“Baseball’s first September surprise arrived early with yesterday’s release of a revamped application that will make following the pennant races an easy and enjoyable pastime for iPhone and iPod touch owners,” Tom Rose reports for The Boston Herald.
“When MLB.com’s ’At Bat’ debuted with the launch of the iTunes App store in June, it featured timely video highlights and scores, but not much else. Finding detailed statistical information about a game sent users out of the application and onto the gadget’s Internet browser,” Rose reports.
“Not anymore,” Rose reports. “The free upgrade from Major League Baseball Advanced Media incorporates ‘Gameday,’ a statistical nirvana featured on MLB.com’s website. Want to know who’s batting at Fenway Park [map] at any given moment this afternoon? A few taps of your finger will bring up pitch-by-pitch and play-by-play information. Running box scores, updated averages, scoring summaries and more are now housed within the friendly confines of At Bat.”
“While the upgrade is free for the 75,000 people who have downloaded At Bat. New users must pay $4.99 for At Bat. For next year’s games, purchase of a new application, or subscription, will be necessary,” Rose reports. “Is the application worth the price? Yes, especially if you often find yourself away from the TV and computer when you want to know the score.”
Read the full review, in which MLB.com At Bat goes all the way from a “C+” to an “A-” rating, here.
And so it goes….The bar keeps getting higher & higher!!
You have to buy a new edition every year?
B-O-O-O-O-O-O-G-U-S!!!!!
HMCIV,
You sound like a cheapo whiner. $5 per year to have nearly instant video clips from all games in action is hardly “bogus” for a baseball fan with an iPhone or iPod touch.
Don’t be such a skinflint. What are you, a cheap-ass Windows sufferer?
HMCIV – you’re not “buying” anything. It’s a $5 per season subscription to the data (much of it live video which is very cool). You get the app and all updates for free. It’s well worth it if you’re a baseball fan.
Why do they charge for seats at a stadium? They don’t cost anything! The stadium was already built a long time ago!
They should be free! Waaannhh..
C’mon HMCIV, stop being such a crybaby.
Three things:
a) it’s only sports
b) it’s only baseball at that
Leading to
c) who gives a red rat’s ass
I have had the app since it was first released, but didn’t receive the first update or this most recent one. Anybody else experiencing this?
If it was Premier League football (you USA guys might call it Soccer), then I’d be interested.
But baseball? No thankzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
My MLB.com At Bat App is malfunctioning. It does not display any games for the Montreal Expos. Help!
Or even Cricket. Aw, c’mon…
<ducks> – get it? Oh well..
Opiate of the masses…
@KillBill,
“Opiate of the masses…”
I always thought that it was Percocet. At least, that’s what every damn adult patient asks for these days.
By the way, I love baseball and watch every single Phillies game every night!
macaholic: “c) who gives a red rat’s ass”
lol
@ Lakitu
You probably have to open the app store on the phone or in iTunes to see the update.
The original opiate was religion… but heck in this Brave New World I’m sure there are many flavors of Soma…
The original context:
Religion is, indeed, the self-consciousness and self-esteem of man who has either not yet won through to himself, or has already lost himself again. But man is no abstract being squatting outside the world. Man is the world of man—state, society. This state and this society produce religion, which is an inverted consciousness of the world, because they are an inverted world. Religion is the general theory of this world, its encyclopedic compendium, its logic in popular form, its spiritual point d’honneur, its enthusiasm, its moral sanction, its solemn complement, and its universal basis of consolation and justification. It is the fantastic realization of the human essence since the human essence has not acquired any true reality. The struggle against religion is, therefore, indirectly the struggle against that world whose spiritual aroma is religion. Religious suffering is, at one and the same time, the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people. The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness. To call on them to give up their illusions about their condition is to call on them to give up a condition that requires illusions. The criticism of religion is, therefore, in embryo, the criticism of that vale of tears of which religion is the halo….
@ Go Red Sox!
I rarely agree with a Red Sux fan, but you hit it on the sweet spot.
I gotta agree with HMC, this is just mlb trying to maximize profits. This game use to be the #1 sport in the US and its dying because they have driving the kids out and pulled in the corporate dollars. This app should be free to cheap ie .99. Make your money on tickets and your show. Not nickel diming everyone and everything. Before you know it will all be watching cricket or worse soccer. I loved baseball, grew up with it and live in a city with a rich baseball history. But my love has waned and this is just a symptom of the problem.