If you’re a baseball fan, then you know that the first two games of the 2025 season took place last week between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago Cubs in the Tokyo Series. Surprisingly, not that many friends of mine knew about it and we live in L.A. The reason was that the games began at 7pm in Japan, which was 3am here on the West Coast. Yes, I did indeed get up to watch both of them … and I’m a Yankees fan. The Tokyo Series brought back memories of when I attended MLB’s Opening Day in 2014 in Sydney, Australia! Here’s what it was like.
The rest of the MLB teams begin their season this Thursday, March 27. In fact, 28 out of the 30 teams will play on Thursday.
According to MLB.com, there are a couple of new rules to complement all the changes the league made in 2023 to speed up the game. “The first involves a modification to the shift rules established prior to the 2023 season. Those rules require that the defensive team have no more than two infielders on either side of second base prior to a pitch being thrown. In addition, each infielder must be standing on the infield — in other words, no shifting into the shallow outfield.
“Previously, if an infielder was caught violating the rule — e.g. a shortstop was on the second base side of the bag, resulting in three infielders on the right side before the pitch was delivered — the batting team could accept the result of the play or have the hitter be awarded an automatic ball.
“Under the new rules, the batting team may accept the result of the play or the batter will be granted a free base (enabling any other runners to advance one base) if there is a violation and the violating player was the first to touch the ball in play.
“In such a scenario, the violating player would be charged an error and no at-bat would be registered for the batter.
“The second rule change involves the rare practice of running through a base other than first base on a force play. For example, if there are runners on first and third with two out and a ball is hit on the ground, the runner going to second base might opt to run straight through the bag rather than sliding in the hope that he’d get there faster and beat the throw.”
Just in time, T-Mobile is bringing back a popular promotion that I’ve written about for the last four years. March 25 through Monday, March 31, all T-Mobile users can redeem a free, year-long subscription to MLB.tv, which streams full, live MLB games. It’s a $149.99 value.
If you’re a T-Mobile user like I am, this means a couple of clicks gets you access to hundreds of out-of-market MLB games for free all season. The key is ‘out of market’ so it’s perfect for travelers since I watch my beloved Yankees here in L.A. or wherever I travel except NYC. All you have to do is sign up through the T-Mobile Tuesdays app using the instructions here. Just make sure you do it by March 31!
KEEP READING:
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–Why Frequent Fliers Use Apple AirTags or Samsung SmartTags When They Travel
–An Airline Executive’s Number One Tip for Avoiding Lost Luggage When You Fly
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Blacked-out local games include road games. So, what’s the point of this app?
I live in L.A. but am a Yankees fan so I can watch every game except when they’re on national tv or in L.A.
Any suggestions about how to watch or stream the tennis grand slams?
We are Angel’s fans, and we’re very upset when we couldn’t watch their 2nd game. My husband finally found it on his
I phone on Apple TV. He said their commentators were horrible, talking about unrelated things instead of the game action.
Las Vegas doesn’t have a MLB team, yet. So I should get all the games.
Thanks Johnny!
The problem with the free MLB TV is that they blackout all the local games, which is all we are interested in.
But you should be able to watch local games on TV, no? I live in L.A. so watching my beloved Yankees for free is amazing