No TV? How to watch the World Series live online
With my Cubs (Sob!) out of the World Series I can only root against the Mets. After all, besides this year's shellacking, I recall all too well the the epic Cubs 1969 collapse. Or, as some of my New York friends would have it, the Miracle Mets of 1969.Not that I'm bitter or anything.
Still I am a baseball fan and I will be watching the Kansas City Royals seek to sweep the Mets over this weekend in the World Series. Of course that presumes I have a TV that gets Fox.
Not all of us are so lucky. Still there are ways and means to catch the World Series over the Internet. Here are my favorites.
Before going into those, there is one way you should not try to to catch the games: Don't try watching them on dodgy Web sites that offer free broadcasts. Some of these sites may actually show the games, but they won't be being shown legally.
Maybe you don't care about Major League Baseball's legal boilerplate: "Any rebroadcast, retransmission, or account of this game, without the express written consent of Major League Baseball (MLB), is prohibited." After all, to the best of my knowledge, no one's ever been busted for breaking that rule.
The real reason is that these sites come loaded down with malware. I'd be a lot more worried about my computer catching a virus than I would finding an umpiring team armed with baseball bats at my front door.
If you haven't cut the cable-cord, the best way to view the games is from a mobile device or TV that can use the Fox Sports Go app. It's available on Android, iOS, and Windows mobile devices. You can access Fox Sports Go from Macs and Windows PCs.
You can also use Fox Sports Go if you have an Apple TV or Amazon Fire TV device. You cannot, however, watch Fox Sports on Roku devices.
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You would think that when it comes to watching major league baseball the best way by far would be via the MLB.TV streaming service. Certainly during the regular season there's no better way to keep up with your favorite baseball team. During the post-season, though, it's a different story.
If you're a cord-cutter, and you're no longer paying for cable or satellite services, you will not be able to watch the World Series live on MLB.TV. The MLB.TV blackout rule reads:
Due to Major League Baseball exclusivities, during the MLB Postseason, all live games will be blacked out in the United States (including the territories of Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands) and Canada. If you are an MLB.TV Subscriber in an area subject to Postseason game blackout, Postseason games will be available as an archived game approximately 90 minutes after the conclusion of the applicable game.
Great.
This restriction also blocks people who ordinarily get Fox broadcasts over-the-air (OTA), which is how I do it. Fox Sports Go is also not available over the Sling TV service.
If you're an international subscriber, you will be able to see the games without blackouts.
The final legal option is Sony's new streaming service PlayStation Vue. However, it has very limited availability. First, you must have a PS3 or PS4. That's not hard, but you must also live in one of Vue's seven launch cities: Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami, New York City, Philadelphia or San Francisco.
Unlike Fox Sports Go and MLB.TV, PlayStation Vue doesn't require a pay TV subscription. That's the good news. The bad news is at $49.99 a month it's one of the most expensive streaming services out there. If you want to be sneaky about it, there is a 7-day free PlayStation Vue trial.
The bottom line is that watching the World Series over the Internet is not that easy. Ironically, it's easier to watch NFL games over the Internet than it is to watch post-season baseball although MLB.TV is usually the gold standard for Internet sports broadcasting.
Play ball!
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