I am a huge Tigers fan. I have been all of my life. I grew up about 10 minutes from Tiger Stadium and 7 minutes from Comerica Park. As soon as I got my driver's license, I made the drive down I-75 and spent $8 on my bleacher seat as often as I could. As I got older, things like college, exams and work all got in the way of my ability to take in a good number of Tigers games. This may be a thing of the past for me, however, with an iPhone app that I'm surprised took me as long as it did to find.

MLB.com has introduced its own iPhone app titled "At Bat 2009" to pair with its already successful MLB.TV subscription service online. The beauty of this app is that you don't need to be an MLB.TV subscriber to enjoy a good portion of what this app has to offer.

ALL owners of this app can listen to live audio broadcasts of ANY Major League game going on. Now, when you have your iPod Touch or iPhone but are in a long line at the secretary of state or in a waiting room at the dentist, you have a better option than constantly checking a small box score on your cell phone. You can hear every ball and strike as it happens, not as scrolling text with just some of the highlights.

If you are an owner of this app, but NOT a subscriber to the MLB.TV service, you have one to two games a day for which you can receive live streaming video broadcasts. This is, of course, subject to those annoying blackout restrictions for local markets, but would be really useful for keeping up with your division rivals during a close pennant race in September. You could be watching at the Tigers game watching them pull ahead, while watching the White Sox getting beat on your iPhone or iPod Touch from your seat.

If you ARE a subscriber to the MLB.TV service, you have the privilege of being able to see ALL games in live, streaming video. I have a few friends who are fans of teams that play across the country, and they swear by this MLB.TV service for just this reason. They can follow their team all season, every game. This app makes this MLB.TV service mobile, allowing them to enjoy their team wherever they are.

The app also features some cool stats and info for those who want to know the ins and outs of the game that they are watching. You can find out pitch by pitch what the pitch type was, the speed and location, as well as real time box scores, and updated player statistics. League scoreboards should go without saying, but a video recap available 90 minutes after the game finishes was a very cool unexpected touch for me.

The Verdict: I love it, and I can't wait to get my hands on it. I may be getting dumped fairly soon though, because this thing seems like it could get very addicting for me, and very annoying for my fiancee.

Kyle Stuef is a marketing professional who blogs on Internet / technology trends, and being a young professional in Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor for The Deuce and AnnArbor.com

You can contact him at: kstuef@gmail.com @KyleStuef www.linkedin.com/in/kylestuef www.facebook.com/kylestuef