Baseball is America’s sport – no matter how boring or long it may seem at times, we are drawn to the sport in some way shape or form. I like listening to baseball over the radio as it paints a picture and you can have it on in the background. This year, I have taken to streaming the games live on MLB’s website, mostly because it is crisper than a staticy AM station.

However, instead of just listening, I find myself engaged in the league’s Gameday platform as it ups the social aspect of the online game viewing from last season’s Social Pulse.

You see Social Pulse was cool and showed the social buzz going on throughout the game. It was cool but it lacked a hook to keeping you coming back day after day. This season, the league added a layer of social gaming to the MLB website.

Similar to collecting badges for check-ins, people logged into the Gameday platform can receive virtual tokens of players. The league selects three players from each team that can be unlocked when the player completes a specific task (home run, stolen base, triple, single, etc.). While it might seem corny, it is actually a perfect mix of tradition and new media.

To me, the tokens remind me of collecting baseball cards as a kid. Instead of ponying up cash for a pack of six cards at a time to collect the whole set, you can route for a specific player to help complete your collection. Only thing missing is the stick of nasty gum.

In addition to the game within a game, you can keep track of the game’s running dialogue via the Twitter widget. You can toggle

MLB Twitter Interface

between insiders and everyone – the former is great for breaking news from teams and scribes while the later allows you to talk a healthy amount of smack if that is your thing.

It may not be the perfect solution, but as I mentioned earlier – baseball is long and can be boring, so little things keep you hooked. The new social layer in the online viewing of games is a really great innovation for a league typically stuck living in the past. Now if we could only get rid of the delay between the radio and animated batter view.

Baseball is America’s sport – no matter how boring or long it may seem at times, we are drawn to the sport in some way shape or form. I like listening to baseball over the radio as it paints a picture and you can have it on in the background. This year, I have taken to streaming the games live on MLB’s website, mostly because it is crisper than a staticy AM station.

However, instead of just listening, I find myself engaged in the league’s Gameday platform as it ups the social aspect of the online game viewing from last season’s Social Pulse.

You see Social Pulse was cool and showed the social buzz going on throughout the game. It was cool but it lacked a hook to keeping you coming back day after day. This season, the league added a layer of social gaming to the MLB website.

Similar to collecting badges for check-ins, people logged into the Gameday platform can receive virtual tokens of players. The league selects three players from each team that can be unlocked when the player completes a specific task (home run, stolen base, triple, single, etc.). While it might seem corny, it is actually a perfect mix of tradition and new media.

To me, the tokens remind me of collecting baseball cards as a kid. Instead of ponying up cash for a pack of six cards at a time to collect the whole set, you can route for a specific player to help complete your collection. Only thing missing is the stick of nasty gum.

In addition to the game within a game, you can keep track of the game’s running dialogue via the Twitter widget. You can toggle

MLB Twitter Interface

between insiders and everyone – the former is great for breaking news from teams and scribes while the later allows you to talk a healthy amount of smack if that is your thing.

It may not be the perfect solution, but as I mentioned earlier – baseball is long and can be boring, so little things keep you hooked. The new social layer in the online viewing of games is a really great innovation for a league typically stuck living in the past. Now if we could only get rid of the delay between the radio and animated batter view.

Baseball is America’s sport – no matter how boring or long it may seem at times, we are drawn to the sport in some way shape or form. I like listening to baseball over the radio as it paints a picture and you can have it on in the background. This year, I have taken to streaming the games live on MLB’s website, mostly because it is crisper than a staticy AM station.

However, instead of just listening, I find myself engaged in the league’s Gameday platform as it ups the social aspect of the online game viewing from last season’s Social Pulse.

You see Social Pulse was cool and showed the social buzz going on throughout the game. It was cool but it lacked a hook to keeping you coming back day after day. This season, the league added a layer of social gaming to the MLB website.

Similar to collecting badges for check-ins, people logged into the Gameday platform can receive virtual tokens of players. The league selects three players from each team that can be unlocked when the player completes a specific task (home run, stolen base, triple, single, etc.). While it might seem corny, it is actually a perfect mix of tradition and new media.

To me, the tokens remind me of collecting baseball cards as a kid. Instead of ponying up cash for a pack of six cards at a time to collect the whole set, you can route for a specific player to help complete your collection. Only thing missing is the stick of nasty gum.

In addition to the game within a game, you can keep track of the game’s running dialogue via the Twitter widget. You can toggle

MLB Twitter Interface

between insiders and everyone – the former is great for breaking news from teams and scribes while the later allows you to talk a healthy amount of smack if that is your thing.

It may not be the perfect solution, but as I mentioned earlier – baseball is long and can be boring, so little things keep you hooked. The new social layer in the online viewing of games is a really great innovation for a league typically stuck living in the past. Now if we could only get rid of the delay between the radio and animated batter view.

Baseball is America’s sport – no matter how boring or long it may seem at times, we are drawn to the sport in some way shape or form. I like listening to baseball over the radio as it paints a picture and you can have it on in the background. This year, I have taken to streaming the games live on MLB’s website, mostly because it is crisper than a staticy AM station.

However, instead of just listening, I find myself engaged in the league’s Gameday platform as it ups the social aspect of the online game viewing from last season’s Social Pulse.

You see Social Pulse was cool and showed the social buzz going on throughout the game. It was cool but it lacked a hook to keeping you coming back day after day. This season, the league added a layer of social gaming to the MLB website.

Similar to collecting badges for check-ins, people logged into the Gameday platform can receive virtual tokens of players. The league selects three players from each team that can be unlocked when the player completes a specific task (home run, stolen base, triple, single, etc.). While it might seem corny, it is actually a perfect mix of tradition and new media.

To me, the tokens remind me of collecting baseball cards as a kid. Instead of ponying up cash for a pack of six cards at a time to collect the whole set, you can route for a specific player to help complete your collection. Only thing missing is the stick of nasty gum.

In addition to the game within a game, you can keep track of the game’s running dialogue via the Twitter widget. You can toggle

MLB Twitter Interface

between insiders and everyone – the former is great for breaking news from teams and scribes while the later allows you to talk a healthy amount of smack if that is your thing.

It may not be the perfect solution, but as I mentioned earlier – baseball is long and can be boring, so little things keep you hooked. The new social layer in the online viewing of games is a really great innovation for a league typically stuck living in the past. Now if we could only get rid of the delay between the radio and animated batter view.