The MLB app’s best feature is a 30-second delay

When my household quit cable four years ago and I lost access to Seattle Mariners games on TV, I started streaming the radio broadcast on the Google Home speaker in my kitchen. Honestly? Baseball on the radio rules. You get to walk around and do stuff to the pleasant background sounds of the crowd. Sometimes you hear the crack of Cal Raleigh’s bat hammering the ball into the stands one or 60 times. There’s just one problem: spoilers.

I use the MLB app for live scores, which is especially handy to complement an audio-only game. I don’t have to wait for the announcer to get around to repeating how many outs there are; I can just glance at my phone. When I have to abandon my post by the radio, the notifications keep me up to speed on the game. The problem is that they’re fast — faster than the delay of the audio stream. I’ll be soaking up the drama of a full count with runners in scoring position and two outs only to have the results spoiled by a buzzing phone.

You see, up until this year, there were exactly two legitimate ways to watch the Mariners live: subscribing to an expensive cable bundle or driving down to the corner of Dave Niehaus Way and Edgar Martinez Drive and buying a ticket to the game. Root Sports, the shadowy organization that controls the television broadcast rights to Mariners games, only introduced a standalone streaming option this April to the tune of $20 a month. The radio was my best option — no subscription, piracy, or VPN required. But those dang notifications kept spoiling things.

I struggled to find a solution. I could put my phone in do not disturb while actively listening, but then I’d miss other notifications. Turning on score notifications when I walked away from the radio and remembering to turn them off again when I came back was unrealistic. But as I was digging through notification settings during Monday’s playoff game against the Blue Jays, I found exactly what I’d been looking for: a 30-second delay. Specifically, an option you can toggle on to delay notifications so you can enjoy the stream spoiler-free.

I can’t think of another time when I’d want an app to deliver notifications just slightly late, but in this instance, it’s perfect. I still get the updates I want, but they don’t ruin the fun of listening to the action live (or close to live, I guess). A post on Reddit suggests that the MLB app added the feature a couple of years ago, and I’ll admit that it’s been about that long since I’ve been able to catch M’s games regularly, which is probably why I’m just finding it now. But I picked up the habit again as the team heated up at the end of this season, and I’m glad I’ve got the option for a spoiler-free audio experience at last.

The funny thing is, I’m not going to need my radio/app setup for the rest of this season. The Mariners are in the playoffs — two wins from their first trip to the World Series, no less! — and those games are all on national TV. I guess there is a way around Root Sports after all.