Play Ball: Streaming MLB Playoffs Online

UPDATED OCTOBER 26, 2012: While there is no legal method to watch the World Series online, you can stream the online audio of the San Francisco Giants-Detroit Tigers World Series for free at ESPN Radio. Mobile and tablet users can listen to the World Series free with the ESPN radio app for iPad, iPhone, Windows Phone, or Android.

The baseball playoffs are here, and the Boys of October games will be streamed on the Internet. Major League Baseball is streaming MLB playoffs to your computer, tablet, or smartphone, including this year’s first-ever MLB Wild Card playoff games. You can stream MLB playoffs on your computer or mobile device with Major League Baseball’s official online playoff package called Postseason.tv. Postseason.tv delivers weeks of playoff baseball for a cost of just $4.99 — less than the price of a single hot dog at the ballpark.

MLB Postseason.tv playoff webcasts are a great way to stream MLB playoffs online, but the fine print of your subscription will throw you a few curveballs. Subscribers get access to the live games, as they happen — but no replay privileges afterwards. This $4.99 online playoff package is only available in the U.S. and Canada. International fans can only stream MLB live playoffs with a different package called MLB.tv Postseason, which costs a much steeper $19.99 but does provide game replays afterwards. Also, Postseason.tv is a stand-alone product. If you already subscribed to MLB.tv earlier this year, your subscription ended with the completion of the 2012 regular season. You’ll need to re-up with another subscription to Postseason.tv to watch the playoff games online.

Yes, you can even watch the games on your smartphone or tablet — but that requires the additional purchase of the $3.99 MLB.com At Bat app for iOS or Android. The good news is that if you already have this app, you get Postseason.tv playoff games as a free perk. In the postseason, MLB.com At Bat does not hamper your access with all the pesky local broadcast restrictions it did during the regular season.

STREAM MLB LIVE PLAYOFFS WITH POSTSEASON.TV

The baseball playoff webcasts on Postseason.tv are not the same broadcasts that TV viewers see on FOX or TBS. Online viewers streaming MLB playoffs with Postseason.tv get to “play director” with their choice of up to ten different live-feed camera angles. Some of the angle options include just the pitcher, just the batter, or an angle showing the players in the dugout as they celebrate homers or spit sunflower seeds. You can play up to four different camera angles onscreen simultaneously, for a picture-in-picture effect similar to what TNT offered in their NBA playoffs webcast. Instant replays are not shown online, and the score of the game and the network graphics will not be displayed on your live video feeds. That said, you still get the live audio of the FOX or TBS announcers calling the game.

There are some significant additional broadcast restrictions with this package. The Postseason.tv subscription does not include the World Series telecast. It also doesn’t provide the National League Championship Series.

You do, however, get both Wild Card knock-out games, both sets of American League (AL) and National League (NL) Divisional Series, and every game of the American League Championship Series. In other words, that $4.99 subscription gets you as many as 29 streaming MLB playoff baseball games — but only up until October 21, at the latest. The World Series may continue as late as November 1.

MLB PLAYOFF BRACKET AND SCHEDULE

The MLB regular season is now complete, and the MLB playoff brackets are set. The playoff match-ups are as follows:

NL Wild Card Game

AL Wild Card Game

NL Divisional Series (5 games)

NL Divisional Series (5 games)

AL Divisional Series (5 games)

AL Divisional Series (5 games)

NL Championship Series (7 games)

AL Championship Series (7 games)

2012 World Series (7 games)

Are you peeved that you won’t be able to watch the World Series online? Who will be aces in the Wild Card games? Is your mobile data plan ready to go into extra innings and stream MLB playoffs? What teams do you want to see make it to the World Series? Feel free to call fair or foul in the Comments section below.