iOS 4.3 has a little surprise in store for Apple TV sports fans — integration of MLB baseball and NBA basketball. Sports has been one of the last strongholds of traditional broadcast, cable, and satellite. No longer.

Here’s the MLB news:

Enjoy select Spring Training games and a full slate of regular season games on Apple TV. Regular Season features include:

• HD Quality (where available)
• LIVE and archived games
• Home and away broadcasts*
• Quick navigation to run scoring plays or a particular at bat

On your Apple TV, sign in with the username and password associated with your MLB.TV subscription.

NBA hasn’t released any details yet but if you have league pass you should be good to go. The integration looks similar to Netflix — it’s built right in. Anyone trying it out yet?

[MLB, thanks everyone!]

Spring is in the air and March is a perfect time for all you sports fans out there to get your daily fix with the release of CBS Sports March Madness [iTunes Link - $9.99] and MLB.com At Bat 2010 [iTunes Link - $14.99].

For the full list of features to both of these great sport applications, follow us after the break!

CBS Sports NCAA March Madness is a great buy for anyone who can not get enough of their collage hoops. Not only does it provide you with live streaming video of 63 games over EDGE/3G and Wi-Fi but it also provides all of the following great features.

• Video highlights on demand from every game
• LIVE STREAMING OF THE SELECTION SUNDAY SHOW ON MARCH 14
• Westwood One Radio coverage starting on March 16
• Real time graphical bracket with updates on game match-ups, regions, and scores
• Exclusive CBSSports.com Edge Matchup game previews, including team-by-team analysis and matchup comparisons
• Alerts for favorite teams, as well as upsets, buzzer beaters, overtimes, and more
• Breaking tournament news coverage
• Box scores, recaps, and team stats
• Access to CBSSports.com tournament brackets (requires sign-in with CBSSports.com ID/password)
• Log into your Facebook and Twitter accounts to comment on games and talk trash to your friends

MLB.com At Bat 2010 is more of the same great baseball application from the 2009 season so you can still listen to the audio of every game in the regular season and postseason live, get scores and highlights, get push notifications, live streaming video (blackout restrictions apply), etc… They’ve even went ahead and added some brand new features for 2010.

• Spring Training statistics and LIVE audio
• LIVE video with MLB.TV beginning mid-March
• Breaking news, schedules and interactive rosters and player stats for every team
• Video library searchable by player and team
• Enhanced LIVE game video (Regular Season)
• Home/Away broadcast feed selection (Regular Season)
• Background audio playback
• Additional enhancements to come during 2010 season, including a suite of ‘At The Ballpark’ advantages in At Bat 2010, from customized, proprietary content to fan-experience tools and more

If you pick these up, let us know what missing features you’d like to see included (if any) in the comments below!

Apple Senior Vice President of Marketing was asked what his favorite iPhone Apps were, and here’s what he said:

• Shazam [Free - iTunes link] “There’s just something so amazing about being anywhere, and some music starts playing and you just hold up your phone and can find out what it is,” Mr. Schiller said. “You never again have to say ‘That’s a great song! Who is it by?”
• CNN News [$1.99 - iTunes link]: “It’s really cool having the news in your pocket.”
• Facebook [Free - iTunes link]
• MLB.com at Bat 2009 [Currently free - iTunes link]
• NBA Game Time 2009 [$9.99 - iTunes link]
• ESPN ScoreCenter [Free - iTunes link]
• Eliminate Pro [Free - iTunes link]
• geoDefense [$1.99 - iTunes link]
• Best Camera [$2.99 - iTunes link]

Some great apps, if no huge surprises.

[New York Times via Gartenberg]

Major League Baseball’s App for the iPhone has been in the news due to a price drop — and the little controversy surrounding it’s seasonal expiry — as of late. Well, now Apple has thrown a huge spotlight onto it again, this time likely hoping to ride the playoff popularity wave.

For baseball fans who want their fix when they want and where they want, the commercial gets it right: “game changer” indeed.

Check it out at Apple.com