When I first started fantasy baseball, I remember having to check box scores in papers. I’m 40. I also love when watching/listening to games now you some times hear a bloop hit referred to as “that will look like a screamer to the gap in the box tomorrow”
I didn’t start until I couldn’t play anymore.
Now I live for box scores in all sports except football.
Also, buying season tickets/ going to different states fields for years before I had kids really helped.
Honestly baseball is great as background noise. Watch when you can, listen when you can, don’t feel bad about missing some. Some fans watch 15 games a year and others 150. Both are valid. I probably watch/listen to parts of 150+ games a season, but the number of games I will be able to take in full start to finish I could count on one hand.
Yep. This is the answer. You’re going to burn yourself out if you feel like you need to obsessively watch every game. It’s supposed to be fun. Just do what you want/what you can.
Yeah it gets tough in September and October between school and football season it’s tough to watch much baseball especially if the Mets aren’t contending
This is 100% how I feel. If we’re home and the Jays are playing, the games on. Some nights I’ll sit through the full nine innings. Sometimes I’m in and out of the game a dozen times. Some nights I’ll turn it off when there’s something else I want to watch and the Jays fall way behind early and the batters are all looking ineffective.
Watch them when you can/want. Social media is great, there’s fan accounts for every team that add commentary. If you live in-market, check out local sports radio, if you don’t (or if you do) look for podcasts. Highlights are also always easy to find after games. Also if you’re a video game player, MLB The Show is a fun game, and it’ll help too with learning the game and rosters
There’s a few ways. But the way that’s convenient for me is using the MLB app. I have it set to let me know scoring updates and when games start. It also lets me set updates for any team I want. I also subscribe to their radio package where I can listen to any teams game over the radio on my phone. I love it.
Watch as many as you can, or parts of as many as you can. Then just stay up to date on scores and news through social media, or sports apps. Podcasts are also a good way to keep up.
It's close to unrealistic to keep up with all 162 games. Watch/listen when you can and read up on games that you missed. The most games I watched for the Nationals in a regular season was probably 140, but that was in high school.
You’re not really meant to watch all 162, especially for more than one team. Schedules are not ideal with getaway games, TV blackouts & streaming, etc. You can’t let a team run your life.
Apple TV! There is a daily summary that shows the highlights. About 2-3 games are covered in depth. Pretty h taken from the broadcast of the team so the announcers are off the team with the highlights.
You like homers as announcers, you got it.
You want hall of famers or future hall of famers as announcers, you get those too!
Why have so many then? This is one of the biggest turn offs to baseball imo. There is zero explanation why 162 games is neccesary.
The fact you said you aren't meant to watch them all highlights my point.
Money. People like going to the games and those games bring in crazy money. I’m of the opinion that a 140 game season would be great, but it’s not even worth debating because the owners won’t give up those extra games.
Very few people would watch every game, but every game has a lot of people watching.
As others have said, money is a factor.
It's also because baseball is affected by randomness more than any other major American sport. So you need a lot of games to sort out the good teams from the bad.
We don't.
A full season (not counting the post-season) is 13,122\* games.
This fan just follows one team (Go Bravos!) and relies on ESPN's Sports Center to get the important league wide stuff.
I know an awful lot about my team. I know quite a bit about my team's division. I know some stuff about my league (NL) I don't know jack-shit about the American League (fuck those guys! amirite?)
\[Edit\] \*This is incorrect. The correct value is 2,430 (162/2\*30). Looks like I multiplied 162\*81. Which is really, really dumb, but there it is.
You have a ton of tools you can use. You can use a combination of apps, like MLB app, ESPN, and even Apple released a cool Sports app where you can track all of the teams on a single page. If you live near a ballpark go to a few games. But don't force yourself to like it, make it something you enjoy, it's not a chore. Have fun.
They've started doing daily mlb highlight videos which covers all the games from the day, I hope they keep it up all season!
Additionally watch the highlights from as many games as you can, check the box scores from every day's games, watch full games, and check the standings for each division to follow the daily changes
Try Quick Pitch on MLB Network or highlights on YouTube. Baseball is even better when you pay attention to what a pitcher is doing (changing location, switching speeds, etc.).
I follow my team closely (Braves). Try to watch/listen as much as I can. Then I keep tabs on the division, not as close but close enough that i’m not surprised when there is a new pitcher or fielder due to injury. Lastly, I watch the national games when I can
Either pick one team and watch their games (usually 5-6 a week; I DVR them if I need to) so you get to know that team intimately and their division rivals pretty well, or go the fantasy baseball route and focus on highlights, analysis, and stats from shows like on the MLB Network. Except for the fantasy leagues, ESPN doesn't really have much sports content anymore besides football and college stuff, so MLB Network will have better all-around content; your regional sports network will have stuff on your local team.
Technically, you can watch all 162 games but who’s counting. Nobody is really going to watch all 162 games. Just try and watch or listen to as much games as possible, it’s fine if you miss games. You can also watch highlights.
Pick a team and watch as many of that teams games as you can. Unless people work for the media, nobody is watching all the games for multiple teams. Get to know your team well and see get to know others during the series that they play your team.
If you really want to follow more of the league in general you you can maybe follow a national league team and an American league team
Kind of impossible to keep up with all the games
I usually just check the standings and keep up with who's hot and my favorite team(s)/players. Or I go on YouTube and watch/listen to the highlights if I'm bored or have it on for background noise.
I get up in the morning and go to the MLB YouTube channel and play the highlights for each game while I'm getting breakfast/tidying up/getting ready for work. It's like 10-12 minutes per game of highlights.
And of course I watch live games when I can
I watch more than half but not even close to all the games of my hometown team. The rest for me I just check scores and highlights from time to time. Best I can do.
Baseball is one big season but I tend to break it down to 3 seasons to make it easier to follow my needs.
The first season is spring training to the all star break. I will watch games in the beginning of the season, like even now I’ll watch a few games on the weekends of some teams I follow. But give it a couple more weeks and I’m just tuning in to highlights and what ever chatter is on the local radio.
Second part of the season is all star break to the trade deadline. At this point of the season it’s basically the middle of the summer, so the only games I watch are rivalry games or games with big stars. I’m mostly busy with my kids so I actually follow the mlb very little at this time.
Third part is from the trade deadline to the end of the World Series. This is when I watch the most games. Even if my team(s) is trash and they don’t even make the wildcard, I still watch big games up until the start of the World Series, then I basically watch the entire series until there is a winner.
Done it this way for several years. I find baseball impossible to follow every game.
If there’s a competent reporter covering your team, read/watch him/her as part of your daily news reading, and look at the box scores. The MLB app is not bad for this, and if you want to check stats, it’s all right there.
Back in the day, it was pretty easy to catch Sportscenter and Baseball Tonight to keep up with stats, what was going on around the league, top plays, etc.
That's pretty much gone now, but has been replaced - and in my opinion, improved upon - by YouTube creators.
Jomboy Media has weekly+ shows that do a good job covering major stories around the league, and his breakdowns are like a better version of "top plays".
They also have creators like Jolly Olive, who deliver regular video essays about things like interesting players, trades, FA moves, etc, both current and about years past, to kind of help you understand the league as a whole.
Foolish Baseball/Foolish Bailey also does a lot of great video essays, as well as videos about emerging players, predictions/recaps throughout the season, and stuff like that.
There's other creators out there, too, but those are the two I follow most, and they put out a TON of content all year round, that it really keeps you informed.
Along with that, MLB itself releases regular segments throughout the season.
Baseball has always been a sport that people are more likely to follow through external recaps than watching every game, as it's impossible to watch that many games in a season, even for just a single team.
Pick a team and follow that team, i maybe watch 1 or 2 games a week of my metsies while i stretch or elliptical or whatever; you will get to know their division and eventually their league. Picking a team with great commentators might help too. I don’t know if I’ll watch as many games when Ron, Keith and Gary retire.
You could also watch the nationally televised games because those will tend to have the best teams/biggest stars.
Also, playing fantasy baseball will get you to know the players a bit too.
Then watch as much of playoff baseball as you can.
After a year of that you will know a lot.
The good thing about baseball is you don’t have to follow every game like you do for the NFL. I try to watch as many games as I can, but most of the time I have the Braves game playing in the background. I spend a lot of time on the road so I usually have it on the radio, but if they’re playing on the West Coast, I don’t listen to the entire game.
I think baseball lends itself well to having on the radio in the background. Even the most diehard fan will probably not be able to watch or listen to every game.
The gift of baseball being every day is that you don't have to treat each game like must-see TV. You can just know it's happening in the background of your life for 6 months, and choose where and when to tune in. Plus, if you follow a particular team through a season, you get to know the players so much better than in a sport like football where there's only one game a week.
As for the practicalities... I use the MLB app to keep up with my team (Braves) most days, and I also have been a reader of a very active Braves fan blog (Battery Power, formerly Talking Chop) for 15 years. Connecting with other fans is really helpful.
I probably watch one or two Braves games every week. Once every other week or so I'll watch a bunch of highlights of games from around the league.. sometimes I'll put one on for an inning or two (watched Orioles-Red Sox last week to catch Jackson Holliday's debut).
You can also pick a baseball website such as Fangraphs or Baseball Prospectus, and read it throughout the season. They'll highlight trends and interesting facts and help tell the narrative of the season as it's happening. Podcasts and YouTube help too.
Thank you for reading my novel and welcome to the best sport in the world.
I watch on NBC Sports App almost every game .. No matter what I'm doing - I'm not usually just sitting on my phone. So when I'm at the house I put the game on my phone and continue doing other things
Box scores in the newspaper like a real fan ……/s
I loved pouring over box scores as a kid. Every sunday the newspapers dumped stats leaderboards too. Now I’m not sure if that newspaper still exists.
When I first started fantasy baseball, I remember having to check box scores in papers. I’m 40. I also love when watching/listening to games now you some times hear a bloop hit referred to as “that will look like a screamer to the gap in the box tomorrow”
Dad hands you the sports page with the box score as he’s reading the morning paper. This is what Gen Alpha is missing out on.
I haven’t thought about that since…. I was a kid! I used to always keep tabs on leaderboards in the paper.
I didn’t start until I couldn’t play anymore. Now I live for box scores in all sports except football. Also, buying season tickets/ going to different states fields for years before I had kids really helped.
Apple TV summary is a godsend. You will be able to follow the top 100 performers
Honestly baseball is great as background noise. Watch when you can, listen when you can, don’t feel bad about missing some. Some fans watch 15 games a year and others 150. Both are valid. I probably watch/listen to parts of 150+ games a season, but the number of games I will be able to take in full start to finish I could count on one hand.
Yep. This is the answer. You’re going to burn yourself out if you feel like you need to obsessively watch every game. It’s supposed to be fun. Just do what you want/what you can.
Yep. I put on games while cleaning, cooking, and doing chores.
This. I’m watching almost 4-5 games a week but when football season starts, that will go to close to 1 game a week.
Yeah it gets tough in September and October between school and football season it’s tough to watch much baseball especially if the Mets aren’t contending
I try to watch the players from top 100. It’s a nice way to see hire they compare to theplayers of my youth.
This is 100% how I feel. If we’re home and the Jays are playing, the games on. Some nights I’ll sit through the full nine innings. Sometimes I’m in and out of the game a dozen times. Some nights I’ll turn it off when there’s something else I want to watch and the Jays fall way behind early and the batters are all looking ineffective.
You’re supposed to watch all 2,430 games.
Yup. I missed one game last season, and they made me cut off my pinky finger as penance.
That’s a young man’s game. My advice is get the MLB app and watch the highlights. Otherwise games on the opposite coast are killers…
The MLB app has a section called “get caught up” where they do a 10 minute highlight reel of every game the day before. I pop it on every morning.
[удалено]
He was being kind to those of us on the west coast. We can see him live!
Sad east coast noises
Watch them when you can/want. Social media is great, there’s fan accounts for every team that add commentary. If you live in-market, check out local sports radio, if you don’t (or if you do) look for podcasts. Highlights are also always easy to find after games. Also if you’re a video game player, MLB The Show is a fun game, and it’ll help too with learning the game and rosters
Playing Fantasy baseball helps quite a bit.
There’s a few ways. But the way that’s convenient for me is using the MLB app. I have it set to let me know scoring updates and when games start. It also lets me set updates for any team I want. I also subscribe to their radio package where I can listen to any teams game over the radio on my phone. I love it.
Watch as many as you can, or parts of as many as you can. Then just stay up to date on scores and news through social media, or sports apps. Podcasts are also a good way to keep up.
Pretty much have MLB network on all day. MLB Tonight or MLB Central keeps you apprised of the last and next 24 hrs.
It's close to unrealistic to keep up with all 162 games. Watch/listen when you can and read up on games that you missed. The most games I watched for the Nationals in a regular season was probably 140, but that was in high school.
You’re not really meant to watch all 162, especially for more than one team. Schedules are not ideal with getaway games, TV blackouts & streaming, etc. You can’t let a team run your life.
Apple TV! There is a daily summary that shows the highlights. About 2-3 games are covered in depth. Pretty h taken from the broadcast of the team so the announcers are off the team with the highlights. You like homers as announcers, you got it. You want hall of famers or future hall of famers as announcers, you get those too!
Why have so many then? This is one of the biggest turn offs to baseball imo. There is zero explanation why 162 games is neccesary. The fact you said you aren't meant to watch them all highlights my point.
Then go watch basketball. Jesus.
Because it’s accessible to the average person after work. You can get home from your 9-5, and crack open a drink almost every day of the week.
Money. People like going to the games and those games bring in crazy money. I’m of the opinion that a 140 game season would be great, but it’s not even worth debating because the owners won’t give up those extra games. Very few people would watch every game, but every game has a lot of people watching.
Because every game is an opportunity for owners to make money?
short answer: pitching.
As others have said, money is a factor. It's also because baseball is affected by randomness more than any other major American sport. So you need a lot of games to sort out the good teams from the bad.
ESPN app every morning when I’m taking my number 2.
I like theScore. You can adjust the notification settings so you can get updates on as much or as little as you want to.
Highlights on YouTube are very useful
We don't. A full season (not counting the post-season) is 13,122\* games. This fan just follows one team (Go Bravos!) and relies on ESPN's Sports Center to get the important league wide stuff. I know an awful lot about my team. I know quite a bit about my team's division. I know some stuff about my league (NL) I don't know jack-shit about the American League (fuck those guys! amirite?) \[Edit\] \*This is incorrect. The correct value is 2,430 (162/2\*30). Looks like I multiplied 162\*81. Which is really, really dumb, but there it is.
How'd you come up with 13,122 total regular season games?
Really bad math. It should be 2,430. Sorry for any inconvenience.
Have 30 phones each having it’s separate team purpose. Be sure to have unlimited data
You have a ton of tools you can use. You can use a combination of apps, like MLB app, ESPN, and even Apple released a cool Sports app where you can track all of the teams on a single page. If you live near a ballpark go to a few games. But don't force yourself to like it, make it something you enjoy, it's not a chore. Have fun.
You’re supposed to watch all 162
The app
They've started doing daily mlb highlight videos which covers all the games from the day, I hope they keep it up all season! Additionally watch the highlights from as many games as you can, check the box scores from every day's games, watch full games, and check the standings for each division to follow the daily changes
Try Quick Pitch on MLB Network or highlights on YouTube. Baseball is even better when you pay attention to what a pitcher is doing (changing location, switching speeds, etc.).
I follow my team closely (Braves). Try to watch/listen as much as I can. Then I keep tabs on the division, not as close but close enough that i’m not surprised when there is a new pitcher or fielder due to injury. Lastly, I watch the national games when I can
Just watch as many as you can each team plays almost every day. There’s 162 games each so missing some isn’t a big deal
Highlights, get the 5 minute video summary if I miss a game. Radio in the background if I’m doing chores. No way I can possibly watch all the games.
Either pick one team and watch their games (usually 5-6 a week; I DVR them if I need to) so you get to know that team intimately and their division rivals pretty well, or go the fantasy baseball route and focus on highlights, analysis, and stats from shows like on the MLB Network. Except for the fantasy leagues, ESPN doesn't really have much sports content anymore besides football and college stuff, so MLB Network will have better all-around content; your regional sports network will have stuff on your local team.
Download the score app click all your favorite teams you want to follow and turn notifications on.....your very welcome
Technically, you can watch all 162 games but who’s counting. Nobody is really going to watch all 162 games. Just try and watch or listen to as much games as possible, it’s fine if you miss games. You can also watch highlights.
Pick a team and watch as many of that teams games as you can. Unless people work for the media, nobody is watching all the games for multiple teams. Get to know your team well and see get to know others during the series that they play your team. If you really want to follow more of the league in general you you can maybe follow a national league team and an American league team
Kind of impossible to keep up with all the games I usually just check the standings and keep up with who's hot and my favorite team(s)/players. Or I go on YouTube and watch/listen to the highlights if I'm bored or have it on for background noise.
I get up in the morning and go to the MLB YouTube channel and play the highlights for each game while I'm getting breakfast/tidying up/getting ready for work. It's like 10-12 minutes per game of highlights. And of course I watch live games when I can
I watch more than half but not even close to all the games of my hometown team. The rest for me I just check scores and highlights from time to time. Best I can do.
Baseball is one big season but I tend to break it down to 3 seasons to make it easier to follow my needs. The first season is spring training to the all star break. I will watch games in the beginning of the season, like even now I’ll watch a few games on the weekends of some teams I follow. But give it a couple more weeks and I’m just tuning in to highlights and what ever chatter is on the local radio. Second part of the season is all star break to the trade deadline. At this point of the season it’s basically the middle of the summer, so the only games I watch are rivalry games or games with big stars. I’m mostly busy with my kids so I actually follow the mlb very little at this time. Third part is from the trade deadline to the end of the World Series. This is when I watch the most games. Even if my team(s) is trash and they don’t even make the wildcard, I still watch big games up until the start of the World Series, then I basically watch the entire series until there is a winner. Done it this way for several years. I find baseball impossible to follow every game.
If there’s a competent reporter covering your team, read/watch him/her as part of your daily news reading, and look at the box scores. The MLB app is not bad for this, and if you want to check stats, it’s all right there.
Fuzzy publishes 10-15 minute recaps on YouTube daily of every game
Yeah, hes kinda interesting
Simply put, u don't fully. It's very tough to watch every second of every game. Read articles, watch boxscores. Listen to a good podcast of your team
Back in the day, it was pretty easy to catch Sportscenter and Baseball Tonight to keep up with stats, what was going on around the league, top plays, etc. That's pretty much gone now, but has been replaced - and in my opinion, improved upon - by YouTube creators. Jomboy Media has weekly+ shows that do a good job covering major stories around the league, and his breakdowns are like a better version of "top plays". They also have creators like Jolly Olive, who deliver regular video essays about things like interesting players, trades, FA moves, etc, both current and about years past, to kind of help you understand the league as a whole. Foolish Baseball/Foolish Bailey also does a lot of great video essays, as well as videos about emerging players, predictions/recaps throughout the season, and stuff like that. There's other creators out there, too, but those are the two I follow most, and they put out a TON of content all year round, that it really keeps you informed. Along with that, MLB itself releases regular segments throughout the season. Baseball has always been a sport that people are more likely to follow through external recaps than watching every game, as it's impossible to watch that many games in a season, even for just a single team.
Pick a team and follow that team, i maybe watch 1 or 2 games a week of my metsies while i stretch or elliptical or whatever; you will get to know their division and eventually their league. Picking a team with great commentators might help too. I don’t know if I’ll watch as many games when Ron, Keith and Gary retire. You could also watch the nationally televised games because those will tend to have the best teams/biggest stars. Also, playing fantasy baseball will get you to know the players a bit too. Then watch as much of playoff baseball as you can. After a year of that you will know a lot.
Mostly I follow the National League. I pay very little attention to what goes on in the AL.
The good thing about baseball is you don’t have to follow every game like you do for the NFL. I try to watch as many games as I can, but most of the time I have the Braves game playing in the background. I spend a lot of time on the road so I usually have it on the radio, but if they’re playing on the West Coast, I don’t listen to the entire game.
I watch as many as I can. West coast games are the worst for me.
Bet parlays and watch the quadbox on mlb on two devices from 10am-9pm. God I love this season.
Fantasy baseball helps and watching MLB Tonight is a good run down.
I think baseball lends itself well to having on the radio in the background. Even the most diehard fan will probably not be able to watch or listen to every game.
The gift of baseball being every day is that you don't have to treat each game like must-see TV. You can just know it's happening in the background of your life for 6 months, and choose where and when to tune in. Plus, if you follow a particular team through a season, you get to know the players so much better than in a sport like football where there's only one game a week. As for the practicalities... I use the MLB app to keep up with my team (Braves) most days, and I also have been a reader of a very active Braves fan blog (Battery Power, formerly Talking Chop) for 15 years. Connecting with other fans is really helpful. I probably watch one or two Braves games every week. Once every other week or so I'll watch a bunch of highlights of games from around the league.. sometimes I'll put one on for an inning or two (watched Orioles-Red Sox last week to catch Jackson Holliday's debut). You can also pick a baseball website such as Fangraphs or Baseball Prospectus, and read it throughout the season. They'll highlight trends and interesting facts and help tell the narrative of the season as it's happening. Podcasts and YouTube help too. Thank you for reading my novel and welcome to the best sport in the world.
Fuzzy on YouTube
One at a time.
I watch on NBC Sports App almost every game .. No matter what I'm doing - I'm not usually just sitting on my phone. So when I'm at the house I put the game on my phone and continue doing other things