Reprint of LA Times article-
Online Play-by-Play Keeps the Game Within Reach
By KAREN KAPLAN, Times Staff Writer
"Take me out to the ballgame. Take me out with the crowd."
But sometimes that's just not possible. When my baseball team is on the road--or when I can't get away from my desk--I grab some peanuts and Cracker Jacks and log onto the Internet.
Granted, following a baseball game on a computer screen is a poor substitute for being in the stands. But it's not as bad as one might think. It helps that baseball is a slow-moving game with plenty of breaks in the action. Even when a play is underway, only two or three players are typically involved. Certainly, trying to watch a basketball game via the Web would be far less satisfying.
A good first stop for cyber-fans is Broadcast.com, where visitors can tune in to radio broadcasts of nearly every baseball game. A complete index of games that can be heard each day via streaming audio feeds is available at majorleaguebaseball.com.
The play-by-play feeds featured on Broadcast.com are typically from the home team. But I'd rather listen to the sportscasters who cover my favorite teams, the San Diego Padres and the Seattle Mariners. San Diego's KFMB (760 AM), the official radio home of the Padres, offers a live feed off its own Web site (http://www.760kfmb.com), and the Mariners make the broadcast from KIRO (710 AM) available on their official Web site, mariners.org.
The Dodgers' Web site, dodgers.com, has a link to radio broadcasts from XTRA (1150 AM). Click on "Dodger Schedule" on the left side of the page, then click on "Broadcast Info," scroll down and click on the logo for XTRA Sports 1150 AM, then click on "Listen Live." (A more direct route is to head straight to xtrasports1150.com and click on "Listen Live.")
The Anaheim Angels have a much more straightforward link for live Web-casting on the main page of their official site, angelsbaseball.com. The San Francisco Giants have a link at sfgiants.com.
To look up the official Web sites of other Major League Baseball teams, visit majorleaguebaseball.com and link to your team of choice. Another listing of teams' Web-casting links is in the "On the Dial" section of the Fastball site (http://www.fastball.com/chat/onthedial.html).
If a radio broadcast is too distracting, try CBS SportsLine's Baseball Live feature at shock.sportsline.com on your game of choice, then watch the game unfold.
In addition to basics like the current inning and score, Baseball Live tells you which player is at bat, along with his batting average and how he fared in previous trips to the plate. The site refreshes itself after every few pitches so fans can track how many balls and strikes the batter has. When a player gets on base, the base turns red so it's easy to follow the action at a glance. Each team's batting lineup is listed along the side of the screen, and fans can click on a player's name to get pages of statistics about him.
If you're still left hungering for details, head to Total Baseball Online (http://www.totalbaseball.com).
The TotalCast window shows who's at bat and what pitches have been thrown. There's even a graphic that displays the exact placement of each pitch in or around the strike zone.
A click on "Play-By-Play" gives a rundown of the game. Another click on "Charts" identifies every ball put into play. These TotalCast windows don't update themselves automatically--except for the banner ads. But it's good enough to make me want to say, "Play ball!"
Karen Kaplan can be reached at karen.kaplan@latimes.com.
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