As baseball season heats up, fans across the country are facing a familiar frustration: how to watch their favorite local teams without breaking the bank. For many, including Cincinnati Reds fans like myself, the only official way to catch in-market games is through a hefty pay TV package that includes Bally Sports. Whether it’s DirecTV Stream, FuboTV, or traditional cable, you’re looking at shelling out around $100 per month – even if baseball is all you care about.
Enter the VPN solution: a tantalizing workaround that promises to unlock MLB TV’s local blackouts. Encouraged by reports that the MLB has never taken legal action against VPN users, and frankly fed up with the lack of affordable options, I decided to step up to the plate and give it a swing.
So, does it work? Well, yes and no. If you’re considering this route, you need to be aware of some significant curveballs headed your way.
The Cost of Admission
First up, you’re not just paying for MLB TV. You’ll likely need to budget for a VPN service too. While free VPNs exist, they often strike out when it comes to location spoofing, streaming capabilities, and data limits. Windscribe offers a free 10GB monthly plan if you register an email, but for my experiment, I opted for NordVPN at $13 per month.
App Strikeout
Here’s where things get tricky. If you’re hoping to simply fire up your MLB TV app with a VPN and start watching, you’re in for a disappointment. Even with NordVPN enabled on my Apple TV and Hisense Google TV, the MLB TV app continued to black out local Reds games. Mobile apps were equally uncooperative.
The only pitch that connected was using the MLB.TV website through a web browser. With the VPN running in the background, I could watch in-market games on both Windows and Mac without issue. Android users can also use the mobile website with “Request desktop site” toggled on, but iOS users are out of luck as the site redirects to the app.
The TV Relay
Getting the games onto the big screen requires some creative baserunning. The most seamless method I found was loading the game in Safari on my Mac Mini, then using AirPlay to mirror it to my Apple TV. Windows users can cast from Chrome to Chromecast, Android TV, or Google TV devices, but be prepared for some choppy 30fps action.
If you don’t mind a more hands-on approach, you can always connect your laptop directly to your TV’s HDMI port. It’s not the prettiest setup, but it gets the job done without taxing your Wi-Fi.
Playing by the Rules?
Here’s the wild pitch in all of this: while Philip Swann reports that the MLB has never sued anyone over VPN usage, it’s still a risk. If you’re only interested in watching your local team and MLB decides to crack down on VPNs, you could be stuck with an MLB TV subscription you can’t use – and no legitimate grounds for a refund.
Bottom of the Ninth
So, is using a VPN to stream in-market MLB games worth it? It can certainly save you money compared to traditional cable packages, but it’s far from a home run solution. The technical hurdles, potential ethical concerns, and the risk of a future crackdown make it a complicated play.
For now, I’m cautiously rounding the bases with this approach, keeping an eye out for any signs that MLB might change its stance. As a Yankees fan (sorry, Reds faithful), I’d be subscribing to MLB TV anyway. But for those solely interested in their local team, it’s a decision that requires careful consideration.
Until MLB offers a more affordable, straightforward way to watch local games, fans will continue to search for creative solutions.
Whether this VPN workaround is a grand slam or a strikeout may depend on your technical savvy, risk tolerance, and how desperately you want to watch your team play ball.