A Free Thing That’s Like RedZone, But for Baseball

Sometimes readers will ask me — on the present site, on Twitter, on the lawless streets of America — they’ll ask me, “Hey Carson, will you keep me abreast of products that might be of some use to me, as a consumer of base-and-ball?”

To which query I’ll respond: “You want me to keep you a breast of products like that?”

To which they’re like: “Yeah, abreast.”

At which point, I’m like: “A breast?”

And then they’re like: “Yes. Abreast. It’s a real English word, and has nothing to do with the female anatomy, like you’re clearly pretending it does.”

In any case, my answer to the original question is: “Yes, but probably only, like, a month after such a product has been released, because what am I, a machine?”

A thing that fits all of the above criteria was brought to the author’s attention over the weekend in the form of this tweet:

You know how the Red Zone channel only shows you all the important stuff? Check out MLB version here with mlb.com/fullcount

— MLB (@MLB) April 28, 2012

In fact, some cursory research reveals that the operator of the MLB Twitter account is not lying. MLB Full Count (link) is a video service (in collaboration, it seems, with Yahoo) that provides “look-ins” to games in progress — and, it would also seem, highlights of completed games. Also, it’s free.

Allow me to note immediately that, having never used the NFL RedZone channel, I’m unable to speak to the similarities between MLB’s product and that one. However, having used Full Count for at least a full minute, allow me to make some conclusive statements about it:

• MLB Full Count is available not only as a streaming online service, but also as an app for both the iPad and iPhone.

• While utilizing Full Count, you will see a McDonald’s Burger King (?) ad featuring aged Aerosmith front man Steven Tyler, his arm around what appears to be a blonde teenager.

• It seems one of the appeals of RedZone is that it allows fantasy owners to track their players. I suspect, owing to the differences between the two games, that Full Count may not be quite as useful for fantasy baseball.

• While Full Count features a narrator who announces the transitions in coverage (from game to game, that is), it doesn’t appear to feature a studio panel — or, at least, the cuts to said studio panel are infrequent.

• MLB Full Count is free — in case that wasn’t clear.