MLB Gamecast

O-R-I-O-L-E-S

As an Orioles fan that lives about 200 miles from Camden Yards, I only get to the park about 2 or 3 times a year. Since I don't live close enough to Baltimore, my cable company doesn't carry the station that shows Orioles games. What is a die-hard fan to do? (Especially with the revamped lineup?)

MLB Gamecast of course. With MLB Gameday (FREE), you can watch the game as it happens. It is basically a high tech score card that is updated with each pitch.

There are so many great features that I can only mention the ones that caught my eye. Following is a list of features and a description of each.

• Live Scoreboard: in the upper right hand corner of the Gameday window you will see a crawler with updated scores. To see all of the scores, with links to each game, click on Full Scoreboard and the scoreboard will drop down to reveal more information on each game.
• Current Batter vs Pitcher: This is a live look at the current batter and his at bat. You get pitch location and whether it si a ball, strike or hit into play (green, red, blue). Here you can also see the batter on deck and in the hole (and their respective averages). Putting your point over the batter of the pitcher or the batter shows you what they have done in the game. Nice.
• Field of Play: The field of play is the first box on the left that you see. It gives you an accurate diagram of the field (in this case Camden Yards) and allows you to see the current defense as well as the batter and any baserunners. By putting your mouse pointer over the fielders, batter or base runner you can see their fielding percentage (for the year) and their game defensive stats.
• Scoring: Below the field diagram, you will find the scoring updates. This gives you an inning by inning recap of the game scoring, a pitch by pitch recap of each at bat and a list of all the plays that led to scoring.
• Boxscore: The boxscore is found on the right side of the window and contains a live boxscore with information on each player. You can also see the current lineups and the players left on the bench.

With all of the information that is available it's almost like being at the game. Now if I could just get one of those dogs off of Eutaw St.

To view a game via MLB Gameday, go to the web site of your favorite team, or go to MLB.com and click on the Gameday Icon next to the game you wish to view in the Scoreboard/Schedule found on the homepage.

MLB also offers MLB.tv which allows you to watch up to 280 live games online using Windows Media Player or RealPlayer. Cost is $14.95/month or $79.95 for the entire season.