I remember it like it was yesterday. In fact, I even remember the exact date – Wednesday, March 4, 2009.

The Dodgers had just started their first spring training camp away from Vero Beach at their beautiful new facility at Camelback Ranch in Glendale, Arizona. The trees were little more than sticks being held up by bigger sticks. In other words, there was zero shade and it was hot; unusually hot for early March.

When Camelback Ranch opened in March of 2009, there was absolutely no shade anywhere.
(Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

After spending a few days at my first-ever Dodgers spring training alone, I picked up my then 15-year-old son Tim at nearby Sky Harbor Airport. Tim was obviously still in school so he couldn’t be with me for the entire week but took Thursday and Friday off to join me. It seems that he had something wrong with his eyes – he just couldn’t see going to school when the Dodgers were playing.

As with most teenagers, our first stop after dumping his stuff off at our motel room was to feed him. We walked across the street to a Jack in the Box and while wolfing down a couple of Jumbo Jacks, my son asked me “Hey dad, have your seen the new MLB At Bat app?”

“What’s that?” I replied.

…and then he showed me.

Needless to say, I couldn’t purchase and download that app onto my Droid fast enough right there while sitting in the Jack in the Box, and I have been a loyal subscriber ever since. It was, and still is to this very day, the only app I have ever paid for – although it was only $10 back then.

(Image courtesy of MLB.com)

MLB.com’s groundbreaking At Bat mobile app actually made its debut on July 10, 2008 and quickly became one of the top 10 grossing iPhone applications in any category and the best in sports. Within weeks of its launch it also became available for Android devices. Not only did it have details from every game played – even spring training games – but it allowed my son and I to listen to the Dodgers on our long drive back to Southern California.

Over the next few years my MLB At Bat subscriptions more than paid for themselves. In fact, during a trip to New York in September of 2011 to visit my daughter, a couple of fellow die-hard Dodger fans who also live there and I attended a Yankees-Blue Jays game. And while we had little interest in that game, we had my smartphone tuned into the Dodger game on MLB At Bat. You can imagine the stares we got when we cheered whenever the Dodgers scored. As it turned out, the Dodger game ran a bit longer than the Yankee game and we were threatened with arrest as we sat there listening to the conclusion of the Dodger game as Yankee Stadium cleared out. (It was not a good day – the Dodgers lost and the Yankees won, but we did get to see Derek Jeter hit a home run).

Lifelong Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodger fan Will Isabella cheers as the Dodgers score during a Yankees-Blue Jays game at Yankee Stadium. We were listening to the Dodgers-Braves game on MLB At Bat. (Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

The point to all of this is that I have been a loyal MLB At Bat subscriber ever since that hot afternoon in Phoenix and the 2015 version of MLB At Bat just came out and is already on my smartphone. It is a must-have mobile app for every baseball fan – Dodgers or otherwise. It does, however, now cost $19.99 and is still the only app I have ever paid for. It also remains one of the top selling mobile apps of all time.

I need to point out that I am not a big fan of MLB.TV which, incidentally, includes a free MLB At Bat subscription. It’s not that I don’t like the MLB.TV format, I actually love it. It’s just that the blackout restrictions are absolutely ridiculous. You tell me how Las Vegas is within the Dodgers (Los Angeles) market area, or Bakersfield, or San Diego, etc., etc. As such, I refuse to purchase MLB.TV until MLB.com offers it at a significantly reduced price – usually $49.99 around Father’s Day. Oh sure, I could do what many Dodger fans do and find a way around the blackout restrictions through one of several less-than-scrupulous websites (be very careful of malware if you go this route), but why should I even have to? MLB.com made NINE BILLION DOLLARS last year for crying out loud. I also suspect that MLB.com is working extremely hard to find a way to defeat these bootleg websites.

Getting back on point, I am anxious to give the new MLB At Bat 2015 app – with it’s all-new “Material Design” (I’ll have to ask my son what that means) – a test drive on Wednesday when the Dodgers kick off their 2015 spring training season against the Chicago White Sox. And while I am one of the lucky few who (only by virtue of where I live) will be able to watch the game live on SportsNet LA, there will be many times throughout the season when my only connection with the Dodgers will be through my MLB At Bat 2015 subscription. And that alone makes it well worth the money.