Last weekend, MLB.tv, Major League Baseball’s subscription streaming video service, went live for Roku owners. This, along with Netflix support, were the two big reasons Roku interested me in the first place when I bought one a few months ago. It’s not easy being a fan of an out-of-market team, you know?

Live game footage (which is delayed, though I’m not sure how much so) looks good on my 37” LCD. If you’re familiar with MLB.tv on other devices, you may know that live video performance can be sporadic at times. I had some issues with buffering last Sunday, but otherwise it’s almost like watching the game on cable. There is something just a little off–I think the compression makes things look just a tad soft–but it’s definitely watchable. Better by far than, say, watching a standard def signal on a high def display.

It’s an investment, or course–a high def Roku box will set you back about $100, and a season-long subscription to MLB.tv runs starts at $100 . Last year, though, my subscription paid for itself as I got to watch almost every Cardinals game I could make time for. Most of those games I watched on a small laptop screen, but watching on a regular screen is much nicer.

Say what you want about Major League Baseball. They make some decisions I don’t like, but their embracing of streaming audio and video has been great. I’d like to see other sports follow suit–if I ever find myself away from regular coverage of the Kansas Jayhawks it’d be nice to know I’d still never have to miss a game.