor that they figured we all would pay more money to watch. I know that sounds incredibly cynical, but when has MLB ever done anything with the fan well and truly at the forefront of their thoughts?
Good luck to all of us this year. Let’s hope it goes off without a flaw.
The Catch 
Leave a Reply