During the 2018 season, curiosity got the best of me and I decided to keep track of every single game that I watched on the app, which teams played, which team's broadcast I tuned into and who won and lost each game. This, I thought, would be a good way to determine whether subscribing to MLB.TV is a good value for the price I pay.
Soooooo I've got some stats for you, but I must first lay down a quick disclaimer:
Last year was probably not the best season for me to keep track of these stats. I didn't watch as much as I have in past years, largely due to the fact that I pretty much put my social life on hold for a couple months last summer to binge-watch "LOST." You see, I had been asked to be a participant in a LOST panel at FanX Salt Lake Comic Convention, so I figured I'd study up and do my homework to ensure that I gave the fans what they wanted. I watched the whole thing, took tons of notes and wrote a bunch of blogs - only to learn that the panel had been scrapped without my knowledge!! Long story short (too late!), I sacrificed a lot of baseball-watching in favor of another run through my favorite TV show, but all for naught. Good times. With that in mind, the number of games I watched during the 2018 season was likely far below what I averaged in past seasons.
On top of that, last season just wasn't a good one for most of the teams I like watching. The Texas Rangers were terrible, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim were about average, and other teams like the Washington Nationals and Seattle Mariners were pedestrian, at best. Typically, that doesn't get me very enthused to sit down and watch my favorite teams lose regularly.
But with no further ado, here are the meaningless stats I compiled:
Total Games Watched and Amount Paid Per Game:
- Among the 30 teams in the league, there are a total of 4,860 games in an entire season.
- Due to ridiculous blackout restrictions, I cannot watch any Colorado Rockies or Arizona Diamondbacks games, which makes no sense because there are no professional teams within eight hours of Salt Lake City; it's not like I'm hurting ticket sales.
- Most nationally televised games (Fox, ESPN, etc.) are also restricted and therefore unviewable on the app.
- The 2018 MLB season ran from March 29, 2018 - October 1, 2018. That's 186 days. Realistically, I could only watch about one or two games every day, assuming there are games every single day (which there aren't).
- Assuming I were crazy enough to watch all or part of two baseball games every day for 186 days, that would be a total of 372 possible games. In order to account for unwatchable Rockies and Diamondbacks games (and games played by any other team against Colorado or Arizona), as well as nationally televised games, I will subtract 5% (19 games) from the realistic maximum, bringing the amount of games I plausibly could have watched, if that's all I ever did, to about 353 games.
- I kept track of 42 games that I watched in the 2018 season, either partially or from start to finish.
- This all means that I only watched about 11% of the games that I realistically had access to.
- Based on the dollar amount I paid per year, divided by the number of games I watched, I figure that I paid about $2.85 per game watched.
Win-Loss Records for Teams Whose Broadcast I Watched:
- In almost every case, watching a game on MLB.TV allows the viewer to choose which broadcast they tune into. Here are the win-loss records for teams whose broadcast I chose:
- St. Louis Cardinals: 2-0 (1.000)
- Chicago Cubs: 1-0 (1.000)
- Kansas City Royals: 1-0 (1.000)
- Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim: 6-2 (0.750)
- Los Angeles Dodgers: 3-2 (0.600)
- Atlanta Braves: 1-1 (0.500)
- Texas Rangers: 8-9 (0.470)
- Washington Nationals: 1-2 (0.333)
- San Diego Padres: 0-2 (0.000)
- Seattle Mariners: 0-2 (0.000)
Overall Win-Loss Records for Every Team I Watched, Regardless of Broadcast:
- Boston Red Sox: 2-0 (1.000)
- St Louis Cardinals: 2-0 (1.000)
- Tampa Bay Rays: 2-0 (1.000)
- Kansas City Royals: 1-0 (1.000)
- Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim: 6-2 (0.750)
- San Francisco Giants: 3-1 (0.750)
- Los Angeles Dodgers: 4-2 (0.666)
- Atlanta Braves: 2-1 (0.666)
- Houston Astros: 1-1 (0.500)
- Milwaukee Brewers: 1-1 (0.500)
- Texas Rangers: 8-9 (0.470)
- Oakland A's: 3-4 (0.420)
- Seattle Mariners: 2-4 (0.333)
- Baltimore Orioles: 1-2 (0.333)
- Chicago Cubs: 1-2 (0.333)
- Philadelphia Phillies: 1-2 (0.333)
- Washington Nationals: 1-2 (0.333)
- San Diego Padres: 1-3 (0.250)
- Detroit Tigers: 0-1 (0.000)
- Minnesota Twins: 0-1 (0.000)
- Cincinnati Reds: 0-2 (0.000)
- New York Yankees: 0-2 (0.000)
The Hateful Eight:
- Here are the eight teams that I didn't (*or couldn't) take time to watch a single time last year:
- Arizona Diamondbacks*
- Chicago White Sox
- Cleveland Indians
- Colorado Rockies*
- Miami Marlins
- New York Mets
- Pittsburgh Pirates
- Toronto Blue Jays
Other Fun Facts About Games I Watched:
- I watched a Dodgers/Giants game that my brother Austin attended. It went deep into extra innings, Austin had to leave before it ended and the Dodgers lost, thanks to a monster game from Andrew McCutchen.
- I watched as Albert Pujols got his 3,000th hit. The Angels beat the Mariners on the road.
- I watched the Angels/A's game that my parents attended in Anaheim, as well. The Angels won and eventual Rookie of the Year Shohei Ohtani had a nice outing.
For the Record:
- I went out to Dodger Stadium last season with my brother Austin. The Dodgers lost to the pitiful Padres, although that statistic is not reflected in the standings listed in this blog. Good times. Also, despite being essentially a regular hot dog, the Dodger Dog lived up to the hype and was mighty delicious.
So there you go. Them's the stats. Do with them as you please. Perhaps I'll keep track again in the 2019-20 season. Perhaps I won't. But at least now I can die in peace, knowing that all this pointless information is stored digitally online.
THE END
