A Review Of The MLB.com At Bat App for the iPhone

A Review Of The MLB.com At Bat App for the iPhone
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MLB.com At Bat

There are a slew of sports scores applications in the iTunes application store, but MLB.com At Bat goes a notch above the rest. With up-to-date video highlights MLB.com At Bat definitely keeps you completely appraised of current games as well as games from the days before.

MLB.com At Bat takes you inside every game with balls and strike counts and video updates for every game happening on the current day. What’s nice is you’re not stuck to one single team, you are given access to the highlights of every major league game.

There are two different screens when you open the application. Two-thirds of the screen have the lists of all of the current games. You can then use the finger slide maneuver to slide from day to day. As you select a game you will see the information for it below. Stats such as a full length scoreboard, showing runs, hits and errors. There is also a mini field showing how many runners are on base. You also have the current pitcher, and batter, each with their basic stats.

For games that are already underway there is a little camera icon next to each game. As highlights are released you will click on this icon to view them. The videos vary from great quality to very low quality. This all depends on what speed of internet your phone is using, Edge will be the lowest quality, which is very unclear and blurry and takes a while to load. WiFi on the other hand is the highest quality and looks excellent.

MLB.com At Bat falls short from some of the other scoreboard applications however. The amount of stats are very minimal. There are some other applications out there that are free that show the full boxscores.

That is really the only downfall to this application. It really lacks in depth stats. What it lacks in stats, it makes up for in the updating of scores and uploading videos highlights. The video highlights screen looks very simliar to the iPhone’s Youtube scrolling screen. It gives the highlight title and the score at that current time the play was made.

My favorite aspect of this application is the fact that not only do you get video highlights soon after they happen, but the fact that they show clips from every single game that day is simply awesome. If MLB.com At Bat could go a little more in depth then it would be the total package.

The $4.99 price is good for the rest of the season and will probably jump to $9.99 for the full 2009 season. The price is actually very reasonable if you’re a dedicated sports fan. Instead of having to wait for your nightly news or ESPN’s SportsCenter, you have it right at your finger tips.

I would definitely pick this application up now since the $4.99 price is quite affordable, and you can decide if you want to pick it up again for next season. Hopefully by then they will have the stats all figured out. If they do, then this will be a must have for all baseball fans alike.

MLB.com At Bat

Edge Network Quality

WiFi Quality