Overnight, I received a frantic email from a long-time St. Louis Cardinals fan confused about how to watch games out of market for the first time. With nowhere to go for help and Opening Day upon us, she wrote The Cardinal Nation.
I am sharing our exchange in hopes that it might help others.
Her note:
I am a 76 year old who has been a Cardinal fan my whole life! I have moved to Washington State to be near family. I am more than EXTREMELY disappointed that I am apparently unable to access Fandual to watch Cardinal games this year! I have tried various formats and Fandual directly and each time the response is that it is unavailable in my zip code 98022. Please explain this to me and hopefully tell me how to remedy this situation. This is the first time in years that I will not be able to watch opening day and opening day festivities and I am heart broken!
My reply:
Hello, Janice. You moved out of the Cardinals TV territory so cannot subscribe to FanDuel Sports Midwest. But you can still see the games. There are two ways to watch games when you live out of market.
The first option is via MLB.TV. This is what I use. If you have a smart TV, you can stream all the games all season to your TV using MLB.TV. You can also view games on your phone or tablet (if you use them). Think of it like subscribing to Netflix or HBO.
MLB.TV costs $150 per year and includes all teams’ games except for the ones in your area (my guess is the Mariners are blacked out) as well as most minor league games if you care about (Cardinals) prospects. Audio is also included if you want to listen to the radio telecast (from KMOX or other) instead.
Here is the link to order, which is directly from MLB. They offer a free trial.
https://www.mlb.com/live-stream-games/subscribe/sny/1
If by chance you are a T-Mobile customer for your cell phone, they give their customers MLB.TV for free.
https://www.t-mobile.com/benefits/mlb
Your second choice is MLB Extra Innings. It is like MLB.TV, but not every game is included. The service is ordered from and provided by the paid television provider you already have. Across the USA, the most popular provider that offers MLB EI is DIRECTV, but there are many others, too, like Xfinity and Dish Network.
Using the link below, click on “Step1: Select Your Provider” to see the list of companies that support MLB Extra Innings in your area. You can see if the TV provider you may be using already has MLB EI available to add onto your current cable or satellite service.
It also costs $150 per season. One benefit of MLB Extra Innings is that it also gives you access to MLB.TV at no additional cost. That way, if you want to use mobile devices to stream the games sometimes, you can do that, too. Or you could use MLB.TV on the days MLB Extra Innings does not include the Cardinals game.
I prefer MLB.TV because it has more games, but MLB Extra Innings is easier to use for some because it is just another set of channels on your current TV listing. Whichever one you buy, one you get the hang of it, it should be straightforward to use. You just select St. Louis’ game from the daily choices. With MLB.TV, you can also come back and watch them after the fact if you can’t catch the games live. I imagine with the time zone difference, that could be valuable now and then.
I know this is a lot of information, but I tried to be complete. If you need it, perhaps you can ask a tech-savvy family member or friend to help you. If you have time to work on it this morning, you should be ready to go by first pitch. Good luck!
Brian Walton
The Cardinal Nation
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