MLB TV Viewing Stats - 2025

It's hard to believe that it's already October! The calendar year is almost over, and so is the Major League Baseball season, which has officially entered the postseason! Three teams - the Guardians, the Padres and the Red Sox - were eliminated while I wrote this blog.

This was an odd year of baseball viewership for me, as I've realized that the more children I have, the less control I have over what's on the TV at any given point of the day. Regardless, I'm going to break things down the way I have in my past MLB TV blogs, which you can refer to here, if you have nothing else going on today. To prevent myself from having to re-explain my thought process about everything for the umpteenth time, I will assume that if you've made it this far into the post, you're either familiar with my work in prior years or that you went back and read some of the old posts and now have a pretty good idea what's going on.

Are you with me? Very well. Let's proceed.

Stats Tracked on the Spreadsheet:

I didn't change anything that I was tracking on my spreadsheet this year, compared to what I was doing in 2024. As a reminder, here are the things that I kept track of for every game that I watched:

• Road team
• Home team
• Home or Road Broadcast
• 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 (although I think I'm getting less particular about this, unless something truly strange or interesting takes place)

Persisting Factors that Affected Viewing Habits:

• All broadcasts (including the opponent's broadcast options) for Arizona Diamondback and Colorado Rockies games are blacked out in Utah. As I have mentioned ad nauseum in the past, this is completely dumb.
• Any nationally televised games (FOX, ESPN, TBS, etc.) are not viewable on MLB TV.
• I work from home and now have three kids, so I basically can only but baseball on the big screen if the kids are 100% distracted by something else or if I'm trying to bore them to sleep, a tactic I successfully employed several times this season.
• I've been married for six years, and we have a lot of other stuff that we like to do or watch that isn't some random baseball game that my wife probably doesn't care about at all. (But my wife is super awesome and if I said, "Hey, I'd like to watch some baseball tonight, if that's ok," she would be totally fine with it.)

Untracked Games:

Back in the day, I used to have this bucket list project where I was trying to make it to all of the MLB stadiums. I would go to games on a practically yearly basis. However, as previously mentioned, I have a family now, so... yeah, it's been a second. My last baseball trip was in 2022, and I have no idea when I'll be able to make it to another one. Maybe next year. I thought I was making some pretty good progress - I've been to 17 stadiums, after all - but at this rate, I'll be that cute 86-year-old man that the official MLB social media channels post about, saying, "This adorable old man finally made it to all 30 stadiums. Look at him go!"

Now, on to the fun stuff!

Total Number of Games Watched:

• New year, same thought process: if all 30 Major League teams play 162 games a season, and if each single game counts as two "games played" (one game for the home team and one game for the road team), that equals a total of 4,860 games played.
• Accounting for ReGiOnAl BlAcKoUtS of the Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies, as well as nationally televised games, I have been lowering the maximum amount of games I would have had access to down to 4,356 games per season.
• I watched a total of 35 baseball games this season, or a total of 70 "games played."
• This is 26 fewer games than I watched in 2024. Yiiikes.
• Based on the approximate number of 4,356 "games played" that I had access to, I watched about 1.6% of those games, a decrease of 0.8% from last year.
• This year's MLB season ran from March 27 - September 28, a duration of 186 days. For the past two years, I have been using the guideline that I could "reasonably" watch one baseball game per day. At this point, the thought of me watching one baseball game every day for 186 days is completely insane. There is no way that I could do that. So I'm changing things up this year. I think if I was really kicking butt, I could probably watch maybe a maximum of four games in a single week. Most of the games that I have been able to watch were day games, and those generally only happen on Wednesdays and Thursdays, so it definitely wasn't a productive season for me, comparatively speaking. So... let's see how this shakes up my stats.
• I watched a total of 35 games throughout the 186-day season. There are 26.5 weeks in 186 days. If I were to "reasonably" watch a maximum of four games every week for 26.5 weeks, that would be a "reasonably maximum" total of 106 games throughout the season.  Thirty-five games out of a 106-game maximum comes out to just barely above 33% for the season - an increase of 1% from how much I watched last year. This is truly shocking to me. I honestly can't believe it.
• Here is the evolution of that percentage since 2018:
• 2018: 11%
• 2019: 26%
• 2020: 29%
• 2021: 17%
• 2022: 31%
• 2023: 27%
• 2024: 32%
• 2025: 33% - a (hilariously unexpected) new record!

Cost Per Game:

This year, I mooched off of my brother Austin's MLB TV subscription, which he got for free through, I think, his cell phone provider. This means, gloriously, that I paid nothing for access to baseball this year.

Here is how my cost-per-game ratio has developed over the years:

• 2018: $2.85/game
• 2019: $1.85/game
• 2020: $1.97/game
• 2021: $1.83/game
• 2022: $1.14/game (split cost)
• 2023: $2.94/game
• 2024: $2.42/game
• 2025: $0.00/game

Duration of Viewing:

Here is the breakdown of how long I watched each game, based on the definitions I established many years ago, from most often to least often:

• Full (8-9 innings): 11 games (31%)
• Most (5-7 innings): 9 games (26%)
• Partial (3-4 innings): 9 games (26%)
• Minimal (1-2 innings): 6 games (17%)

In a surprising revelation, I watched more "Full" games than any other duration this year. Typically, I think, "Most" has been my most common tendency.

Times Watched on the Team's Local Broadcast (Out of 35 Games Watched):

Here is this year's leaderboard for how many times I intentionally tuned into a team's local broadcast:

1. Texas Rangers: 17
2. Los Angeles Angels: 4
3. Seattle Mariners: 3
4. Chicago Cubs: 2
   Cleveland Guardians: 2
   Tampa Bay Rays: 2
5. Baltimore Orioles: 1
   Los Angeles Dodgers: 1
   Miami Marlins: 1
   Toronto Blue Jays: 1
   Washington Nationals: 1

Times Watched (Total, Out of 70 Total Teams Watched):

Here is the breakdown of how many times I watched every team play, regardless of which broadcast I tuned into:

1. Texas Rangers: 17
2. Boston Red Sox: 4
   Cleveland Guardians: 4
   Los Angeles Angels: 4
   Miami Marlins: 4
3. Chicago Cubs: 3
   Houston Astros: 3
   Seattle Mariners: 3
   Tampa Bay Rays: 3
   The Athletics: 3
   Toronto Blue Jays: 3
4. Detroit Tigers: 2
   Kansas City Royals: 2
   New York Mets: 2
   San Francisco Giants: 2
   Washington Nationals: 2
5. Atlanta Braves: 1
   Baltimore Orioles: 1
   Chicago White Sox: 1
   Cincinnati Reds: 1
   Los Angeles Dodgers: 1
   Milwaukee Brewers: 1
   Minnesota Twins: 1
   Philadelphia Phillies: 1
   Pittsburgh Pirates: 1

I watched 25 teams this year, which is honestly pretty good. There were five teams that I didn't get around to this season: the Diamondbacks and Rockies (because I couldn't), the Yankees and Padres (because I hate them), and the Cardinals (because I apparently just didn't care).

Also, it should be noted that the number of times I watched a team is not necessarily indicative of how much I like the team (other than the Rangers) but of how often it that team was playing at a time that was convenient for me to have watched them.

Overall Win/Loss Record:

• This year, teams I tuned in to watch went 21-14, which sets a new record for winning percentage in a single season. I went on two five-game winning streaks, and the most consecutive losses I saw was a three-game skid in August. Not bad!
• Running W/L percentage tracker:
• 2018: .534
• 2019: .625
• 2020: .410
• 2021: .492
• 2022: .404
• 2023: .490
• 2024: .590
• 2025: .666

Home/Road Split:

• I tuned into 18 home broadcasts (51%) and 17 road broadcasts this year (49%).
• When I watched a team's home broadcast, those teams went 11-7 (.611).
• When I watched a team's road broadcast, those teams went 10-7 (.588).
• Regardless of whose broadcast I watched, the home team went 18-17 (.514).
• Regardless of whose broadcast I watched, the road team went 17-18 (.486).

Editor's note: My gosh, I can't believe I keep track of ALL OF THIS STUFF every year. Am I insane??

W/L Records for Teams Whose Broadcast I Watched:

1. Washington Nationals: 1-0 (1.000)
2. Tampa Bay Rays: 2-0 (1.000)
   Los Angeles Dodgers: 1-0 (1.000)
   Miami Marlins: 1-0 (1.000)
   Toronto Blue Jays: 1-0 (1.000)
   
3. Seattle Mariners: 2-1 (.666)
4. Texas Rangers: 10-7 (.588)
5. Los Angeles Angels: 2-2 (.500)
   Cleveland Guardians: 1-1 (.500)
6. Baltimore Orioles: 0-1 (.000)
   Chicago Cubs: 0-2 (.000)

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

1. Kansas City Royals: 2-0 (1.000)
   San Francisco Giants: 2-0 (1.000)
   Los Angeles Dodgers: 1-0 (1.000)
   Minnesota Twins: 1-0 (1.000)
   Philadelphia Phillies: 1-0 (1.000)
   Pittsburgh Pirates: 1-0 (1.000)
   
2. Seattle Mariners: 2-1 (.666)
   Tampa Bay Rays: 2-1 (.666)
   The Athletics: 2-1 (.666)
3. Texas Rangers: 10-7 (.588)
4. Boston Red Sox: 2-2 (.500)
   Los Angeles Angels: 2-2 (.500)
   Detroit Tigers: 1-1 (.500)
   New York Mets: 1-1 (.500)
   Washington Nationals: 1-1 (.500)
5. Houston Astros: 1-2 (.333)
   Toronto Blue Jays: 1-2 (.333)
6. Cleveland Guardians: 1-3 (.250)
   Miami Marlins: 1-3 (.250)
7. Atlanta Braves: 0-1 (.000)
   Baltimore Orioles: 0-1 (.000)
   Chicago White Sox: 0-1 (.000)
   Cincinnati Reds: 0-1 (.000)
   Milwaukee Brewers: 0-1 (.000)
   Chicago Cubs: 0-3 (.000)

Miscellaneous Stats or Other Interesting Things That Happened:

• An MLB TV outage caused widespread issues for all users; it prevented me from watching the first inning and a half of the Rangers' Opening Day game. This was the straw that broke the camel's back, as far as me asking Austin if I could mooch off of his free subscription. I cancelled my subscription immediately (it wasn't scheduled to be charged for another day or two, at the time, so I cancelled and jumped over to Austin's account the following week).
• Hurricane Milton destroyed Tropicana Field, forcing the Rays to have to play all of their home games in a minor league stadium this year, so that was different. The Athletics - who dropped "Oakland" from their team name this year as they prepare to move to Vegas in 2028 - also played their home games in a minor league stadium.
• I watched a game on Father's Day.
• I watched a Cubs game in which airplane flyovers caused several brief delays in the game and even soared over the stadium in the middle of "Star Wars" actor Hayden Christensen performing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame."
• I saw wins and losses in extra-innings games, and I saw walk-off wins and losses.
• I witnessed some of the most egregiously bad strike calls I can remember in my entire life.
• I saw a batter turn in for a bunt and get hit right between the eyes. It was nasty.
• I watched some late-season baseball with my newborn son, Corey.

Final Thoughts:

I am honestly quite shocked by a lot of these results. Granted, I think that bumping down my expectations for how much baseball I can reasonably watch probably really helps, but this ended up being a lot more positive than I expected it to be. I know that I didn't watch nearly as much baseball this season as I'm used to, but I've also just got a lot more stuff going on - and the fact that I didn't have to pay for MLB TV this year was probably a huge contributing factor in my dip in games watched. Had I paid for a subscription again, I would have put forth more effort, but hey - I think I've earned a little bit of free baseball. Huge shoutout to Austin for helping me out this season.

We'll be back at it again next season.

Until next time.

MLB TV Viewing Stats - 2024

Another baseball season has come and gone, which means that it's time for me to crunch some numbers and, for no other reason than to satisfy my own curiosity, see how many games I watched this year. This is the (*counts on fingers*) SEVENTH YEAR?!? that I've done this, which is crazy, but it actually is a pretty helpful way of helping me determine whether I'm getting any value out of my subscription.

I won't go into great detail to explain a lot of how and why I do the things that I do, but if you're really curious, you can go back and check out some of my older MLB TV blogs.

Anyway, let's get down to business.

Stats Tracked on the Spreadsheet:

Basically nothing changed on my spreadsheet this year, although I did add one extra column to (hopefully) help me more easily keep track of whether I watched the home team or the road team's broadcast. Here's a quick refresher on what I kept track of for each game that I watch:

• Road team
• Home team
• Home or Road Broadcast
• 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:

• All Arizona Diamondback and Colorado Rockies games are blacked out in Utah. It still makes no sense.
• Any nationally televised games (FOX, ESPN, TBS, etc.) are not viewable on MLB TV.
• I work from home and have two young children whose first priority of entertainment during the day is not watching sports.
• I've been married for five years now, which means that my first priority of entertainment at night can't be watching sports, either.

Untracked Games:

As was the case last year, I can't remember any games that I watched that were not broadcast on MLB TV. For the second year in a row, I didn't go on a baseball trip, so I didn't watch any MLB games in person. Maybe next year.

Total Number of Games Watched and Cost Per Game:

• I'll use the same basic explanation that I gave last year: if all 30 Major League teams play 162 games a season, and if each single game counts as two "games played" (one game for the home team and one game for the road team), that equals a total of 4,860 games played.
• Accounting for ReGiOnAl BlAcKoUtS of the Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies, as well as nationally televised games, I have been lowering the maximum amount of games I would have had access to down to 4,356 games per season.
• I watched a total of 61 baseball games this season, or a total of 122 "games played."
• This is 10 more games than I watched in 2023.
• Based on the approximate number of 4,356 "games played" that I had access to, I watched about 2.8% of those games, a 0.5% increase from last year.
• This year's MLB season ran from March 28 - September 30, a duration of 187 days. For the past two years, I have been using the guideline that I could "reasonably" watch one baseball game per day. I mean, I probably could. Do I watch one game per day? Of course not. But I probably could. For most of this season, it would probably reasonable for me to watch one game per week. But we'll just keep going with it, I guess.
• I watched a total of 61 games throughout the 187-day season, which is 32% of the maximum number of games that I reasonably could have watched - a 5% increase from how much I watched last year.
• Here is the evolution of that percentage since 2018:
• 2018: 11%
• 2019: 26%
• 2020: 29%
• 2021: 17%
• 2022: 31%
• 2023: 27%
• 2024: 32% - A new record!
• This year, I ended up paying the full cost of the subscription (my brother Austin is a big Dodgers fan but currently lives in South Carolina, which would have him staying up until like 2 in the morning any time he wanted to watch a game on the west coast, so I don't really blame him for not wanting in this year). As usual, I divided the cost of my subscription by the number of games that I watched, which came out to about $2.42 per game.

Let me take a break here and say something. I am extremely proud of myself for running this cost down this year. I realized in about mid-August that I was not watching much baseball - and that my cost per game was, at that point, more than $6 per game watched, which would absolutely not make this subscription worth it in the future. On August 25, I watched my 24th game of the season, meaning that I went on a freaking tear and watched at least a minimal part of 38 games in 36 days. In that span, I lowered my cost per game by almost $4 per game, which is absolutely crazy. Heeeeeeeeck yeah. Anyway, very proud of myself. Now, where were we?

• Here is how my cost-per-game ratio has developed over the years:
• 2018: $2.85/game
• 2019: $1.85/game
• 2020: $1.97/game
• 2021: $1.83/game
• 2022: $1.14/game (split cost)
• 2023: $2.94/game
• 2024: $2.42/game

Duration of Viewing:

The following is a breakdown of how long I watched each game, based on the definitions I established many years ago, in order of duration:

• Most (5-7 innings): 21 games (34%)
• Partial (3-4 innings): 18 games (30%)
• Full (8-9 innings): 13 games (21%)
• Minimal (1-2 innings): 9 games (15%)

Times Watched on the Team's Local Broadcast (Out of 61 Games Watched):

Here is this year's leaderboard for how many times I intentionally tuned into a team's local broadcast:

1. Texas Rangers: 23
   
2. Cleveland Guardians: 6
3. Seattle Mariners: 5
4. Atlanta Braves: 3
   Baltimore Orioles: 3
   Los Angeles Dodgers: 3
   Washington Nationals: 3
5. Cincinnati Reds: 2
   Miami Marlins: 2
   Philadelphia Phillies: 2
   San Diego Padres: 2
   San Francisco Giants: 2
   Tampa Bay Rays: 2
6. Kansas City Royals: 1
   Los Angeles Angels: 1
   Toronto Blue Jays: 1

Times Watched (Total, Out of 102 Total Teams Watched):

Here is a breakdown of how many times I watched all of the other teams play, regardless of which broadcast I tuned into:

1. Texas Rangers: 23
   
2. Seattle Mariners: 10
3. Cleveland Guardians: 7
   Tampa Bay Rays: 7
4. Chicago White Sox: 5
   Oakland A's: 5
   San Diego Padres: 5
5. Atlanta Braves: 4
   Baltimore Orioles: 4
   Los Angeles Angels: 4
   Philadelphia Phillies: 4
   St. Louis Cardinals: 4
   Toronto Blue Jays: 4
   Washington Nationals: 4
6. Chicago Cubs: 3
   Detroit Tigers: 3
   Houston Astros: 3
   Kansas City Royals: 3
   Los Angeles Dodgers: 3
   Miami Marlins: 3
   Minnesota Twins: 3
7. Boston Red Sox: 2
   Cincinnati Reds: 2
   New York Mets: 2
   Pittsburgh Pirates: 2
   San Francisco Giants: 2
8. Milwaukee Brewers: 1

There were three teams that I didn't watch a single time this year: the Diamondbacks and Rockies (because I couldn't), and the Yankees (because I hate them).

Overall Win/Loss Record:

• This year, teams I tuned in to watch went 36-25, which is all right with me. The teams I watched had some hot streaks and some cold streaks, but I feel like I got to see some pretty good games, overall. This was my second-highest winning percentage since I started tracking this stuff, and my best season since 2019.
• Running W/L percentage tracker:
• 2018: .534
• 2019: .625
• 2020: .410
• 2021: .492
• 2022: .404
• 2023: .490
• 2024: .590

Home/Road Split:

• I tuned into 25 home broadcasts (41%) and 36 road broadcasts this year (59%).
• When I watched a team's home broadcast, those teams went 20-5 (.800), which is totally insane.
• When I watched a team's road broadcast, those teams went 16-20 (.444).
• Regardless of whose broadcast I watched, the home team went 40-21 (.656).
• Regardless of whose broadcast I watched, the road team went 21-40 (.344).

Editor's note: For the record, that was probably the fastest that I have ever done that math.

W/L Records for Teams Whose Broadcast I Watched:

1. Los Angeles Dodgers: 3-0 (1.000)
   Philadelphia Phillies: 2-0 (1.000)
   San Diego Padres: 2-0 (1.000)
   San Francisco Giants: 2-0 (1.000)
   Los Angeles Angels: 1-0 (1.000)
   Toronto Blue Jays: 1-0 (1.000)
2. Cleveland Guardians: 5-1 (.833)
3. Atlanta Braves: 2-1 (.666)Seattle Mariners: 3-2 (.600)
4. Texas Rangers: 12-11 (.522)
   
5. Cincinnati Reds: 1-1 (.500)
   Miami Marlins: 1-1 (.500)
6. Baltimore Orioles: 1-2 (.333)
7. Kansas City Royals: 0-1 (.000)
   Tampa Bay Rays: 0-2 (.000)
   Washington Nationals: 0-3 (.000)

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

1. Los Angeles Dodgers: 3-0 (1.000)
   Minnesota Twins: 3-0 (1.000)
   Boston Red Sox: 2-0 (1.000)
   San Francisco Giants: 2-0 (1.000)
   Milwaukee Brewers: 1-0 (1.000)
   
2. Philadelphia Phillies: 3-1 (.750)
   St. Louis Cardinals: 3-1 (.750)
3. Cleveland Guardians: 5-2 (.714)
4. Detroit Tigers: 2-1 (.666)
   Houston Astros: 2-1 (.666)
5. Texas Rangers: 12-11 (.522)
6. Atlanta Braves: 2-2 (.500)
   Cincinnati Reds: 1-1 (.500)
   New York Mets: 1-1 (.500)
   Pittsburgh Pirates: 1-1 (.500)
7. Los Angeles Angels: 2-2 (.500)
   Toronto Blue Jays: 2-2 (.500)
8. San Diego Padres: 2-3 (.400)
9. Chicago Cubs: 1-2 (.333)
   Miami Marlins: 1-2 (.333)
10. Seattle Mariners: 3-7 (.300)
11. Baltimore Orioles: 1-3 (.250)
12. Oakland A's: 1-4 (.200)
13. Kansas City Royals: 0-3 (.000)
    Washington Nationals: 0-4 (.000)
    Chicago White Sox: 0-5 (.000)
    Tampa Bay Rays: 0-7 (.000)

Man, what a horrible year for the Rays. Yikes.

Miscellaneous Stats or Other Interesting Things That Happened:

• The first game I watched this season was former Rangers color commentator CJ Nitkowski's first game as a Braves broadcaster. I knew I recognized that voice!
• I saw big innings, like the Rangers scoring 10 runs in the second inning in a game early in the season. I saw bad defense, like the Astros' back-up third baseman having four errors in a span of three or four innings.
• I saw controversial calls! I saw walk-off wins and losses! I saw blown leads to terrible teams, including the Chicago White Sox - the worst team in MLB history! I saw big comeback victories! I turned games off that I should have kept watching! And I almost certainly kept watching games that I should have turned off!
• I saw the Braves get shut out for the first time in over a year.
• In a rather strange series of events, I turned a game on in the third inning and the first two pitches I saw were hit for home runs by the opposing team. Lovely!
• I teams' season opener. I watched a game on Father's Day. I watched a Dodgers game last week that my parents and brothers were attending.
• I watched a Guardians game in which Emmanuel Clase tied the franchise record for saves.
• And speaking of history, most impressively, I was watching the game when Shohei Ohtani passed the 50 home run/50 stolen bases club, in which he posted an absolutely ABSURD stat line of 6/6, 3 HR, 4 R, 10 RBI, 2 SB. This performance pretty much single-handedly saved my fantasy baseball season and led me all the way to the championship, so... Shohei? Thank you. From the bottom of my heart.

Final Thoughts:

Last season, I ended my blog by saying, "Next year, I better either split the cost or just watch like a dozen more games to make me feel better about myself." Well, I watched 10 more games this year than I did last year, and I feel pretty good about myself. I feel good about myself because I really, really slacked this year. I don't know exactly what the cause was - probably that the WORLD SERIES CHAMPION TEXAS RANGERS just weren't very good this year - but I realized in mid-August that I had a long way to go in order to make this subscription worth it. And you know what? I think I did a pretty good job, there in the final month and a half of the season.

That's about it. I'll be watching the playoffs a little bit, most likely, but not with anywhere near the anxiety or engagement as I did last year. As long as the Astros don't win, everything will be ok.

Until next time!

MLB TV Viewing Stats - 2023

 

This is my sixth year of posting my MLB TV stats, so I'm going to shorten a lot of my long-winded explanations of what I do, how I do it, and what all this stuff means. Every time I watch a baseball game through my MLB TV subscription, I use a Google Docs spreadsheet to keep track of some stats about every game. This post will break all of that useless information down.

Welcome, friends, and thank you for joining me.

Stats Tracked on the Spreadsheet:

Nothing changed on my spreadsheet this year. Again, here's what I kept track of for each game that I watched:

• 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:

• All Arizona Diamondback and Colorado Rockies games are blacked out in Utah. It makes no sense.
• Any nationally televised games (FOX, ESPN, TBS, etc.) are not viewable on MLB TV.
• I work from home and have two young children whose first priority of entertainment is not watching sports.

Untracked Games:

• I cannot recall any games that I watched that were not broadcast on MLB TV. Also somewhat of note, for the first time in several years, I did not attend an MLB game in person.

Total Number of Games Watched and Cost Per Game:

• This year, I'm going to spare you all the math I put into these calculations, but it suffices me to say that if all 30 Major League teams play 162 games a season, and if each single game counts as two "games played" (one game for the home team and one game for the road team), that equals a total of 4,860 games played.
• Accounting for the idiotic regional blackouts of the Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies, as well as nationally televised games, I have been lowering the maximum amount of games I would have had access to down to 4,356 games per season.
• I watched a total of 51 baseball games this season, or a total of 102 "games played."
• This is six fewer games than I watched in 2022.
• Based on the approximate number of 4,356 "games played" that I had access to, I watched about 2.3% of those games, a 0.3% decrease from last year.
• This year's MLB season ran from March 30 - October 1, a duration of 186 days.
• Last year, I lowered the maximum number of games that I could reasonably have watched per day to one, which I think is totally reasonable. Of course, there were probably days when I might have watched part of multiple games, but that would definitely have been the exception, not the rule.
• I watched a total of 51 games throughout the 186-day season, which is 27% of the maximum number of games that I reasonably could have watched - a minor dip from how much I watched last year.
• Here is the evolution of that percentage since 2018:
• 2018: 11%
• 2019: 26%
• 2020: 29%
• 2021: 17%
• 2022: 31%
• 2023: 27%
• Unlike last year, I unfortunately did not split the cost of MLB TV with my brother. (Long story short, we found out that he got it for free through T-Mobile the day after I my subscription automatically renewed. Bummer.) By dividing the cost of my subscription by the number of games that I watched, the math comes out to $2.94 per game - in the neighborhood of triple what I was paying per game last year and easily my worst ratio since I started keeping track of these ridiculous statistics.
• Here is how my cost-per-game ratio has developed over the years:
• 2018: $2.85/game
• 2019: $1.85/game
• 2020: $1.97/game
• 2021: $1.83/game
• 2022: $1.14/game
• 2023: $2.94/game

Duration of Viewing:

The following is a breakdown of how long I typically watched each game, based on the definitions previously discussed, in order of duration:

• Most: 21 games (41%)
• Partial: 14 games (27%)
• Full: 11 games (22%)
• Minimal: 5 games (10%)

Times Watched on the Team's Local Broadcast (Out of 51 Games Watched):

Here is the leaderboard for how many times I intentionally tuned into a team's local broadcast:

1. Texas Rangers: 21
2. Tampa Bay Rays: 10
3. Cincinnati Reds: 3
   Seattle Mariners: 3
4. Miami Marlins: 2
   Washington Nationals: 2
5. Chicago Cubs: 1
   Detroit Tigers: 1
   Houston Astros: 1
   Los Angeles Angels: 1
   New York Mets: 1
   New York Yankees: 1
   Philadelphia Phillies: 1
   San Diego Padres: 1
   San Francisco Giants: 1
   Toronto Blue Jays: 1
   

Times Watched (Total, Out of 102 Total Teams Watched):

Once again, I watched 26 out of the 30 teams play this year. The four teams I didn't watch were the Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies (as always), the Minnesota Twins and the Los Angeles Dodgers (who I apparently have a habit of never watching). Here is a breakdown of how many times I watched all of the other teams play, regardless of which broadcast I tuned into:

1. Texas Rangers: 21
2. Tampa Bay Rays: 10
3. Seattle Mariners: 6
4. Chicago White Sox: 5
   Toronto Blue Jays: 5
   Washington Nationals: 5
5. Boston Red Sox: 4
   Miami Marlins: 4
6. Cincinnati Reds: 3
   Cleveland Guardians: 3
   Detroit Tigers: 3
   Los Angeles Angels: 3
   New York Mets: 3
   Oakland A's: 3
   Philadelphia Phillies: 3
7. Baltimore Orioles: 2
   Chicago Cubs: 2
   Houston Astros: 2
   Milwaukee Brewers: 2
   San Francisco Giants: 2
8. Kansas City Royals: 1
   New York Yankees: 1
   Pittsburgh Pirates: 1
   San Diego Padres: 1
   St. Louis Cardinals: 1

Overall Win/Loss Record:

• This year, teams I tuned in to watch went 25-26, which felt a lot worse than it actually was. The surprising thing is that my top two teams this year were the Texas Rangers and the Tampa Bay Rays, who were two of the best teams in the league all year long, so I would have anticipated watching a few more wins. Sadly, that wasn't the case, and I watched some pretty good teams lose a lot of winnable games. Thankfully, it wasn't quite as miserable as last year.
• Running W/L percentage tracker:
• 2018: .534
• 2019: .625
• 2020: .410
• 2021: .492
• 2022: .404
• 2023: .490

Home/Road Split:

Editor's note: I said last year that this was, inexplicably, the most difficult category for me to calculate, but I got it right this year on my first try. I am proud. The home/road W-L numbers are tricky, though. I made some changes to my spreadsheet so that it's hopefully a little easier next year.

• Of the 51 games I tuned into during 2023, the team I wanted to watch played 24 home games (47%) and 27 road games (53%).
• When I watched a team's home broadcast, that team went 14-10 (.583).
• When I watched a team's road broadcast, that team went 11-16 (.407).
• Regardless of whose broadcast I watched, the home team went 30-21 (.588).
• Regardless of whose broadcast I watched, the road team went 21-30 (.411).

W/L Records for Teams Whose Broadcast I Watched:

1. Detroit Tigers: 1-0 (1.000)
   Los Angeles Angels: 1-0 (1.000)
   Philadelphia Phillies: 1-0 (1.000)
   San Diego Padres: 1-0 (1.000)
2. Tampa Bay Rays: 6-4 (.600)
3. Texas Rangers: 12-9 (.571)
4. Washington Nationals: 1-1 (.500)
5. Cincinnati Reds: 1-2 (.333)
   Seattle Mariners: 1-2 (.333)
6. Chicago Cubs: 0-1 (.000)
   Houston Astros: 0-1 (.000)
   New York Mets: 0-1 (.000)
   New York Yankees: 0-1 (.000)
   San Francisco Giants: 0-1 (.000)
   Toronto Blue Jays: 0-1 (.000)
   Miami Marlins: 0-2 (.000)

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

1. Milwaukee Brewers: 2-0 (1.000)
   Pittsburgh Pirates: 1-0 (1.000)
   San Diego Padres: 1-0 (1.000)
2. Atlanta Braves: 3-1 (.750)
3. Detroit Tigers: 2-1 (.666)
   Los Angeles Angels: 2-1 (.666)
   New York Mets: 2-1 (.666)
   Philadelphia Phillies: 2-1 (.666)
4. Tampa Bay Rays: 6-4 (.600)
   Chicago White Sox: 3-2 (.600)
5. Texas Rangers: 12-9 (.571)
6. Houston Astros: 2-2 (.500)
   Miami Marlins: 2-2 (.500)
   Baltimore Orioles: 1-1 (.500)
   Chicago Cubs: 1-1 (.500)
   San Francisco Giants: 1-1 (.500)
7. Toronto Blue Jays: 2-3 (.400)
8. Seattle Mariners: 2-4 (.333)
   Cleveland Guardians: 1-2 (.333)
   Cincinnati Reds: 1-2 (.333)
   Oakland A's: 1-2 (.333)
9. Washington Nationals: 1-4 (.200)
10. Kansas City Royals: 0-1 (.000)
    New York Yankees: 0-1 (.000)
    St. Louis Cardinals: 0-1 (.000)
    Boston Red Sox: 0-4 (.000)

Miscellaneous Stats or Other Interesting Things That Happened:

• I saw big comebacks, I saw big chokes. I turned games off early and missed big comebacks and big chokes. I watched extra innings wins and suffered through extra innings losses. It's the circle of life.
• I saw a Brewers player hit a grand slam for his first major league home run.
• I saw a Rangers player get hit in the face by a pitch.
• I watched the Rangers beat the Orioles at the hospital with my newborn son.
• I watched the Rays tie Modern Era record for winning streak to start the season (13 games) and then watched them lose the next game, failing to break that record.
• I also saw the Rangers and Mariners snap eight-game win streaks, because I'm just such a good luck charm
• I watched a game on Jackie Robinson Day, the Fourth of July and Labor Day.
• I saw some weird stuff, like when Vlad Guerrero Jr. threw his entire mitt to first base for an out after a grounder got stuck in his webbing, and when the Reds hit a "little league home run."
• And - something I never thought I'd see - I watched Max Scherzer's debut for the Texas Rangers.

Final Thoughts:

Two things stick out: I didn't split the cost of the subscription this year, which essentially doubled my cost-per-game from the get-go, and I just didn't watch as much baseball this year as I wanted to or probably could have. Parenthood, man. Parenthood. There are just more important things that I need to be doing with my life, other than just watching baseball at all times. That, and I sometimes just get outvoted or overruled about what goes on the big TV. That's life, and that's ok.

But next year, I better either split the cost or just watch like a dozen more games to make me feel better about myself.

And... we'll see ya then, probably.

Go Rangers!

MLB TV Viewing Stats - 2022

Postseason baseball is upon us, which means a couple things: time for us all to rally around and unanimously cheer against the Yankees and Astros and, less importantly, the hour is upon us in which I write the most tedious, painful, practically pointless blog of the entire year. It's time for me to tally up a billion different numbers and put together the statistics to brag to myself about how much MLB TV I watched over the past six months.

Listen, I know that absolutely nobody cares about this yearly series of posts except for me. It's actually mind-numbing for me to have to do it. Unfortunately, I'm an individual that is obsessed with keeping track of stuff like this and I just have to keep doing it. I can't shake it. It has become part of me.

If you've randomly stumbled across this blog, I'm warning you now: you don't have to continue. You can stop right now. But if you have absolutely nothing better to do with your morning or day or evening, or if it's perhaps 3:15 in the morning and you just can't sleep, go ahead. Read on. Indulge in these meaningless stats I've jotted down. And, in advance, I thank you for spending a few minutes of your time reading over this slave labor produced by my poor, poor brain and fingers.

Stats Tracked on the Spreadsheet:

If you're somehow new to these MLB TV posts, I'll give you a really quick introduction to what on earth is happening. I subscribe to MLB TV, which lets me watch most so-called "out of market" baseball games. I'm in Utah and they think that I'm "in the market" for two teams, but I'll complain about that in just a second. Every time I watch a game, I use a Google Docs spreadsheet to keep track of a few stats about every game:

• 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. Once again, I (neither a resident of Arizona nor Colorado) was unable to watch any game that involved either of those teams.
• Any nationally televised games (FOX, ESPN, TBS, etc.) are not viewable on MLB TV.
• New this year is the fact that my son is old enough to know that "Paw Patrol" and "Spidey and His Amazing Friends" are way more exciting than a random baseball game in the middle of the workday, so I spent a ton of time watching children's programming instead of watching sports whenever I felt like it.

Untracked Games:

• Any games I watched through any other source than MLB TV was not tracked on my spreadsheet, including any nationally televised games.
• I attended a game in Houston this summer, in which the Astros soundly thumped the lowly Oakland A's.

Total Number of Games Watched and Cost Per Game:

• This year, the MLB regular season ran from April 7, 2022 through October 5, 2022 - a total of 182 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).
• As always, regional blackouts for Rockies and Diamondbacks games are not watchable, which takes away access to any of the 324 games played by either of those 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.
• This year, I am subtracting 6 "games played" for each week of the regular season to account for nationally televised games (one game on Sunday night, one during prime time on any other day of the week and one on Saturday morning). If the regular season is roughly 25 weeks long, that adds up to an approximate total of 150 nationally blacked-out games.
• This brings the total number of games played that I would have had access to down to 4,356. I think my calculations are pretty generous.

• I watched a total of 57 baseball games this season, or a total of 114 "games played."
• This is eight fewer games than I watched in 2021.
• Based on the approximate number of 4,356 "games played" that I had access to, I watched about 2.6% of those games, a 0.3% decrease from last year.
• 4,356 games played, over a course of 182 days, divides out to 24 "games played" (12 individual games) on a given day.
• For the past two seasons, I estimated that I could hypothetically have watched about two games per day. Because, as I said, I spent a heavily increased amount of time watching whatever my son wanted instead of turning on baseball in the middle of the day, I am lowering the maximum number of games I reasonably could have watched per day to one. (This doesn't mean I couldn't watch more than one; it just means that it wouldn't be reasonable for me to do so - and certainly not more than one game for every day of the season!)
• I watched a total of 57 games throughout the season, which is 31% of the maximum number of games that I reasonably could have watched. (That's actually pretty impressive.)
• Here is the evolution of that percentage since 2018:
• 2018: 11%
• 2019: 26%
• 2020: 29%
• 2021: 17%
• 2022: 31%
• This year, I split the cost of MLB TV with my brother - something I would positively love to continue doing in the future. This means that I only spent half the amount of money on the service as I have most years in the past. By dividing the number of games watched by the reduced amount I paid for this year's subscription, I spent about $1.14 per game, 69 cents less than last season, and a new personal record.
• Here is how my cost-per-game ratio has developed over the years:
• 2018: $2.85/game
• 2019: $1.85/game
• 2020: $1.97/game
• 2021: $1.83/game
• 2022: $1.14/game

Duration of Viewing:

The following is a breakdown of how long I typically watched each game, based on the definitions previously discussed, in order of duration:

• Most: 26 games (46%)
• Partial: 19 games (33%)
• Full: 8 games (14%)
• Minimal: 4 games (7%)

Times Watched on the Team's Local Broadcast (Out of 57 Games Watched):

Here is the leaderboard for how many times I intentionally tuned into a team's local broadcast:

1. Texas Rangers: 19
2. Tampa Bay Rays: 7
3. Cleveland Guardians: 5
   Los Angeles Angels: 5
   Miami Marlins: 5
4. Seattle Mariners: 4
5. Washington Nationals: 3
6. Philadelphia Phillies: 2
7. Atlanta Braves: 1
   Boston Red Sox: 1
   Cincinnati Reds: 1
   Pittsburgh Pirates: 1
   St. Louis Cardinals: 1
   San Francisco Giants: 1
   Toronto Blue Jays: 1

Times Watched (Total, Out of 114 Total Teams Watched):

I watched 26 out of the 30 teams play this year. The four teams I didn't watch were the Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies (of course) and the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres. Here is a breakdown of how many times I watched all of the other teams play, regardless of which broadcast I tuned into:

1. Texas Rangers: 19
2. Los Angeles Angels: 9
3. Cleveland Guardians: 8
   Miami Marlins: 8
   Tampa Bay Rays: 8
4. Seattle Mariners: 7
5. Oakland A's: 6
6. Washington Nationals: 5
7. Chicago Cubs: 4
   Chicago White Sox: 4
   Houston Astros: 4
   New York Mets: 4
   Philadelphia Phillies: 4
8. Boston Red Sox: 3
   Minnesota Twins: 3
   San Francisco Giants: 3
   Toronto Blue Jays: 3
9. Atlanta Braves: 2
   Detroit Tigers: 2
   St. Louis Cardinals: 2
10. Baltimore Orioles: 1
    Cincinnati Reds: 1
    Kansas City Royals: 1
    Milwaukee Brewers: 1
    New York Yankees: 1
    Pittsburgh Pirates: 1

Overall Win/Loss Record:

• This year, the teams I specifically tuned in to watch went 23-34 (.404). That's not great. It was my losing-est season in the past five years. Actually, the fact that so many of the teams I like were so bad this year was probably the second worst deterrent from my desire to watch, behind the fact that my toddler would rather watch something computer-animated, and preferably with lots of talking puppies. Let's hope that there is only one way to go from here - and that's up, baby. Up.
• Running W/L percentage tracker:
• 2018: .534
• 2019: .625
• 2020: .410
• 2021: .492
• 2022: .404

Home/Road Split:

Editor's note: This, again, remains the most difficult category to calculate, for some odd reason. I think I had to count it four times - twice with the assistance of my wife. It's pathetic on several levels.

• Of the 57 games I tuned into during 2022, the team I wanted to watch played 30 home games (53%) and 27 road games (47%).
• When I watched a team's home broadcast, that team went 16-14 (.533).
• When I watched a team's road broadcast, that team went 7-20 (.259). Big yikes.
• Regardless of whose broadcast I watched, the home team went 36-21 (.632).
• Regardless of whose broadcast I watched, the road team went 21-36 (.368).

W/L Records for Teams Whose Broadcast I Watched:

I watched a lot of losing baseball this year. Here are the final win/loss records for the unfortunate teams for whom I intentionally turned on my TV or mobile device:

1. Atlanta Braves: 1-0 (1.000)
   San Francisco Giants: 1-0 (1.000)
   Toronto Blue Jays: 1-0 (1.000)
2. Cleveland Guardians: 3-2 (.600)
   Los Angeles Angels: 3-2 (.600)
3. Tampa Bay Rays: 4-3 (.571)
4. Seattle Mariners: 2-2 (.500)
5. Washington Nationals: 1-2 (.333)
6. Texas Rangers: 4-15 (.211)
7. Miami Marlins: 1-4 (.200)
8. Boston Red Sox: 0-1 (.000)
   Cincinnati Reds: 0-1 (.000)
   Philadelphia Phillies: 0-1 (.000)
   Pittsburgh Pirates: 0-1 (.000)
   St. Louis Cardinals: 0-1 (.000)

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

1. San Francisco Giants: 3-0 (1.000)
   Toronto Blue Jays: 3-0 (1.000)
2. Detroit Tigers: 2-0 (1.000)
3. Kansas City Royals: 1-0 (1.000)
   Milwaukee Brewers: 1-0 (1.000)
   New York Yankees: 1-0 (1.000)
4. Oakland A's: 5-1 (.833)
5. Houston Astros: 3-1 (.750)
   New York Mets: 3-1 (.750)
6. Seattle Mariners: 5-2 (.714)
7. Los Angeles Angels: 6-3 (.666)
8. Cleveland Guardians: 5-3 (.625)
   Tampa Bay Rays: 5-3 (.625)
9. Philadelphia Phillies: 2-2 (.500)
10. Atlanta Braves: 1-1 (.500)
11. Boston Red Sox: 1-2 (.333)
    Minnesota Twins: 1-2 (.333)
12. Miami Marlins: 2-6 (.250)
13. Chicago Cubs: 1-3 (.250)
14. Texas Rangers: 4-15 (.210)
15. Washington Nationals: 1-4 (.200)
16. Baltimore Orioles: 0-1 (.000)
    Cincinnati Reds: 0-1 (.000)
    Pittsburgh Pirates: 0-1 (.000)
17. St. Louis Cardinals: 0-2 (.000)
18. Chicago White Sox: 0-4 (.000)

Miscellaneous Stats or Other Interesting Things That Happened:

• The main thing that was constantly on my mind this year was how many times I tuned in and watched a team lose. The longest losing streak of games that I watched was eight. It was truly, truly painful. The longest winning streak I experienced was four.
• The Tampa Bay Rays' first pitch of the season hit the opposing batter.
• The Texas Rangers homered in their first at-bat of the season. They went on to blow a 6-0 lead and lose, 10-8. In retrospect, it was only a sign of unfortunate things to come for the rest of the season.
• I watched the Cleveland Guardians put up six runs in a 9th inning, including a grand slam. That was fun.
• In a game between the White Sox and Mariners, extreme wind conditions in Chicago caused four routine, infield fly balls to be dropped, collectively, by both teams. It was crazy.
• I saw the Rangers hit a grand slam off of Shohei Ohtani, who had a great season on the mound and at the plate.
• I watched a game on Jackie Robinson Day.
• A Marlins-Nationals game in Miami was briefly delayed due to a false fire alarm.
• I watched nine walk-off wins - almost all of which, it seems, ended as losses for the teams I wanted to win.
• I watched Stephen Strasburg get absolutely lit up in his season debut, after months on the injured list. I promptly dropped him from my fantasy baseball team that night.
• I watched a terribly boring Phillies-Cardinals game, in which nobody scored until I turned it off.
• I got Bieber Fever as I watched Shane Bieber toss a complete game for the Guardians.
• In the midst of their incredible run, I watched the Seattle Mariners win their 14th straight game. By the way, I'm super happy for the Mariners, who made the playoffs this year for the first time since 2001.
• I watched a Red Sox game that my parents and brother Cody attended in Boston. The dang Red Sox had several perfect opportunities to win - they had runners on third with no outs in the 8th AND 9th innings and didn't get any runs out of it. They went on to lose to the Blue Jays in 10 innings.
• Mike Trout (proud member of my fantasy team) had a nearly historic streak of consecutive games with a home run snapped during a Los Angeles Angels game that I watched. He had homered in seven straight games and I think that eight games would have tied the MLB record.
• In the last game I watched this season, I watched as Oakland A's catcher Stephen Vogt homered in his final career at-bat. I'm not an A's fan (unless they move to Utah #MLBtoSLC), but that was pretty awesome.

Final Thoughts:

I've said it a bunch but I'll say it once more: this was just a tough, tough season for me, as a baseball fan. Because I live in Utah without a "local team" to cheer for, I watch a lot of different teams and, other than the Rangers, don't necessarily watch anyone religiously, but even then, it's just odd that so many of the teams I like would be so, so bad this year. It often wasn't fun to watch, but I do love baseball - and I knew that I'd eventually have to write this blog, so I wanted to make my stats look good.

These stats surprised me quite a bit. I honestly felt like I didn't watch as much baseball as I usually do, for a few different reasons. I was a few games short of the benchmark from last year, but I feel like I ended up having a pretty respectable year.

Random note: I just looked back at last year's blog and saw that the Rangers went 3-11 when I watched them last year. Combining that with this year's record, they're 7-25 in the past two seasons, which is quite atrocious. I know they've been bad, but I didn't realize they have been that bad when I've been watching. Gross.

One thing is certain: splitting the cost of the service with my brother was an incredibly wise decision. Hopefully he'll buy in again next season, too.

Finally, as has become an annual tradition, I sincerely respect and admire you if you actually read this entire post. It's like torture to have to do this every October, but it's a habit now and I just can't kick it.

Until next year, I guess. Farewell.

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

MLB TV Viewing Stats - 2020

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):

1. Texas Rangers: 9
2. Los Angeles Angels: 7
3. Washington Nationals: 6
4. Cincinnati Reds: 5
   Cleveland Indians: 5
5. Atlanta Braves: 4
   New York Mets: 4
   Oakland A's: 4
   Philadelphia Phillies: 4
6. Detroit Tigers: 3
   Los Angeles Dodgers: 3
   San Diego Padres: 3
7. Baltimore Orioles: 2
   Chicago White Sox: 2
   Kansas City Royals: 2
   Minnesota Twins: 2
   New York Yankees: 2
   Seattle Mariners: 2
8. 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
9. Arizona Diamondbacks: 0
   Colorado Rockies: 0
   Milwaukee Brewers: 0

Times Watched on the Team's Local Broadcast (Out of 39 Games Watched):

1. Texas Rangers: 9
2. Washington Nationals: 6
3. Cincinnati Reds: 5
4. Cleveland Indians: 4
5. Los Angeles Angels: 3
   Philadelphia Phillies: 3
6. Baltimore Orioles: 2
7. 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:

1. Oakland A's: 4-0 (1.000)
2. Kansas City Royals: 2-0 (1.000)
   Minnesota Twins: 2-0 (1.000)
3. Houston Astros: 1-0 (1.000)
   St. Louis Cardinals: 1-0 (1.000)
4. New York Mets: 3-1 (.750)
5. Los Angeles Dodgers: 2-1 (.666)
6. Cincinnati Reds: 3-2 (.600)
7. Washington Nationals: 3-3 (.500)
8. Atlanta Braves: 2-2 (.500)
9. Baltimore Orioles: 1-1 (.500)
   New York Yankees: 1-1 (.500)
   Seattle Mariners: 1-1 (.500)
   Tampa Bay Rays: 1-1 (.500)
10. Texas Rangers: 4-5 (.444)
11. Cleveland Indians: 2-3 (.400)
12. Detroit Tigers: 1-2 (.333)
    San Diego Padres: 1-2 (.333)
13. Los Angeles Angels: 2-5 (.285)
14. Philadelphia Phillies: 1-3 (.250)
15. 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)
16. Chicago White Sox: 0-2 (.000)

W/L Records for Teams Whose Broadcast I Watched (out of 39 games):

1. Los Angeles Dodgers: 1-0 (1.000)
   New York Yankees: 1-0 (1.000)
   Seattle Mariners: 1-0 (1.000)
2. Cincinnati Reds: 3-2 (.600)
3. Washington Nationals: 3-3 (.500)
4. Cleveland Indians: 2-2 (.500)
5. Baltimore Orioles: 1-1 (.500)
6. Texas Rangers: 4-5 (.444)
7. Atlanta Braves: 0-1 (.000)
   Chicago Cubs: 0-1 (.000)
   Detroit Tigers: 0-1 (.000)
   San Diego Padres: 0-1 (.000)
8. 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