Spring is here. The time of cherry blossoms and sakura-mi-zake. But, if you're anything like me, the first sign of spring is rarely a plum bloom or warm breeze, but rather the sound of leather on wood as humankind gets back down to the serious business of playing baseball for another year.
We've pro-yakyu in Japan, which is great. I enjoy boozy summer nights at the Dome or Meiji Jingu stadium as much as the next fan. But what I really like it lazy weekend mornings waking up and eating my breakfast and sipping my tea while watching the best players on earth fight it out in The Show.
If you are new to Japan, or even if you've been here a while, you might not know that this is actually the best place on earth to watch pro ball. Why? The timezone means that you can watch from the early morning to early afternoon, but more than that, the fact you are here means that you can subscribe to MLB.TV and watch every single regular season and post-season game, for every single team, with not a *single* black out restriction to spoil your day.
That's right, every game from every team, regular and post season, with no blackouts. Unreal, right?
First thing you'll want to do it get an AppleTV.
https://www.apple.com/jp/shop/buy-tv/apple-tv/apple-tv-64gb?afid=p238|suVJSuOl7-dc_mtid_18707vxu38484_pcrid_109882515917_&cid=aos-jp-kwgo-pla-btb-product-MLNC2
Why? Because you can download the MLB (and NFL, NHL, MBA) app to the Apple TV, and then stream all the games in HD right to your living room TV. Sure, you can also stream to iPad, iPhone and PC. But really, is there anything better than sitting back on the couch, beer in one hand (or tea/coffee if it's 8AM), chips in the other, with the game on your flat screen TV?
Once you get the device, you just plug it into your TV through the HDMI, a bit like a DVD player (remember them?) or Playstation.
Now, it's time to subscribe to the MLB. http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/subscriptions/index.jsp?&affiliateId=MLBTVREDIRECT
They offer monthly or yearly options, but I just pay for the year. (Yes, I keep watching even during football season).
It's around 130 USD for the year, and you can use a Japanese credit card. The subscription will actually work internationally, but you'll be subject to blackouts if you're back in the US or Canada.
The price drops as the season progresses, so check the above site to see the latest offer. If you pay up in March you get to watch spring training games in advance of the regular season.
The user interface is simple to navigate. It's set out like a calendar with all of the games available presented on that day.
You can choose to show the scores or hide them. If the game is live you can choose to start watching from the beginning or jump right into the current action. If the game has finished, you can watch a replay, and a few hours after the game there will be options to watch a recap or condensed games. The recap is a 1-2 minute summary of the key moments, the condensed game is a 15-25 minute compilation of all of the key plays. I usually choose the condensed game in the evening after work and just watch live on the weekends. The condensed and recap can be flaky in terms of streaming quality but they usually get the job done. (NHL.TV is the same. Only the NFL seems to nail this to give HD quality for both live and archived content). One strange thing about the condensed game is that they remove the commentary. I suppose it's to avoid the clipped nature of the NFL Gamepass condensed commentary, for example, but it takes a little getting used to.
The quality of the games is mainly good. They've been freezing 4-5 times a game this year through for some reason. Not that much of a distraction but mildly annoying.
There are a lot of extras, like the ability to watch two games at the same time, or overlay the screen with stats such as the starting line up, pitcher, and player at bat.
All in all it's a great pack and I highly recommend it to baseball fans living in Japan. Once you sign up and pay, you simply input your user name and password into the AppleTV app (or iPad/iPhone app) to enjoy unrestricted access to the content.
All in all it's been a great experience for me. My wife is less thrilled, though, when the gentle tranquility of the background sound of fly balls and the thud of strikes into the catcher's mitt is interpreted by my vociferous displeasure at lazy swings or errors. If you can stay in your seat it might be better for marital bliss, but either way, when the air warms up and the flowers grow tall, let's dust off the glove and bat and play ball.
