It's that wonderful time of the year when the leaves are falling, the air becomes crisper and baseball enters its postseason in search of a new World Series champion. Across the United States, millions of people are glued to the television, cheering on their team as it marches toward glory.
However, if you are out of the country, you are often out of luck when it comes to seeing your team play. Aside from the time difference that causes games that begin during prime time in New York to begin past midnight in London, it is also hard to find a place that will actually cover the game. For those of you abroad who can't go an entire day without that little slice of home, there are three options that you can choose.
The first and most reliable choice is to go to a local sports bar. Here in London, there is the Sports Café, an U.S.-style bar complete with arcade games, pool tables and, of course, dozens of televisions covering every play. Thanks to the North American Sports Network (NASN), games are shown in real time so that fans don't miss a minute of the action. While this is obviously the best option, there is a downside to this plan - having to watch the game with na've Brits who think baseball is a far inferior sport to their football and rugby.
If it is late at night and you don't feel like leaving the comfort of your home, there is the option of watching the games through the Internet on your computer. MLB.tv is a subscription service that allows viewers to watch streaming video of the games directly on their laptops. However, this plan can be flawed when you are at the mercy of the Internet provider. One minute, Josh Beckett's fastball looks like a speeding bullet, the next it is in slow motion like a Tim Wakefield knuckler.
For those who feel that it is not worth paying money for such an unreliable product, there is always the final choice of watching a pitch-by-pitch report of the game. Available on MLB.com and ESPN.com, this game cast follows a game pitch by pitch and posts the results as they happen. Although using your imagination to form the game in your head can be fun, the agony of waiting for the page to load in an important situation can test even the most die-hard fan.
So there you have it - those are the three less-than-ideal ways to follow the baseball playoffs from overseas. While it is not perfect, at least it provides some hope to those whose teams are still playing for the ultimate prize of a World Series championship. And if that is not good enough, there is always that six-hour plane ride to a place where people actually care about the sport.
