'MLB Big Inning' might be even better than 'NFL RedZone' for baseball fans
With multiple games on screen and constant live look-ins, this daily show delivers all the drama without the downtime.
Baseball often gets a bad rap as being slow or arduous. I disagree with that assessment, but if you’re looking for a way to inject more drama and excitement into the game, then you should be watching MLB Big Inning.
The daily show appears on MLB.TV, MLB Network, and Apple TV, and puts up to four games on the screen at once, jumping from big play to big play. Whether it’s a home run at Petco Park or keeping an eye on constant missiles at PNC Park, the game with the most interesting on-field plays or storylines gets the attention for live look-ins.
It’s easy to pit baseball’s Big Inning against football’s RedZone, but because of the nature of baseball games and the sudden, spontaneous highlights, I think Big Inning is more exciting and the best sports show available right now.
The best parts of Big Inning
For seven days a week, there are somewhere between five and 15 baseball games going on at a time. It's nearly impossible to track them all. That’s where Big Inning comes into play.
The show is hosted by Matt Yallof and Gregg Caserta, two voices you rarely see, but are constantly guiding the rollercoaster and pointing out the nuances of what’s happening on screen. For as slow as baseball might seem when you’re watching a single game, the sport moves at warp speed when you put four games on a screen at once.
To help keep track of all the passed balls, errors, scoring plays, or sudden home runs, there’s a red box around the game playing the audio. Both Yallof and Caserta, on different days, do a great job of helping viewers keep track of what they’re watching. They also share stats and other information about the players of the moment appearing on screen.
When a game goes to commercial or has a pitching change, a new game slides in or a screen drops out. While watching Big Inning, you’re only watching baseball. Occasionally, when there’s only one game on or a really important moment, the show will take you full screen.
If there are fewer games on or a burst of commercials at the same time, then Big Inning will show game highlights—with a blue box around it. From time to time, the show will put up graphics to utilize on-screen space.
How to watch MLB Big Inning
Big Inning quickly became a staple in my house last year, but has only become more important as time goes on. It’s the perfect compromise between the games I want to watch and the ones my 15-year-old son prefers.
My only problem with Big Inning has nothing to do with the content and everything to do with its scheduling (or discoverability). To the best of my ability, I can’t seem to find a good way to find when the show will be on next within the MLB.TV app.
I really wish that MLB would put a Big Inning game tile in the Games section, along with all the other daily matchups. Otherwise, you just have to wait for the hero image to appear when the show is live to find it. Online, you can find a schedule buried on MLB’s website.
In addition to two Friday Night Baseball games, Apple TV subscribers can watch Big Inning for free Monday through Friday.
If you’re a T-Mobile subscriber who got a free MLB.TV subscription, the show is live and available seven days a week in the app.
The show varies in length. Some days, Big Inning is three hours, and other days it can be as short as an hour and a half. It seems like the show is on a per-weekly scheduling basis in an attempt to be on at the most relevant times. That’s thoughtful, but I also wish it were just on for three hours every day.
The cheapest way to get Big Inning is part of the MLB+ subscription. It’s $60 for the year or $5.99 per month and includes live audio for every baseball game, if you prefer to listen to the radio broadcasts. It also includes 24/7 access to MLB Network 24/7 and select games to watch.