major league baseball
Latest
The Angels face the Rays in MLB's first regular-season 'virtual ballpark' game
Major League Baseball is ready to test its virtual ballpark for a regular-season game. Fans can “enter” the digital stadium on Wednesday, September 20, to watch the Tampa Bay Rays host the Los Angeles Angels. The league debuted the digital park earlier this summer for a celebrity softball game during this year’s All-Star Game activities.
T-Mobile extends free MLB.TV deal for subscribers through 2028
T-Mobile and Major League Baseball (MLB) are renewing their partnership. In addition to sponsoring various pro-baseball events, the carrier announced today that its subscribers would continue receiving free MLB.TV subscriptions through 2028.
Apple's Friday Night Baseball returns April 7th, but you'll need a subscription to watch
Apple’s Major League Baseball broadcast lineup no longer includes free games for non-subscribers. The company announced that its “Friday Night Baseball” doubleheaders, which resume on April 7th, now require an Apple TV+ subscription.
Major League Baseball wants to deploy strike zone robo-umpires in 2024
Major League Baseball will "likely" introduce an Automated Strike Zone System starting in 2024.
MLB is turning to an electronic pitch-calling system to fight cheating
PitchCom could prevent opposing teams from stealing signs.
Adidas made a Snapchat game to drop limited, 8-bit-themed baseball cleats
Adidas is teaming up with Snapchat on a unique way to launch a product. The sportswear giant has created an 8-bit game you can play in Snapchat, called Baseball's Next Level, where you'll have the chance to buy its new 8-bit-themed baseball cleats. Produced in partnership with developer AvatarLabs, Baseball's Next Level is a home run derby, old-school style title that will let you play as some of Adidas' Major League Baseball athletes. That includes Aaron Judge (Yankees), Carlos Correa (Astros), Alex Bregman (Astros), Justin Turner (Dodgers) and Kiké Hernandez (Dodgers), all of whom have their own Adizero or Icon V cleats in the Adidas 8-bit collection, which you can buy directly from the game.
'Robot umpire' helps call balls and strikes in Atlantic League All-Star Game
If you're tired of watching baseball's umpires blow ball and strike calls, we have some good news for you. Last night, a "robot" umpire called the Atlantic League All-Star game, and soon all eight teams in the league will use the system for all their games for the remainder of the system. The plan to try this tracking technology was first announced back in March, and after a half-season of testing the radar-powered system from TrackMan, it was deemed ready to go for the All-Star game. It's an experiment done in partnership with Major League Baseball, and it was a precursor of something that could come to the big leagues in the future.
YouTube will exclusively stream 13 MLB games this season
YouTube has just made another major push with its sports broadcasting agenda, announcing a deal with Major League Baseball (MLB) that will give it exclusive rights to 13 games during the 2019 season. The games will be livestreamed for viewers in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico for free on MLB's official YouTube channel, and on a forthcoming dedicated channel on YouTube TV.
Facebook will only stream six MLB games this season
Facebook will broadcast live Major League Baseball games once again this season. However, it will offer far fewer games than last year. Under the latest one-year deal, Facebook will stream six non-exclusive games on Watch, one per month during the regular season. That's a big step down from the 25 exclusive games Facebook aired last year.
MLB considers pitch tracking system to assist home plate umpires
The next target for automation: baseball umpires. The Atlantic League, an independent baseball league, announced today that it will use tracking technology to assist umps in calling balls and strikes during the 2019 season in partnership with Major League Baseball. If the experiment goes well, MLB will consider implementing a similarly automated system for its future seasons.
MLB cracks down on high-tech sign stealing
Major League Baseball (MLB) has a sign stealing problem and it believes cameras and technology are to blame. According to Sports Illustrated, the league is banning all cameras that aren't used for broadcasting and cracking down on in-stadium video used by teams. If any squad is found to be in violation of the new anti-tech rules, they'll be forced to forfeit draft picks and spending money designated for international players.
'R.B.I. Baseball 14' hits Xbox One and PlayStation 4 on June 24th
We knew MLB would eventually bring R.B.I Baseball 14 to the Xbox One and PlayStation 4, but now there's an official date. Today, the league announced that the classic title is coming to Microsoft and Sony's new consoles early next week, on June 24th. Now don't expect R.B.I Baseball 14 to match the looks of, say, MLB 14: The Show -- the fully remastered game is more about being easy for anybody to quickly pick up, while still maintaining a fun edge to it overall. Just as it is priced on Xbox 360 and PS3, R.B.I. Baseball 14 will also be $20 on Xbox One and PS4 when it arrives in a few days time.
RBI Baseball 14 slides to Xbox One and PS4 next week, updates this summer
We're over two months into the MLB's 2014 season and MLB Advanced Media is now re-re-introducing the RBI Baseball series next week on Xbox One and PS4. RBI Baseball 14 launched digitally on April 9 for Xbox 360, PS3, iOS and Android, and now it'll arrive on the next-gen platforms on Tuesday, June 24. MLBAM also announced plans to update the game "later this summer." The update will bring a new competitive multiplayer mode and a "special alumni pack" for all console versions of the game. The pack will add "60 former Major League stars from the earliest days of the RBI Baseball brand" to RBI 14. First announced in early January, RBI 14 is an arcade-style baseball game with unlockable retro jerseys and a simple two-button control scheme. Along with iOS and Android, the next-gen versions of the game will receive updated rosters to reflect roster changes this year, such as Emilio Bonifacio (Chicaco Cubs), Brandon Hicks (San Francisco Giants), Masahiro Tanaka (New York Yankees) and Jose Abreu (Chicago White Sox). It will cost $19.99 on Xbox One and PS4. [Image: MLBAM]
Cleveland Indians want to put ads where fans can see them
Advertisers and sponsors are extremely valuable to all professional sports teams, and thus it is very important to keep them engaged with the fans. In an effort to make this happen, the Cleveland Indians recently partnered with Tobii, a maker of eye-tracking glasses, to conduct a study that could determine what exactly folks look at throughout their time at Progressive Field. The MLB team says it gave 47 fans a pair of Tobii Glasses to use during the span of three days, which were worn as they watched games from various seating areas at its ballpark. Essentially, using the Tobii Insight research program as the basis, the goal was to see how much time participants spent looking at the main scoreboard and other dynamic signage. In theory, this would detect just how valuable certain locations are inside the stadium -- so, the easier it is for you spot it, the more it could potentially cost for a company to put an ad there.
With R.B.I. Baseball 14, MLB takes a shot at making its own games
Major League Baseball is bringing back a classic. But while resuscitating an old title could sometimes create a double-edged-sword effect of sorts, that's not stopping MLB from taking the chance to reboot the R.B.I. Baseball series. Most importantly, R.B.I. Baseball 14 was developed in-house by MLB's Advanced Media branch, also known as MLBAM, a team that's behind applications like At Bat and whose tech powers the WWE Network streaming service. Up until now, sport games have been all about licensing, so this shift also lets us know how Major League Baseball views that industry. Sure, the experience in R.B.I. Baseball 14 might not be as full-fledged as with, say, Sony's MLB 14 The Show, but it's still interesting to see a professional league leveraging its work as a technology company too.
First MLB 14: The Show roster update misses opening day, set for April 8
Those looking to play along with the baseball season using up-to-date rosters this week on PS3 and Vita should take note: The first live roster update for MLB 14: The Show will arrive on April 8, Sony's San Diego Studio noted yesterday on the game's forums. The first roster update for the game traditionally arrives in time for opening day, the first day of Major League Baseball's regular season (which was yesterday). "Please understand that if we could have offered the live roster on April 1st, without jeopardizing other critical responsibilities we would have," the developer wrote. The game launched today on PS3 and Vita, and will arrive on PS4 on May 6. [Image: Sony]
Weekends with Engadget: the future of Oculus Rift, new HTC One review and more!
Welcome to Weekends with Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines from the past seven days -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. For even more news, subscribe to our Flipboard magazine!
MLB 14: The Show arriving May 6 on PS4
The PS4 version of MLB 14: The Show will launch on May 6, Sony announced via Twitter today. Sony San Diego's baseball sim will land on the next-gen system just over a month after the PS3 and Vita versions arrive on April 1. MLB 14: The Show marks an introduction in career mode transfer options for the series, as players will be able to bring their created athlete and franchise data to future iterations of MLB: The Show. The baseball game also features an online franchise mode with draft, free agency, trading and scouting systems and community-created challenges. [Image: SCEA]
Two-button slugger RBI Baseball 14 goes retro with unlockable jerseys
In 1986, Namco launched RBI Baseball for the NES (Famcom in Japan), and it grew into a household name before Time Warner Interactive's RBI Baseball 95, the heretofore last game in the series. Now, the MLB will publish RBI Baseball 14 on April 10, and MLBAM Vice President of Games Jaime Leece expects the game will remain faithful to the treasured series. Much like those classic games, the developer created three body types and preset batting stances for those character models as opposed to painstakingly differentiating every batter. And while NES games in the late 1980s were naturally restricted to two face buttons and a d-pad, Leece's team intentionally opted for two-button controls for the modern take on the baseball game. Leece believes that these decisions immediately separate the game from other sports games in the genre. "When you take away the barrier of control, it leaves the competition pure," Leece told Joystiq. "It's you against me, it's not your dexterity versus my dexterity. Having to deal with button combinations and things like that creates an extra challenge that's, I think unnecessary and certainly gets in the way of the enjoyment of the product itself."
Report: RBI Baseball 14 takes the current-gen mound on April 10
RBI Baseball 14 will reportedly launch on April 10, according to a tweet from ESPN Sports Business Reporter Darren Rovell. Rovell noted that the launch date applies to the game's Xbox 360, PS3, iOS and Android versions, though there's no word on the Xbox One and PS4 versions as of yet. The resurgence of the RBI Baseball series was first announced in January, and is in development by MLB Advanced Media, the baseball league's in-house interactive entertainment division that handles mobile games and broadcast tools like MLB.TV. We've reached out to MLBAM to confirm the game's release date and will update as we learn more. [Image: MLBAM]
