The bases are loaded, the pitchers are on the mounds, and Major League Baseball season has begun! So now it's time to take me -- and my iPhone -- out to the ballgame!

Ok, the season officially opened the other day, but the Red Sox play their first game today so that makes it the real opening day. Thankfully, baseball fans are never far away from the action if they have their trusty iPad or iPhone by their side. There are apps for watching baseball, scoring baseball, finding food at the ballpark, playing casual games, and managing the ever-important fantasy baseball team.

Here are the home runs...

Following the game

As I write this, the season has just started and the Red Sox and Tigers are scoreless after the top of the second inning. I know this, because today, and most days during the season I have one of my all time favorite apps fired up – MLB.com At Bat.

MLB.com At Bat

MLB.com At Bat 2012 gives you an amazing amount of options for following the game

MLB.com At Bat is free for the “Lite” version – but if you are a real baseball fan, pony up the $14.95  for the full season pass available as an in-app purchase. The information in this app is really staggering. I can follow every pitch of every game. I get this very cool visual of the batter and can see the pitches (in real time) wiz by his head. I can look at the plays of the game or the box score at the same time on the right hand side of the screen and follow the scores from other games at the top of the screen. Throw in video highlights, MLB TV (if you are a subscriber) and free game-day audio and this is the ultimate baseball app.

Free - Download Now

If I am not using MLB.com At Bat, I am usually using Safari loaded on www.redsox.com. I am told that each major league team has their own web site that is formatted beautifully for the iPhone or iPad, but why would anyone go anywhere else?

Local networks

Most local markets have a sports app similar to the NESN app in Boston

Most cable providers have an app for following local sports teams. In New England we have NESN – the New England Sports Network which has a free app for following local teams.

Free - Download Now

At the Ballpark

Order food, buy ticket or check out the ballparks from every MLB team

MLB.com has a new app out this year called At the Ballpark.  When you fire up this app, you can then choose your local ballpark or any of the Major League ballparks and start exploring.  You can see the ballpark map, get directions, look at schedules of events and even order food and drinks if the ballpark supports it.

Free - Download Now

Managing your Fantasy Baseball team

Fantasy Baseball may not be as popular as Fantasy Football, but it is still popular and important to many baseball fans.  The original fantasy baseball provider was Yahoo and Yahoo sports is still the most popular fantasy baseball service.

Yahoo Fantasy Baseball '12

Manage your fantasy baseball teams from the Yahoo Fantasy Baseball app

Fortunately, there is a free Yahoo Fantasy Baseball 12 app that allows you to login, adjust your teams and manage the full fantasy baseball experience.

Free - Download Now

ESPN Fantasy Baseball 2012

The other huge Fantasy Baseball site is ESPN. Like Yahoo, ESPN has its own Fantasy Baseball app as well.

Free - Download Now

It is hard to say which of these is better – it really comes down to which leagues you participate in and who hosts them.

Playing a quick baseball game

This is where iOS seems to strike out –- there are not many real quality baseball games to play on iOS at this point. Hopefully with more powerful devices like the iPhone 4S and the new iPad, we get more in-depth games soon!

Baseball Superstars 2012

Baseball Superstars is "cartoony" but fun

Probably the most popular baseball game for iOS is Baseball Superstars 2012 from Gemevil. This has a definite Asian/anime feel to it. Gameplay reminds me of my old Atari, but people seem to love it.

Free - Download Now

Chevy Baseball

There is lots of product placement, but Chevy Baseball is a fun game

New this year is Chevy Baseball from Small Planet Digital. This game is sponsored by Chevy, so it has adds and lots of product placement. The game was developed by Freeverse and the graphics are pretty good. The home team is the Camaros and the visiting team the Silverados, but aside from that, it was fun.

Free - Download Now

Homerun Battle 2

Knock it out of the park with Homerun Battle 2

For a quick game to play, I like Homerun Battle 2 from Com2US.  The goal of this game is very simple – just hit home runs. You can play in Arcade or Matchup modes and occasionally you are asked to try to hit the ball in a specific spot – but basically, you try to hit the ball out of the park. It is simple, quick and fun and uses the accelerometer to guide where to swing.

$0.99 - Download Now

Whether you want to follow the Red Sox (or perhaps, some other team) or catch the latest news, score a game at the ballpark or play a casual arcade game – it is a great time to be a baseball fan. There are options for literally countless hours of fun and action on your iOS device.

Download an app or two, follow your favorite team and enjoy springtime with America’s favorite pastime.

Game time!

Let us know how you follow baseball on your iOS device – just jump to this forum thread to share your thoughts.

Looking out my window, it may be snowing, but  spring is in the air! MLB.com just released their amazing At Bat app for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad – that means Spring Training is upon us!

MLB.com At Bat is quite simply the best way to “get into the game” during Spring Training and during the regular season. I am a die hard Red Sox fan. During the regular season I use the At Bat app to follow each game live. I can see who is up, who is pitching and follow every pitch and every out of every game.

I can also follow other games in progress (I usually try to see if the Yankees are losing!) As the game progresses, video highlights will be posted. I can also listen to Game Day Audio from my local Boston station wherever I am.

Right now MLB is presenting live Spring Training baseball from the Grapefruit and Cactus Leagues, and they'll be putting out an update with additional features before Opening Day.

As always, what you get to see depends on what you pay for.

• MLB.TV Premium subscribers can watch live video of over 150 Spring Training games
• MLB.TV Premium subscribers receive At Bat 12 for free
• Listen to available radio broadcasts of Spring Training games
• Follow batter-by-batter action for every Spring Training game
• Breaking news, schedules and interactive rosters and player stats for every team
• Customize At Bat's home screen to feature your designated favorite team
• Enhanced video library archive, searchable by player, team or keyword

It's a universal app for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad, and it's available now.

Free - Download now

A few weeks back we reported that MLB At Bat 2009 [iTunes Link] would be available on April 3rd, well it seems it was pushed out a few days early and can now be found in the App Store. Most of it's features, however, will not be activated until April 6th. The biggest feature being, live Gameday Audio, from either the home or visiting team radio announcers, streamed directly to your iPhone. That feature alone should make this app worth the price of admission for all of you hardcore baseball fans.

So you have to be asking, how much will this cost me? For the entire baseball season including post season play this will run you $9.99. That really is not too bad considering in-game audio for the complete season, directly from the MLB website, costs $14.99.

So how many of you will be picking this one up? Let us know what you think!

Well, Baseball season is fast approaching and you all know what the means: Major League Baseball is taking full advantage and is releasing two new MLB At Bat apps.

The first is available right now in the iTunes store, MLB At Bat Lite. Good thing is, that app is completely free. It's essentially the same app as last years paid app minus in-game video highlights.

The paid version of MLB At Bat 2009 will be available on April 3rd in the App Store with a price as yet-to-be determined. What this version offers in comparison to the lite version is actual in-game live audio and in-game video highlights (not to be confused with actual live video feeds). With the live in-game audio you will have some options. You have the choice to listen to the home or away teams' own broadcasters, which is a really nice feature.

The big question here is the price for this app. MLB.com mobile has the same in-game audio feature currently and that alone costs $4.99 a month. So what does that mean, if anything, for this iPhone app? Are we looking at a subscription fee on top of the price of the app? If so, why not simply update the app we purchased last year for $5.00. Seems to us like MLB is double dipping here...

So all of you Baseball fans out there, what is your take on this?

[Via Macworld]

Masseym drops our latest Lightning Review, for MLB At Bat ($4.99 at iTunes), which we publish today even though masseym clearly was trying to play this Minnesota boy's heart by using a Twins game in his screenshot. We're publishing Lightning reviews of iPhone apps nearly every day, write your review in our forums and you'll get a chance to win a 25% off coupon to our iPhone accessories Store. Click here for full details!

As an avid baseball fan (ok, just the Mets) living in Texas, I was excited when MLB announced their app. I could see the strike/ball/out counts live and then watch highlight clips from anywhere in the world! What an exciting application.

Well, after $4.95 I am disappointed. The app refreshes only once per minute, so there is no "live" update to strike count. It does have a small "on base" display, but again, only updates every minute. No box score or other stats.

I was most excited about the highlights. On my wifi connection, the highlights are AWESOME! 30 to 45 second clips of the "exciting" parts. They are delayed about 2-3 minutes after the actual action, but that involves the encoding of the video on MLB's end.

On 3G and EDGE, the video is a different story. They are TERRIBLE. You can't even make out who the players are since MLB compresses the video so highly. I can somewhat understand on EGDE, but 3G too? Come on.

Pros:

• Wifi highlights
• $4.95 for the rest of the season
• Baseball anywhere I go and have a signal

Cons:

• TERRIBLE video on EDGE and 3G networks
• 1 minute refresh rate isn't instantaneous for balls/strikes/outs
• NO additional data (i.e. box scores, etc)