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You can finally stream Giants games without blackout restrictions

Welcome to 2009! CSN and MLB have finally reached a deal to allow in-market streaming.

By Grant Brisbee
St Louis Cardinals v Colorado Rockies Photo by Doug Pensinger/Getty Images

There’s a chance, a strong chance, that your baseball-watching routine consists of turning on your TV, sitting down, and watching the danged game. This news is not for you. You may go about your business.

For people like me, though? This is a big, big deal. NBC Regional Sports Networks, which includes CSN Bay Area, has reached a deal with Major League Baseball Advanced Media to allow for in-market streaming. You’ll be able to watch as long as you subscribe to a cable package that includes the channel, much like the Olympics, through CSN Bay Area’s website or app.

This affects me because my baseball-watching routine occasionally includes the following:

  • Watching in the kitchen while I cook
  • Watching in my backyard while I enjoy the strange yellow light that emanates from that glowing orb in the sky
  • Watching at my kid’s soccer practice
  • Watching when I’m in line somewhere
  • Watching in my garage while I do garage crap
  • That last one, but without the words “in,” “my,” “garage,” and “do.”

I know this because for the last couple years, I’ve been illegally using a proxy to convince MLB.com that I live in Seattle. But their robots figured it out in August of last year, and that ruined everything. No more cooking and watching. No more watching when in a doctor’s lobby. Because even though I pay $100+ every month to watch baseball games on a glowing electronic rectangle, it was the wrong kind of glowing electronic rectangle. The right kind needed to be plugged into a wall and have wires jutting out all over the place. This stopped making sense about a decade ago.

MLBAM has ended glowing-electronic-rectangle discrimination. Again, just how much you care is based on your viewing habits. But this is the future. Sure, MLBAM had to be sued for this to happen, but the net results are more options when it comes to watching baseball.

8-YEAR-OLD: Daddy, watch this kick!

ME: Mmmm-hmmmmmhnmm okay sweetie that’s great

DUANE KUIPER: And that’s the fourth balk of the inning!

It’s a beautiful dream come true. I’m so very excited about this.

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