Undoubtedly, the Colorado Rockies have been tough to watch in 2025. The record has reached historically bad levels, and the team is on pace to set records no team ever wants to be associated with. It has been ugly, to say the least, for the boys in purple at 20th and Blake.

However, one of the best parts of this season has been the communal feeling of watching the games together, whether it be on social media, in the comment section of our game threads, or sitting on the couch with your friends and family. The ability to experience sporting events together is what makes them so special.

That’s why SB Nation is proud to announce a new partnership with Playback, a service that will allow us to host live-stream content, such as Rockies watch parties, featuring the staff here at Purple Row.

What is Playback?

Playback describes itself as a “virtual space where communities can stream live sports together, with everyone perfectly synced up. Creators can hop on stage, deliver their own play-by-play analysis and commentary, and invite viewers up for Q&A.”

Do I have to pay for it?

Nothing. Playback is completely free to use. All you have to do is sign up for a free account, and you are set to start watching and following your favorite creators.

How do I watch the Rockies with Purple Row?

Once you have created an account, you can join/subscribe to the Purple Row room at www.playback.tv/purplerow.

You can join through a normal browser or download the Playback app on your mobile device.

To watch the game alongside us, there are a couple of options.

Connect your Rockies TV/MLB TV account to Playback

Using an active subscription, you will be able to watch the game with us directly in Playback. It is important to remember that the game is still subject to local blackouts if you live within the Rockies’ broadcast region and don’t have Rockies TV.

Manually sync the stream with the broadcast on your TV or other device

Playback streams feature a rewind function that allows you to pause and manually sync the stream with the broadcast on your TV or other device. It takes a little extra effort, but it works perfectly with those who are using cable to watch games.

Just listen like a podcast

If you are unable to utilize either option above, you can simply listen to the stream like a podcast. While you won’t see the game, you can view a gameday score bug on the screen as well as play-by-play updates.

As a creator with Playback, we have a pool of 20 VIP passes to share at our leisure if needed. Should we share a pass with you, it would give you the ability to watch the live game broadcast without blackouts. This is especially handy for those who don’t have their own MLB TV or Rockies TV subscription.

How can I participate?

Much like other platforms, such as YouTube and Twitch, the community can engage through a live chat. Creators can interact and respond to viewers in the comment section as well as highlight specific comments on stream. Additionally, should you participate regularly, there is the chance we could invite you to become a moderator in the chat.

While it won’t be used as often by Purple Row, viewers can request to come on stage with the Purple Row staff on stream. This would ideally be used doing a Q&A type of stream.

As we build the community on Playback streams, the option to create clips from the stream will become available to viewers. This helps us snag notable moments from the live stream that we can use on social media or in articles.

What other features are there?

Along with the chat and clip functions, Playback offers some notable features for viewers to customize the stream to their preferences.

With personal volume controls, viewers can choose to mute the hosts (hopefully you won’t!) to simply listen to the broadcast. The opposite is also available or perhaps you’d like a mix of the two audio sources; all are options.

While the hosts will generally have their cameras on and placed on stage over the stream, viewers can move and resize the windows to their liking or remove them from view entirely.

You mentioned other content. What are some examples?

Beyond watch parties, which will be the bulk of streams, we will look for opportunities to do other types of content. This could include round-table discussions on notable news events or reactions/breakdowns of the MLB Draft. We could hold Q&A sessions/mailbag segments with the fans. In the future, we hope to be able to watch minor league games.

Additionally, we are looking at doing an alternate broadcast that would feature play-by-play and commentary from yours truly. Of course, we are always open to suggestions about what viewers and readers would like to see.

When and how often will streams occur?

We are still figuring out scheduling and how often we’d like to stream, but you can stay tuned to our social media accounts for notice (our handles are listed below). You can also enable notifications on the app to get alerted when we go live with a stream.

However, our first official stream will occur tonight, May 16, as the Rockies take on the Arizona Diamondbacks at 7:40 pm MDT for what we think will be the MLB debut of Carson Palmquist (No. 9 PuRP).

Come join us!

Our main desire and intention with this new streaming ability is to endure this historically bad Rockies season together. We have a great fan base and a great community here at Purple Row, and we hope you’ll take advantage of this new feature and continue to provide your wonderful support.

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