It's that time of year again... time to tally up my meticulous statistics that I tallied while watching MLB TV during 2020.
For a while there, I wasn't sure we would get any baseball this year, but, thankfully, the powers that be were able to string together a condensed, 60-game season, which recently concluded. The World Series will start tomorrow night and, for the first time since 2013, it will feature the best team from both the American and National Leagues. I didn't have that same kind of luck with the games I watched this season, as you'll soon come to discover. In fact, I was quite unlucky when it comes to the teams that I chose to watch this year. I'll break that all down momentarily.
Stat Boy:
As I've done for the past two years, I kept track of every time that I watched a baseball game this season to try to determine whether or not paying for an MLB TV subscription was actually worth it. Here are the stats that I kept track of:
- Road team
- Home team
- Broadcast (which team's TV feed I tuned into)
- Winning team
- W/L result of the team whose broadcast I watched
- Duration of viewing
- 1-2 innings: "Minimal"
- 3-4 innings: "Partial"
- 5-7 innings: "Most"
- 8-9 innings: "Full"
- Any interesting notes about the game
Factors that Affected My Viewing Habits in 2020:
As usual, there were certain factors that affected my viewing capabilities this year - most notably, the following:
- MLB TV imposes blackout restrictions on Salt Lake City viewers for any games played by the Colorado Rockies and Arizona Diamondbacks, which means I can't watch Colorado or Arizona play at all, regardless of who or where they play.
- There are additional blackout restrictions for major, nationally televised games, such as "Sunday Night Baseball" or other big games aired by Fox, ESPN, etc., and those games are also unviewable on MLB TV.
Untracked Games:
- I watched three "Spring Training" or "pre-season" games this year and, although I did keep track of those stats, I am not including those games in the grand scheme of this blog.
- I watched several nationally televised games, including the Nationals-Yankees game on the first day of the season, but because I did not watch those games in the MLB TV app, I am not including those games, either.
Total Number of Games Watched and Cost Per Game:
- The 2020 MLB season ran from July 23, 2020 through September 27, 2020 - a total of 67 days.
- A 60-game schedule for all 30 Major League teams would have amounted to a total of 1,800 total games played - if each single game counts as two "games played" (one game for the home team and one game for the road team). Because some games late in the season were affected by COVID-19 and were unable to be made up, the Detroit Tigers and St. Louis Cardinals both only played 58 games. This means that the total, combined number of "games played" for the entire MLB in the 2020 season was 1,796.
- Because of the aforementioned regional blackouts for Rockies and Diamondbacks games, I would not have been able to watch any of the 60 games played by either of those two teams.
- On top of that, I'll estimate that there were maybe 30 more games where I might have been interested in watching the opponent of either the Rockies or Diamondbacks.
- I will subtract 4 total games played for each week of the regular season to account for nationally televised games (we'll say one game on Sunday night and one during prime time on any other day of the week). If the regular season was roughly 10 weeks long, that would be a total of 40 nationally blacked-out games.
- These calculations bring the total number of games played that I would have had access to down to 1,606.
- I watched a total of 39 baseball games this season, or a total of 78 "games played."
- Based on the approximate number of 1,606 "games played" that I had access to, I only watched about 4.8% of the maximum.
- 1,796 games played, over a course of 67 days, divides out to 26 "games played" (13 individual games) on a given day.
- In the 2019 season, I generously estimated that the maximum number of games that I could watch in a given day was 1.5.
- Because of the coronavirus pandemic, I have been working from home since mid-March, so I technically could have sat on the couch and watched baseball while I worked, all day long.
- Due to the fact that I was at home all day, practically every day of this season, I will bump my maximum number of games that I could realistically have watched per day to 2 games per day.
- If the season was 67 days long and I could have watched a maximum of two games per day, that's a total of 134 baseball games that I reasonably could have watched.
- I watched a total of 39 games throughout the season, which is 29% of the maximum number of games that I reasonably could have watched.
- Here is how that percentage has developed since 2018:
- 2018: 11%
- 2019: 26%
- 2020: 29%
- Due to the delay in the start of the season, MLB TV gave subscribers a prorated refund (or a discount on next season) to make up for games lost. Based on the amount of money I was charged for this year's subscription, compared to the 39 games that I watched on the MLB TV app, I figure that I paid about $1.97 per game watched. This is 12 cents more per game than what I calculated last year, but that number is still pretty decent. I think as long as I am under $2 per game, I'll be happy.
- For reference, here is how my cost-per-game ratio has shaped up over the years:
- 2018: $2.85/game
- 2019: $1.85/game
- 2020: $1.97/game
Duration of Viewing:
- Based on the definitions previously listed, here's how long I watched the 39 games, listed in order of frequency:
- Partial: 19 games (48.7%)
- Most: 10 games (25.6%)
- Full: 7 games (17.9%)
- Minimal: 3 games (7.6%)
Times Watched (Total, Out of 78 Total Teams Watched):
- Texas Rangers: 9
- Los Angeles Angels: 7
- Washington Nationals: 6
- Cincinnati Reds: 5
Cleveland Indians: 5 - Atlanta Braves: 4
New York Mets: 4
Oakland A's: 4
Philadelphia Phillies: 4 - Detroit Tigers: 3
Los Angeles Dodgers: 3
San Diego Padres: 3 - Baltimore Orioles: 2
Chicago White Sox: 2
Kansas City Royals: 2
Minnesota Twins: 2
New York Yankees: 2
Seattle Mariners: 2 - Boston Red Sox: 1
Chicago Cubs: 1
Houston Astros: 1
Miami Marlins: 1
Pittsburgh Pirates: 1
San Francisco Giants: 1
St. Louis Cardinals: 1
Tampa Bay Rays: 1
Toronto Blue Jays: 1 - Arizona Diamondbacks: 0
Colorado Rockies: 0
Milwaukee Brewers: 0
Times Watched on the Team's Local Broadcast (Out of 39 Games Watched):
- Texas Rangers: 9
- Washington Nationals: 6
- Cincinnati Reds: 5
- Cleveland Indians: 4
- Los Angeles Angels: 3
Philadelphia Phillies: 3 - Baltimore Orioles: 2
- Atlanta Braves: 1
Chicago Cubs: 1
Detroit Tigers: 1
Los Angeles Dodgers: 1
New York Yankees: 1
San Diego Padres: 1
Seattle Mariners: 1
Overall W/L Record:
- Of the 39 games that I watched on MLB TV in 2020, the teams whose broadcast I watched were 16-23 (.410). That's... **checks notes** ...not very good. This is down from a .625 win percentage in 2019.
- Running W/L percentage tracker:
- 2018: .534
- 2019: .625
- 2020: .410
Home/Road Split:
- Of the 39 games I watched, the team I tuned in to watch played 20 home games (51.2%) and 19 games on the road (48.7%).
- When I watched a team's home broadcast, those teams went 10-10 (.500).
- When I watched a team's road broadcast, the teams went 6-13 (.315).
W/L Records for Every Team Watched, Regardless of Broadcast:
- Oakland A's: 4-0 (1.000)
- Kansas City Royals: 2-0 (1.000)
Minnesota Twins: 2-0 (1.000) - Houston Astros: 1-0 (1.000)
St. Louis Cardinals: 1-0 (1.000) - New York Mets: 3-1 (.750)
- Los Angeles Dodgers: 2-1 (.666)
- Cincinnati Reds: 3-2 (.600)
- Washington Nationals: 3-3 (.500)
- Atlanta Braves: 2-2 (.500)
- Baltimore Orioles: 1-1 (.500)
New York Yankees: 1-1 (.500)
Seattle Mariners: 1-1 (.500)
Tampa Bay Rays: 1-1 (.500) - Texas Rangers: 4-5 (.444)
- Cleveland Indians: 2-3 (.400)
- Detroit Tigers: 1-2 (.333)
San Diego Padres: 1-2 (.333) - Los Angeles Angels: 2-5 (.285)
- Philadelphia Phillies: 1-3 (.250)
- Boston Red Sox: 0-1 (.000)
Chicago Cubs: 0-1 (.000)
Miami Marlins: 0-1 (.000)
Pittsburgh Pirates: 0-1 (.000)
San Francisco Giants: 0-1 (.000)
Toronto Blue Jays: 0-1 (.000) - Chicago White Sox: 0-2 (.000)
W/L Records for Teams Whose Broadcast I Watched (out of 39 games):
- Los Angeles Dodgers: 1-0 (1.000)
New York Yankees: 1-0 (1.000)
Seattle Mariners: 1-0 (1.000) - Cincinnati Reds: 3-2 (.600)
- Washington Nationals: 3-3 (.500)
- Cleveland Indians: 2-2 (.500)
- Baltimore Orioles: 1-1 (.500)
- Texas Rangers: 4-5 (.444)
- Atlanta Braves: 0-1 (.000)
Chicago Cubs: 0-1 (.000)
Detroit Tigers: 0-1 (.000)
San Diego Padres: 0-1 (.000) - Los Angeles Angels: 0-3 (.000)
Philadelphia Phillies: 0-3 (.000)
Fun Facts and Interesting Things That Happened:
- I watched the first game to go into extra innings with the new rule that started the 10th inning with a runner on second base. Oakland beat the Angels with a walk-off grand slam in the bottom of the 10th.
- That wasn't the only time I saw Oakland win on a walk-off grand slam. No, no. They beat the Rangers in like manner less than two weeks later.
- The Rangers were no strangers, when it came to giving up grand slams. I was also watching when they gave up their eighth grand slam of the season. It wasn't a good year for the Rangers.
- I was tuned in, however, when Texas stole home on a double steal on September 9th, so that was nice.
- Because of COVID restrictions in Canada, the Blue Jays did not play any games in their home stadium this season. They eventually figured things out and let them play "home" games in Buffalo, NY, but before that was set in stone, I watched a game played in Washington, D.C., where the Nationals played as the "visiting team" against Toronto, which is something that will rarely, if ever, happen again in the future.
- I watched a game where the Nationals were winning, but then they blew a lead in the 9th inning, after I stopped watching. There was another game where the Nationals went up 5-0 early, maintained a two-run lead when I turned it on, and they ended up losing by two.
- There was one bright spot for the Nationals, though - I saw them hit an inside-the-park home run in the next-to-last game I watched this season.
- Speaking of blowing leads, I watched as Cincinnati blew a two-run lead in the 9th inning, including balking in the tying run. Fun times.
- I watched a game on Jackie Robinson Day, and I heard the news that "42" star Chadwick Boseman had passed away while I was watching.
- I was watching an Angels-Padres game when a major power outage hit my condo complex, so I wasn't able to watch the 9th inning.
- I saw the Indians hit a walk-off homer during the height of their late-season playoff push, so that was pretty awesome.
- I generally try to avoid watching the Yankees, if I can help it, but I tuned into a day game toward the end of the year and was happy to see them go down 3-0 early. I didn't watch the full game, and found out later that day that they had come back to win, 11-4.
- Finally, with a potential Fantasy Baseball championship on the line, I tuned in to (hopefully) see a Royals pitcher play badly, which would have helped my chances of winning. Needless to say, he did not pitch poorly. Thankfully, my championship aspirations were unimpeded and I reigned victorious over my league as the one true and rightful victor.
***
Wow, that was a whole lot of nerdy number crunching, and you are truly an angel if you actually read this entire thing. More than anything, I just wanted to document all of this because I'm an OCD freak and I think stuff like this is fascinating. 2020 has been a terrible, strange, crappy and weird year in many ways, and baseball was certainly no exception. Overall, the teams I root for did horribly and it was often unpleasant for me to watch them play, but I am grateful that they were able to get the season off the ground. It brought me happiness in an otherwise dreadful year, so I'm very grateful for that.
Anyway, I'm gonna post this thing and move on with my life. I'm currently sitting in the hospital, waiting for my wife to deliver our first child. I absolutely cannot wait to watch some baseball with him in the 2021 season - and you can bet I'll still be tracking everything.
Take it easy folks.
THE END
