If you’re a baseball fan, then you know that the first game of the 2026 season is tomorrow night when the New York Yankees take on the San Francisco Giants at Oracle Park. It’s a big retreat from last year’s Tokyo Series when the Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago Cubs opened the season a week early in Japan. That 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 26. In fact, 22 out of the 30 teams will play on Thursday.
According to MLB.com, there’s a twist to the game. “Beginning with the 2026 MLB season, players will have the power to appeal the strike-zone judgments of human home-plate umpires by turning to the Automated Ball-Strike (ABS) Challenge System, powered by T-Mobile – a technological advancement that will not only help ensure the most important calls are made correctly but also add a fun new layer of strategy to the sport.”
I’m all for it because it drives me nuts when an umpire makes a ridiculous call. Just follow Umpire Scorecards to see how wrong some umpires routinely get balls and strikes wrong. Here’s hot it works according to the New York Times: “Teams will begin every game with two challenges — opportunities to summon the robot umpire and see whether the human behind home plate missed a ball or strike call. If a challenge is successful, the team can use it again. After two misses, though, it loses the power altogether.
Only the pitcher, catcher or batter can challenge a call, and they have to do so almost immediately, without help from teammates or coaches. The signal is a tap on the head, which effectively tells the ump: I think you’re wrong. A few seconds later, a graphic appears on the outfield screen showing whether the pitch was in fact a ball or a strike.”
Just in time, T-Mobile is bringing back a popular promotion that I’ve written about for the last five years. March 24 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 (scroll down to How / When Do I Redeem). Just make sure you do it by March 31!
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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