By steve on Monday, August 09, 2004 - 11:03 am:

I'm not sure how many people know about this, but I just figured it out and I'm able to watch the game right now. On the A's official site, I went to their fan forum message board and found a discussion about this. Here's what it said:


you can ALWAYS avoid the blackout restrictions fairly easily by going to www.publicproxyservers.com and just using a proxy. It's worked 100% of the time for me though finding a nice fast proxy can be tough. using proxy servers is easy if you're new to it. In internet explorer, just goto TOOLS ---> Internet Options ---> Connection --- (Lan) Settings and simply enter it in there. it's that easy. You'll want to turn it off afterwards to speed your connection back up. In fact, once the game is streaming you can simply turn it off and make sureyou leave the window open so the rest of your internet stays full speed.


I went to that site, and used one of the proxies from the United States - plugging in the address and port just like they said.

I then opened up a new window to see if the connection was seemingly fast enough. The new page didn't seem to load a bit slow for my connection, but on my 2nd try at a different proxy server, the new window I opened seemed to load pretty fast. Only a little bit slower than my DSL connection usually gets while loading my home page.

I then went to the mlb site, put in all my normal payment information, paid for the subscription (the one day, 2.95 deal), and then clicked on the minn-oak game on the mlb.tv section. It loaded and is playing.

I'm not sure if you need to make sure to have your new proxy settings when you pay for your subscription to get this to work, but I figured I'd set it up this way just in case.

I hope all of this was understandable. Let me know if I can help more. It was surprisingly easy to set up.

By steve on Monday, August 09, 2004 - 11:14 am:

OK, a couple of things I forgot to add.

If you're not completely computer savy, or even if you are, don't forget to press the 'ok' button once you've plugged in the new numbers in your LAN section. That's always easy to forget.

Also, I read on a different message board that someone said it's possible to see the game similarly even if you're in the blackout area by simply using a friend's out of state credit card. They said 'MLB goes by zip code'. I do not know if this works, as the other way sounded like a sure bet to me, and worked. Anyways, I don't know anyone with an out of state card I could borrow.

As well, I think it might be possible for others to resize their realplayer window and get the game picture out of that locked in small window mlb is using. If you didn't know you can right click on the action that's playing - and select - open in realplayer. It should open in your normal realplayer and let you resize the window some if you want and use the video controls. I've put the contrast on my computer's controls way up, and that seemed to help some as well.

Obviously the video quality is not comparable to tv, but it's not that bad, and I haven't noticed much annoying buffering at all so far. Only buffered once through 3 innings actually even while surfing.

By chavvy03 on Monday, August 09, 2004 - 11:14 am:

Thats how I'm watching it....but that's because I'm in Phoenix and don't get any A's games here. By the way.....what the hell is Rich Harden doing on 0-2 to Jones....throwing it right down the heart of the plate??? Was that Melhuse or Harden that made the mistake?

By steve on Monday, August 09, 2004 - 11:27 am:

Well, I'm extremely happy to have figured out how to see the game. I never understood for one minute how MLB could rationalize blacking out a game like today for someone like me in the east bay when it's not being carried on t.v. at all. For God's sakes, I'm listening to the radio anyways along with the game.

As well, considering all of their extremely questionable practices while advertising MBL.tv to people - in very, very fine print showing 'may be blacked out in local areas' (as if that is even understandable, which area, etc!) - I feel it's more than ok to share all of this information.

As for the 0-2 pitch chavvy, hard to tell if it was the pitch, the catch, or both of them. No doubt though huh - Major leaguers keep making that 0-2 mistake, and the hitters almost crsuh anything near the plate it seems on 0-2. Also, some times it seems like Harden has trouble throwing a ball when he wants to these days. Oh well, better than never being able to throw a strike.

Melhuse just got done hitting his double to RC to tie it up. Cmon A's!!! Hopefully Harden will have a quick 6th.

By steve on Monday, August 09, 2004 - 11:31 am:

Well, I'm extremely happy to have figured out how to see the game. I never understood for one minute how MLB could rationalize blacking out a game like today for someone like me in the east bay when it's not being carried on t.v. at all. For God's sakes, I'm listening to the radio anyways along with the game.

As well, considering all of their extremely questionable practices while advertising MBL.tv to people - in very, very fine print showing 'may be blacked out in local areas' (as if that is even understandable, which area, etc!) - I feel it's more than ok to share all of this information.

As for the 0-2 pitch chavvy, hard to tell if it was the pitch, the catch, or both of them. No doubt though huh - Major leaguers keep making that 0-2 mistake, and the hitters almost crsuh anything near the plate it seems on 0-2. Also, some times it seems like Harden has trouble throwing a ball when he wants to these days. Oh well, better than never being able to throw a strike.

Melhuse just got done hitting his double to RC to tie it up. Cmon A's!!! Hopefully Harden will have a quick 6th.

By chavvy03 on Monday, August 09, 2004 - 11:40 am:

Harden is starting to unravel

By steve on Monday, August 09, 2004 - 11:51 am:

As am I, I stupidly closed my realplayer window, and have lost the feed. So everyone remember not to do that, ok! I can't get it back, either, ugh. They now say I'm in the blackout region. After all that too, having to log in again, and they're onto me now. I even tried a new proxy and it didn't work. Argggggg.

Harden has pitched good so far. Sounds like our offense is rallying some now. Cmon cmon!

By steve on Monday, August 09, 2004 - 11:55 am:

On a very positive note:

Baltimore 7 - Texas - 2 8th inning and Gary Matthews Jr. just struck out with the bases loaded for the 2nd out.

By chavvy03 on Monday, August 09, 2004 - 12:08 pm:

okay....nevermind....looks like Harden raveled back up. Good inning from Harden.

By rocket on Monday, August 09, 2004 - 12:52 pm:

A's blow it open in the 8th, so the road trip ends on a good note.

A good road trip, now to keep winning at home
against a softer schedule.

By scooter on Monday, August 09, 2004 - 01:06 pm:

"raveled back up"


I like that

By rocket on Monday, August 09, 2004 - 04:25 pm:

Can you re-ravel ?

By diamond_lil on Monday, August 09, 2004 - 04:31 pm:

how how about de-raveled

By 5thtimethecharm on Wednesday, August 18, 2004 - 07:22 pm:

Hey Steve,

I tried what you said. I entered an anonymous proxy server IP address and port. MLB.TV still blocked me anyway. Are you sure this works?

By steve on Friday, September 03, 2004 - 02:55 pm:

5thtimethecharm,

Sorry I didn't see your message until now. It has worked for me twice now, and I'll be doing it again today.

Is it possible that you purchased the 2.95 one day subscription before you entered an anyonymous proxy server IP address and port - and that's why it didn't work for you?

I'll be doing it again today, the same way I have in the past - - setting up the address & port stuff first, then going to the mlb site and purchasing the 2.95 one day subscription - all while under that new anonymous IP.

Remember, once successful at getting the game playing, don't stop playing it. If it times out, I've been able to press stop, then play again -and it will restart - but at any time DO NOT close the anchored window it's playing in. You CANNOT restart it that way.

Hope all of this helps you or anyone, as I had a frustrating time myself researching it & figuring it out. I can't believe today's game isn't on t.v. Absolutely ridiculous.

By steve on Friday, September 03, 2004 - 04:04 pm:

Well, I'm not sure what's going on, but I too am now getting the error message about being in the blackout market - even after following all of the instructions which has allowed me to view the game the last two times it hasn't been carried on t.v. Still trying & it's frustrating.

By steve on Friday, September 03, 2004 - 04:27 pm:

Yep, well I guess they finally figured out how to stop people from doing what I was doing. I tried it all over again, and this time created a new email address under my anonymous IP, then purchased the account still under that anonymous IP, and I'm still getting the same message I'm in the blackout area. Oh yeah, I think I'm out $5.90 too lol. Oh well, hopefully someone will figure something out for the next games we get screwed on that aren't on t.v. This bites.

By 5thtimethecharm on Friday, September 03, 2004 - 04:54 pm:

I tried it and it worked. Go figure. Why do they black out AWAY games anyway? What are they trying to accomplish?

With the proxy server, the webcast lags by about behind the game.

By steve on Friday, September 03, 2004 - 05:17 pm:

Ha! It worked for me last time and not you. It works for you this time and not me. So how do we decide who tries it first next time to know if it will work for them or not? Geezus lol. Very glad you are able to see the game though

By oakland_j on Friday, September 03, 2004 - 05:18 pm:

The IP address of your proxy has to be out of the blacked out market. Try another.

By steve on Friday, September 03, 2004 - 05:22 pm:

Oh trust me, I did. I tried 2 different ones. Oh well - next time I suppose.

By 5thtimethecharm on Friday, September 03, 2004 - 06:09 pm:

I meant to say, "the webcast lags by a full 30 seconds behind the game."

By rickeytonydwayn on Friday, September 03, 2004 - 07:13 pm:

Hey Steve.
Thanks. It worked for me. I used a proxy server from Mexico and I also used an out of state credit card. I'm so glad I got to see Swishers debut.

By steve on Friday, September 03, 2004 - 07:25 pm:

Hey, you're welcome rickeytonydwayn, really glad to hear that it worked for you. It's nice to hear that another A's fan got to see it today - softens the blow a little that I couldn't get it to work for myself this time. Sounded like a fun game to watch - another big win. And thanks for your information, I might have to try Mexico & the out of state CC next time.