My MLB Second Screening Apps of Choice

To celebrate the return of baseball, all this week TechGraph writers will be highlighting their favorite apps, tools, tricks, and more related to our national pastime.

I feel as though I’ve reached the critical mass of baseball fandom. Watching a game on TV — or more accurately via my computer and casted to my TV — isn’t enough anymore. I fully recognized I’m in the minority of what I want out of a baseball broadcast, which is about the nicest way of saying I like the nerd statistics. The perpetually running hamster wheel that is my brain tends to require additional numbers and context when a broadcaster may casually mention what a hot start a player is off to. Or maybe something so extraordinary occurs that a GIF, picture or video must be captured. Thus, here is a list of the apps I find myself turning to when I feel the need to second screen while watching a game.

MLB.com At Bat
Let’s get the obvious one out of the way here. Why watch one game when you can watch four on one screen? Or, watch one game on TV, another on the laptop, with your tablet also running. To be fair, I’ve only been guilty of the triple screen a handful of times.

Twitter
Ain’t no party like a Twitter baseball party! From #WeirdBaseball to #HotTakes, the things baseball people are capable of making catch on is impressive. Sharing the good times and bad across thousands of miles add another level to the baseball viewing experience. I’d be hard pressed to find an app I use more frequently than Twitter while watching a game.

GifBoom
For those moments that have to be immortalized on the interwebs via GIF, GIFBoom, in my opinion, should be the go-to option for Android users. Since switching back to Android — and thus losing my beloved Echograph — GifBoom is a more than adequate replacement. Sporting a timer, a surprisingly solid zoom feature and the ability to convert existing video to GIF form, all for free, there isn’t much to disagree with.

Chromecast
Without this little HDMI dongle, my second screening would be a lot tougher. By pushing my MLB.TV to the television, I can use my laptop (or phone or tablet) for any number of other things. While Chromecast does say it requires a universal plug-n-play router, you can get around that fairly easily.

Google Docs and Sheets
Me, a baseball nerd utilizes a ton of spreadsheets? Shocking, I know. I keep a table of starting pitchers, relief pitchers and position players. Add in historic top-50s and single season records, if I’m ever stranded in the middle of nowhere and my battery isn’t dead, I can find out who holds the single season record for HBP, I can. For what it’s worth, the answer is Hughie Jennings in 1896 with 51 times being plunked. On the documents side of things, I tend to make notes as the game progresses. Rather than maintain a traditional score book — or app equivalent — I use Docs to jot down in-game events I find interesting.

Shazam
I love walk-up music for hitters and entrance music for closers. The whole thing is so campy I can’t help but love it. Unfortunately, sometimes it’s tough to tell exactly which song is being played and thus, enter Shazam! It isn’t always perfect, but does the job well enough for me to keep it on my phone.