How to get post-season Cubs games for my wife?

October 17, 2015 6:45 AM

We have no cable and usually don't even know what sports season it is. But my wife is really excited about the Cubs/Mets series for reasons I don't completely understand. She asked me to get the games. Help?

I have looked at MLB.com and postseason.tv but they are encrusted with pages of baffling conditions about blackouts etc. Seems like maybe you need an underlying cable subscription to "authenticate" for the service?

I have some sense that maybe I could cobble something together using postseason.tv and a "unlocator" DNS-type service, but I don't want to sign up for that and find out it doesn't work. Maybe Sling TV and TBS is another option?

Don't mind paying something reasonable (~$10-$25) for the games if that exists. Hopefully someone has already worked through this problem.

We have a roku, if that helps.

Thanks

posted by Mid to Technology (17 answers total)

Response by poster: Oh, we are in Chicago w/r/t blackouts.
posted by Mid at 6:47 AM on October 17, 2015

I am in the same boat and just did this! Add the Sling TV (not to be confused with Sling Player) channel to your Roku and sign up for the 14-day free trial. Sling TV has TBS.
posted by smich at 6:49 AM on October 17, 2015 [1 favorite]

Other options here, including Sling.
posted by damayanti at 6:50 AM on October 17, 2015

/r/mlbstreams
posted by Hash at 6:59 AM on October 17, 2015

They aren't going to blackout the games in Chicago. The usual reasons for blackouts include low attendance at the venue, so that people get encouraged to go to the games.

That won't be the case here.
posted by hwyengr at 7:05 AM on October 17, 2015 [1 favorite]

In baseball, the blackouts are mainly because a local broadcaster has the exclusive rights to the game in that area, so the national broadcasters and streaming services can't show it. Article. I'm not sure howthat applies to the post-season though.
posted by smackfu at 7:20 AM on October 17, 2015

HDTV antenna to pick up the local broadcast? We had one for wings games and it worked well, but that's out here in the boonies of Michigan.

And I think Mid is concerned about the streaming services blacking out a game that's locally (to him) broadcast, which can happen. I think you can work and it by lying about where you are, but that can involve technological wizardry of questionable legality. (On preview, what smackfu said).
posted by ghost phoneme at 7:22 AM on October 17, 2015

Sling sounds like your best bet. Here in San Francisco, we bought the $10 mlb post-season package and were blacked out if the last Mets-Dodgers game (????) - but only on the mlb roku app. We could still stream the game via the mlb website and chromecast it to the TV, so we did that. Confusing!
posted by rtha at 7:39 AM on October 17, 2015

HDTV antenna to pick up the local broadcast?

The playoffs are on TBS, no local broadcast/OTA options are available.
posted by JoeZydeco at 7:50 AM on October 17, 2015 [1 favorite]

Minor correction - this round of the playoffs is on TBS, however should your 14 day sling trial expire and should your wife's Cubs make the World Series, you would then be able to watch them continue their run in the World Series on Fox using an antenna.
posted by Exceptional_Hubris at 7:52 AM on October 17, 2015 [1 favorite]

Literally every bar in the city of Chicago will be showing the games, so it might just be easier to find a seat at your favorite pub.
posted by coppermoss at 8:07 AM on October 17, 2015 [8 favorites]

I discovered yesterday that mlb.tv on and android tablet lets you watch the games if you don't have cable if you tell them you are an international user.
posted by Runes at 8:24 AM on October 17, 2015

@hwyengr I am not sure that is true of streaming content. I know several people who were upset to find out they could not stream home games. This was during the regular season not the post season, so the rules may be different.

The post season seems even crazier though. With some games being limited to the device you watch on. For example some games are iOS only, etc.
posted by phil at 9:04 AM on October 17, 2015

Mlb.tv enforces blackout rules based on geography. If you are an international user (except for Canada, I guess), there is no mlb.tv blackout on any game including the postseason.

Here's a pessimistic roundup on the offerings.
posted by mwhybark at 10:30 AM on October 17, 2015 [1 favorite]

TBS offers free livestreaming, I've been watching all the games on TBS that way.

There are also a number of streaming sites that work fairly well and livestream sports, but a popup blocker is essential. Googling something like "live streaming sports" will bring them up.

I have a chromecast so I just cast anything I want to watch from my browser to my TV that way.
posted by zug at 10:37 AM on October 17, 2015 [1 favorite]

I've been watching the TBS Cubs games from Chicagoland on MLB.TV with no blackouts and no technical difficulties. Sling didn't work at all, with audio that rapidly fell out of sync, when the feed even loaded at all.

The Fox Sports 1 games were blacked out, but since the NLCS is entirely on TBS this shouldn't be an issue going forward.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 10:48 AM on October 17, 2015

Response by poster: Thanks, all. I've been using Sling/TBS through Roku and it's working fine.
posted by Mid at 7:44 PM on October 17, 2015