MLB Causing Syntax Error in Requests?

[bentonraymer]

Hi all,

First time using this module. Been troubleshooting for a while now.

With the following config:

		{
			module: "MMM-MyScoreboard",
			position: "top_right",
			header: "Scoreboard1",
			config: {
				viewStyle: "oneLine",
				alwaysShowToday: true,
				// showPlayoffStatus: true,
				rolloverHours: 24,
				sports: [
				{
					league: "MLB",
					groups: ["American League", "National League"]
				},
			]
		}
        }

I get stuck on Loading MMM-MyScoreboard... infinitely. When analyzing the logs in pm2:

0|MagicMirror | [2026-03-22 07:16:28.900] [ERROR] [providers] [MMM-MyScoreboard] SyntaxError: Unexpected token '<', "<!DOCTYPE "... is not valid JSON https://site.web.api.espn.com/apis/site/v2/sports/baseball/mlb/scoreboard?dates=20260322&limit=200

With my sports section changed to the following:

				sports: [
				{
					league: "NBA",
					groups: ["East", "West"]
				},

I have no issues loading NBA scores.

The same issue occurs when I use the default config of the module.

I assumed I was being rate limited or something and was being presented with an HTML error page, but when I curl the URL from the same VM the module is running on, I get a seemingly valid JSON response:

services@pve2-servicesvm:~/MagicMirror/config$ curl https://site.web.api.espn.com/apis/site/v2/sports/baseball/mlb/scoreboard?dates=20260321&limit=200
[1] 25325
services@pve2-servicesvm:~/MagicMirror/config$ {"leagues":[{"id":"10","uid":"s:1~l:10","name":"Major League Baseball","abbreviation":"MLB","midsizeName":"MLB","slug":"mlb","season":{"year":2026,"startDate":"2026-02-19T08:00Z","endDate":"2026-11-12T07:59Z","displayName":"2026","type":{"id":"1","type":1,"name":"Spring Training","abbreviation":"pre"}},"logos":[{"href":"https://a.espncdn.com/i/teamlogos/leagues/500/mlb.png","width":500,"height":500,"alt":"","rel":["full","default"],"lastUpdated":"2023-03-29T12:34Z"},{"href":"https://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=/i/teamlogos/leagues/500-dark/mlb.png&w=500&h=500&transparent=true","width":500,"height":500,"alt":"","rel":["full","dark"],"lastUpdated":"2026-03-21T00:48Z"}],"calendarType":"day","calendarIsWhitelist":false,"calendarStartDate":"2026-02-19T08:00Z","calendarEndDate":"2026-11-12T07:59Z","calendar":["2026-02-19T08:00Z","2026-07-13T07:00Z","2026-07-15T07:00Z","2026-09-28T07:00Z","2026-09-29T07:00Z","2026-09-30T07:00Z","2026-10-01T07:00Z","2026-10-02T07:00Z","2026-10-03T07:00Z","2026-10-04T07:00Z","2026-10-05T07:00Z","2026-10-06T07:00Z","2026-10-07T07:00Z","2026-10-08T07:00Z","2026-10-09T07:00Z","2026-10-10T07:00Z","2026-10-11T07:00Z","2026-10-12T07:00Z","2026-10-13T07:00Z","2026-10-14T07:00Z","2026-10-15T07:00Z","2026-10-16T07:00Z","2026-10-17T07:00Z","2026-10-18T07:00Z","2026-10-19T07:00Z","2026-10-20T07:00Z","2026-10-21T07:00Z","2026-10-22T07:00Z","2026-10-23T07:00Z","2026-10-24T07:00Z","2026-10-25T07:00Z","2026-10-26T07:00Z","2026-10-27T07:00Z","2026-10-28T07:00Z","2026-10-29T07:00Z","2026-10-30T07:00Z","2026-10-31T07:00Z","2026-11-01T07:00Z","2026-11-02T08:00Z","2026-11-03T08:00Z","2026-11-04T08:00Z","2026-11-05T08:00Z","2026-11-06T08:00Z"
[trimmed]

Thoughts? Thanks in advance

[bentonraymer]

request.txt

Here is the output of what I currently get when I call the same URL the module is erroring out on

[dathbe]

Your config works as expected for me, so I can't debug. Has it by any chance resolved itself with some downtime?

Also, you can delete the entire line groups: ["American League", "National League"] because you're basically asking for all MLB scores. groups is only necessary if you want to limit what is displayed. It won't cause any issues, it's just unecessary.

[gerber55555]

Reproduced this deterministically — the error message was pointing at the wrong URL, which is why it never made sense.

For MLB (and only MLB), the module also fetches the free-game-of-the-day feed from mastapi.mobile.mlbinfra.com inside the same try block as the ESPN scoreboard fetch, with no guard. If that host returns an HTML error page for your network/region (it clearly does for some — works fine from other machines, which is why this wasn't reproducible), the JSON parse throws, the whole fetch cycle aborts before rendering, and the error handler logs the ESPN scoreboard URL even though that endpoint returned valid JSON — exactly why your curl of it looked fine and NBA worked.

Fix is up in #239: the free-game fetch (it only adds the "MLB free game" broadcast logo) is now isolated so its failure can't take down the scoreboard, and the log names the actually-failing URL.

@bentonraymer if you're still around: hideBroadcasts: true in your config skips that feed entirely and should get MLB working immediately, even before the fix merges. You could also confirm the diagnosis with curl -s 'https://mastapi.mobile.mlbinfra.com/api/epg/v3/search?date=2026-09-03&exp=MLB' | head -c 200 from the VM — I'd expect HTML rather than JSON.