The Orioles-owned television network is bothering to televise all of eight spring training games.
There are some MLB teams out there whose fans get the opportunity to watch as many spring training games as they want. The Orioles are not one of those teams. The Orioles-owned television network MASN revealed its broadcast schedule for 2025 spring training on Wednesday afternoon and it will be televising eight of the team’s Grapefruit League games.
This is the smallest of steps in the right direction. Last year, MASN aired seven spring training games, while two years ago they had an even-more-pathetic four spring training broadcasts.
However, even this “expanded” number of eight comes with some embarrassment. The Baltimore Banner reported on Tuesday that the spring training broadcasts will feature the broadcasters calling the games remotely from back in Baltimore. There is simply no justifiable reason to revert to this relic from a time when we were smack dab in the middle of a global pandemic due to a virus for which there was no widely-available vaccine.
The eight spring training games that MASN is bothering to televise for 2025:
- February 22 (1pm) vs. Pirates – spring training opener
- March 1 (1pm) vs. Pirates
- March 3 (1pm) vs. Red Sox
- March 10 (6pm) at Pirates
- March 11 (1pm) at Yankees
- March 17 (1pm) at Red Sox
- March 20 (6pm) vs. Yankees
- March 22 (1pm) at Pirates
According to MLB.com’s Orioles beat writer Jake Rill, there will be another nine games that are broadcast on the Orioles Radio Network, or at least its flagship Baltimore stations, beyond the eight televised games. It adds up to at least some kind of local broadcast on 17 of the 28 days where the O’s will play a spring training game.
A test with a score of 60.7% would not have very many pleased parents. Orioles fans deserve better than this, but for spring training 2025, this is all we’ll get.