MLB TV Viewing Stats - 2021

So, I do this terribly nerdy thing, where I watch a lot of baseball games and keep track of a bunch of totally meaningless statistics that I know nobody else cares about. I've blogged about my findings for four seasons, now, so it's just become a tradition and I have to do it. Otherwise, all that data is actually good for nothing and a complete waste of my time.

More than anything else, I just need to get this information down, in black and white, so that I'm at peace with myself and my ridiculous obsession. I don't expect anyone to read this blog, but nevertheless, here it is, anyway.

I won't explain too much more. If you've made it this far, you probably know what you've gotten yourself into, so let's just get down to the nitty-gritty and break down all these numbers.

All the Stats You Never Knew You Needed:

I kept track of all the same stats I've monitored for the past few seasons, which are as follows:

• 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

Persisting Factors that Affected Viewing Habits:

• As usual, MLB TV blacked out all home games for the Arizona Diamondback and Colorado Rockies. It's stupid, given that I live in Utah, but that's just the way it is.
• Any nationally televised games (FOX, ESPN, TBS, etc.) are not viewable on MLB TV.

Untracked Games:

• I watched a few nationally televised games, including the MLB All-Star Game and the "Field of Dreams" game, which were not available through MLB TV.
• I attended games in Miami and Tampa Bay and watched them with my own, actual eyeballs, without the assistance of modern technology. Both home teams won those games, for the record.

Total Number of Games Watched and Cost Per Game:

• The 2021 MLB season ran from April 1, 2021 through October 3, 2021 - a total of 183 days.
• A 162-game schedule for all 30 Major League teams equals a total of 4,860 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 of the ridiculous regional blackouts for Rockies and Diamondbacks games that I've mentioned ad nauseum in previous blogs, I would not have been able to watch any of the 324 games played by either of those two teams.
• As I've done in the past, I'll estimate that there were 30 more games where I might have been interested in watching the opponent of either the Rockies or Diamondbacks.
• I will be less generous this season and only subtract 4 "games played" for each week of the regular season to account for nationally televised games (one game on Sunday night and one during prime time on any other day of the week). If the regular season was roughly 25 weeks long, that would be a total of 100 nationally blacked-out games.
• This brings the total number of games played that I would have had access to down to 4,406.
• I watched a total of 65 baseball games this season, or a total of 130 "games played."
• Based on the approximate number of 4,406 "games played" that I had access to, I only watched about 2.9% of those games.
• 4,406 games played, over a course of 183 days, divides out to 26 "games played" (13 individual games) on a given day.
• In the 2020 season, I estimated that I could hypothetically have watched about two games per day, due to the fact that I'm still working from home. I won't change that number this season.
• If the season was 183 days long and I could have watched a maximum of two games per day, that's a total of 366 baseball games that I potentially could have watched, if that's all I did every day.
• I watched a total of 65 games throughout the season, which is 17% 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%
• 2021: 17%
• Dividing the number of games watched by the amount I paid for this year's subscription, I spent about $1.83 per game, 14 cents less than last season, and my lowest cost per game since I started tracking all this nonsense.
• 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
• 2021: $1.83/game

Duration of Viewing:

Based on the definitions previously listed, here's how long I watched the 65 games, listed in order of frequency:

• Full: 25 games (28.5%)
• Partial: 21 games (32.3%)
• Most: 15 games (23.1%)
• Minimal: 4 games (6.2%)

Times Watched (Total, Out of 130 Total Teams Watched):

For the first time, I think, since I became a subscriber to MLB TV, I watched every team in the league, other than Arizona and Colorado. Here's how many times I saw those 28 teams in action, regardless of the broadcast I watched:

1. Texas Rangers: 14
2. Washington Nationals: 12
3. Cincinnati Reds: 9
   Tampa Bay Rays: 9
4. Philadelphia Phillies: 7
   Pittsburgh Pirates: 7
   
5. Detroit Tigers: 6
   Los Angeles Dodgers: 6
   Seattle Mariners: 6
6. Cleveland Indians: 5
   Los Angeles Angels: 5
   Miami Marlins: 5
   Minnesota Twins: 5
   
7. Atlanta Braves: 3
   Baltimore Orioles: 3
   Boston Red Sox: 3
   New York Yankees: 3
   Oakland A's: 3
   Toronto Blue Jays: 3
8. Houston Astros: 2
   Kansas City Royals: 2
   Milwaukee Brewers: 2
   New York Mets: 2
   San Diego Padres: 2
   San Francisco Giants: 2
   St. Louis Cardinals: 2
9. Chicago Cubs: 1
   Chicago White Sox: 1

Times Watched on the Team's Local Broadcast (Out of 65 Games Watched):

Here's how often I intentionally tuned in to watch a specific team on their local broadcast:

1. Texas Rangers: 14
2. Washington Nationals: 12
3. Cincinnati Reds: 9
4. Tampa Bay Rays: 6
5. Miami Marlins: 4
   Seattle Mariners: 4
6. Cleveland Indians: 3
   Los Angeles Dodgers: 3
   
7. Los Angeles Angels: 2
   St. Louis Cardinals: 2
8. Baltimore Orioles: 1
   Detroit Tigers: 1
   Kansas City Royals: 1
   New York Mets: 1
   Pittsburgh Pirates: 1
   San Diego Padres: 1

Overall W/L Record:

• The teams whose local broadcasts I watched in the 2021 season went 32-33 (.492). Although that percentage is a bit better than last year, I'm still not making the playoffs with a sub-.500 record
• Running W/L percentage tracker:
• 2018: .534
• 2019: .625
• 2020: .410
• 2021: .492

Home/Road Split:

Editor's note: For some reason, I had a very difficult time calculating this next part.

• Of the 65 games I watched, the team I tuned in to watch played 35 home games (53.8%) and 30 games on the road (46.2%).
• When I watched a team's home broadcast, those teams went 17-18 (.485).
• When I watched a team's road broadcast, the teams went 15-15 (.500).

W/L Records for Every Team Watched, Regardless of Broadcast:

1. Atlanta Braves: 3-0 (1.000)
   Kansas City Royals: 2-0 (1.000)
   San Diego Padres: 2-0 (1.000)
   San Francisco Giants: 2-0 (1.000)
   St. Louis Cardinals: 2-0 (1.000)
   Chicago White Sox: 1-0 (1.000)
2. Los Angeles Dodgers: 5-1 (.833)
3. Cincinnati Reds: 7-2 (.777)
4. Tampa Bay Rays: 6-3 (.666)
   Boston Red Sox: 2-1 (.666)
   New York Yankees: 2-1 (.666)
   Toronto Blue Jays: 2-1 (.666)
5. Los Angeles Angels: 3-2 (.600)
6. Detroit Tigers: 3-3 (.500)
   Houston Astros: 1-1 (.500)
   Milwaukee Brewers: 1-1 (.500)
   New York Mets: 1-1 (.500)
7. Washington Nationals: 5-7 (.416)
8. Cleveland Indians: 2-3 (.400)
   Miami Marlins: 2-3 (.400)
   Minnesota Twins: 2-3 (.400)
9. Seattle Mariners: 2-4 (.333)
   Baltimore Orioles: 1-2 (.333)
10. Philadelphia Phillies: 2-5 (.286)
11. Texas Rangers: 3-11 (.214)
12. Pittsburgh Pirates: 1-6 (.143)
13. Chicago Cubs: 0-1 (.000)
    Oakland A's: 0-3 (.000)

W/L Records for Teams Whose Broadcast I Watched:

1. St. Louis Cardinals: 2-0 (1.000)
   Baltimore Orioles: 1-0 (1.000)
   Kansas City Royals: 1-0 (1.000)
   New York Mets: 1-0 (1.000)
   Pittsburgh Pirates: 1-0 (1.000)
   San Diego Padres: 1-0 (1.000)
2. Cincinnati Reds: 7-2 (.777)
3. Cleveland Indians: 2-1 (.666)
   Los Angeles Dodgers: 2-1 (.666)
4. Tampa Bay Rays: 3-3 (.500)
   Miami Marlins: 2-2 (.500)
5. Washington Nationals: 5-7 (.416)
6. Seattle Mariners: 1-3 (.250)
7. Texas Rangers: 3-11 (.214)
8. Detroit Tigers: 0-1 (.000)
   Los Angeles Angels: 0-2 (.000)

Fun or Otherwise Noteworthy Things that Happened When I Watched:

• I watched two games on Opening Day. In the first, Miguel Cabrera hit his 350th career home run - in the snow. In the other, the Rangers and Royals both scored five runs in the first inning.
• I watched the first Texas Rangers game at Globe Life Park to allow fans inside. The Rangers played in the stadium last year, without fans, and fans were allowed to attend playoff games there last year, but the Rangers finally got their long-awaited homecoming.
• I saw a controversial walk-off hit-by-pitch, in which Michael Conforto of the Mets leaned into a pitch in the strike zone with the bases loaded.
• I watched a game on Jackie Robinson Day, Father's Day, Canada Day and "Joe Morgan Day" in Cincinnati.
• I saw Vlad Guerrero Jr. hit three home runs in a game, including a grand slam.
• I watched the bottom of the 9th inning as the Orioles finished off their franchise's first no-hitter in 30 years. I also watched the final inning and a half of Wade Miley's no-hitter. There were a lot of no-hitters this year, so I figured I should probably tune in to see how a couple of them ended.
• I saw the Reds blow a five-run 8th inning lead, then come back to win by three in the 9th.
• I watched Max Scherzer blow an 8-0 Nationals lead, punctuated by Mad Max giving up a grand slam to a relief pitcher. The Padres won on a walk-off in the 9th inning. It was painful.
• I watched several MLB debuts - most notably, Wander Franco's highly anticipated call-up for Tampa Bay.
• I watched a Miami Marlins game that my parents attended.
• Death, taxes and the Rangers losing on a walk-off grand slam. It happened again this year, and I witnessed it.
• I thought I'd try to be the typical bad luck charm I've developed into by spoiling the Cardinals' monstrous winning streak at the end of the season, but alas, they ended up winning their 17th straight game. They were hot, at the time.
• Unfortunately, I saw the Yankees clinch a spot in the AL Wild Card race. Despite all of the wild scenarios, including a potential four-way tie (NYY, BOS, TOR, SEA), the least fun thing ended up happening, and the Yankees ended up playing the Red Sox in the Wild Card Game.
• I tuned in for six consecutive losses, late in the season, and that many losses in a row are not very fun to sit through.

Final Thoughts:

Another baseball season has come and gone. In the end, I have determined that the teams I like most were really, really bad this year. I try not to cherry-pick the games I watch, so I don't intentionally tune into games where the outcome is all but determined, but man, my teams were terrible in 2021.

Baseball is a great sport. I really do love it, and it's been so nice to just be able to turn a game on in the background while I work. There were many days and weeks when I'd open up the ESPN app to see if there were any day games coming up, and it was a joy when there were a few games that I could tune into. I've now been to 16 Major League Baseball stadiums. This year's adventures took me out to Florida, so it was exciting to watch a handful of Rays and Marlins games, before and after my trip.

I sometimes wonder whether I should keep subscribing to MLB TV. Looking at these stats, where it's like... Geez, I watched the Rangers 14 times and they only won three games... that makes it tough. But hey, despite another year of sub-.500 watching, the stats show that I did get the best value out of my MLB TV subscription, at least as long as I've been keeping track of all this nonsense.

If any of you dared read this blog, first of all, I truly commend you for pitying me so much. Second of all, thanks for reading. If nothing else, this blog justified me opening my phone and logging a few metrics at the end of the final out.

Farewell.

THE END