Category: Media

BBWAA: The path to becoming relevant

The BBWAA is slowly dragging themselves into relevance. 

Today, they added four writers whose contributions can be found mainly on the Internet.  Congratulations go out to Will Carroll and Kristina Kahrl of Baseball Prospectus and Rob Neyer and Keith Law of ESPN.com.

This is big.  Yes, it was a long time coming and it’s not enough but it’s a slow recognition that many most sports fans are getting their sports news from the web whether it be from a brick and mortar newspaper’s web presence or from a new fangly web site out there.  It’s time the BBWAA started to recognize that. 

Now maybe the BBWAA can do something about their god awful looking web site.

BBWAA_1228970267986

MLB Network has a head start on Jan 1

On January 1, the Major League Baseball Network will debut.  And unlike the NFL Network, it will already be carried on major cable systems throughout the country. 

The very first thing viewers will see is a show called Hot Stove which will (of course) discuss trades, signings, and other off-season moves by teams. 

MLB Network will also air a show called MLB Tonight, a seven-hour evening show which will consist of highlights and analysis.

A couple other points:  At this point, MLB Network has NO plans to have any programming specific to the fantasy baseball audience (boo hiss).  Interesting, since that angle has been so integral in their MLB.com programming. 

Oh, for any of you Bob Costas fans out there, MLB Network isn’t making any promises yet that he’ll be part of the network but they’ve been talking. 

Don’t do it, Baseball Prospectus

I love Baseball Prospectus.  I think they put out a first rate podcast which I listen to without fail.  Their annual publication which comes out near the beginning of the baseball season not only has a wealth of baseball information but does it with a sense of humor. 

I don’t need to tell those who have been to BP’s web site that their staff of writers is one of the best in the business.  And yes, some of their stuff is subscription only but if put up the green, what you get back is pretty amazing. 

You know the one thing that might drive me away from it? 

…if ESPN bought it

EBERT BIDS JAY THE RAT ADIEU

Jay the Rat

Roger Ebert wrote an open letter to sports columnist Jay Mariotti, who resigned from the Sun-Times.

What an ugly way to leave the Sun-Times. It does not speak well for you. Your timing was exquisite. You signed a new contract, waited until days after the newspaper had paid for your trip to Beijing at great cost, and then resigned with only an email. You saved your explanation for a local television station…

Read the rest at the Sun Times website.

Deal between MLB Advanced Media and ESPN may help stream live games

In a new deal between ESPN and MLB Advanced Media, ESPN will have the right to digitally stream baseball games live.   No financial details have been announced and what the impact for us, the fan, will be is still up in the air. 

That said, I can assure you this will be a money maker for ESPN any way you look at it.  The technology to stream live games to mobile devices such as mobile phones and iPods (even gaming consoles) has been here.  The only stumbling block was a legal and financial one. For ESPN and MLB Advanced Media, this is the first step to breaking down that barrier. 

Interestingly, the rights are worldwide but do not extend to some Asian or Pacific Rim countries. 

Some comments from MLB Advanced Media head Bob Bowman and ESPN’s John Skipper may shed some more light on the matter.

Skipper acknowledged that there was some revenue sharing in the last deal. “This deal we’re paying cash for valuable rights.” Bowman wasn’t talking financial details either, saying only, “we believe in our content and we’re grateful that ESPN does, too.”

Or maybe not.

‘Samurai Umpire’: a documentary in the works

Todd, our resident umpire, passed on an email about an upcoming documentary that’s being filmed this season.  Entitled ‘Samurai Umpires in the USA’, the filmmaker, Takayuki Tanaka, is following the actions of the six Japanese umpires that are in the US professional baseball system right now.  All six are in the minors right now but of course, have aspirations to make it to the bigs someday.

The six Japanese umpires currently in the US minor league baseball system:

  • Taro Hamano (Northwest League)
  • Takeshi Hirabayashi (Southern League)
  • Masaki Nonaka (California League)
  • Atsushi Yoshioka (Arizona League)
  • Yuta Niide (Pioneer League)
  • Koyu Inoue (South Atlantic League)

‘Samurai Umpires’ will be a full-length feature film Most of the footage we’ll see will have been shot from July 2008 to end of the minor league season.

It looks like it won’t be a high budget film and perhaps not the most “polished” product.  For me, that’s a good thing.  We’ll get to see some raw footage rather than over-edited, perhaps contrived scenes.  That would be great.

Good luck to Mr Tanaka and I’m looking forward to seeing ‘Samurai Umpires’ when it comes out (target date is sometime next spring).

Here are a few news articles about the upcoming documentary “Samurai Umpires in the USA”:

MiLB.com:  ‘Samurai Umpires a major undertaking

Little Leaguers get a feel for the bigs

llgame

Want a feel good story?  Here’s one.  ImprovEverywhere’s plan was to make a little league game into a major league experience.  They went to Hermosa Beach, CA and found a Little League game between the Mudcats and the Lugnuts and went to town.  Unbeknownst to the players beforehand, ImprovEverywhere set up a PA system, NBC announcers (Jim Gray and Charlie Todd, seen above), a field reporter, a jumbotron and yes, even a Goodyear blimp. 

Needless to say, it was a hit with the kids. 

Here’s the story from ImprovEverywhere’s website

 

 

hat tip Baseball Musings

Berman responds to videos

Chris Berman has made a public response to the online videos that were released a few weeks ago.  The Miami Herald conducted a phone interview with him. 

Now I’ve never ever been a Berman fan but after watching a few of the few of videos, I started wondering what the fuss was all about.  Certainly, we didn’t expect a famous baseball analyst to let his hair down and act like the rest of us, did we? 

To Berman’s credit, he didn’t apologize for his actions on the videos nor did he try to spin it to his advantage. 

”It’s almost as if what we would fight against as a country — the Soviets spying — it’s almost like that’s what everyone is doing,” Berman said by phone Wednesday. “What’s said in the huddle, which is what I did, should be in the huddle.

“I’m disappointed people would think I’m not really good with the people I work with, which couldn’t be further from the truth. Do I wish I didn’t say a few things nine years ago? Yes. But if that’s the worst thing I ever did, I can live with it.”

Now the Soviet reference is a tired cliche but otherwise, it’s a solid statement.  I think we as baseball people need to not fall into the trap of thinking that if something that doesn’t follow the company line needs to be apologized for.

I still don’t care for Chris Berman as an analyst or sportscaster but let’s not bring him down because of this. 

By the way, ESPN has requested You Tube to remove the videos which they did.  Now that’s a totally different issue. 

Looking past the easy stats

As much as I like Harold Baines, I rather enjoyed Ken Tremendous’ posting on Fire Joe Morgan.  Bit by bit, he dissects a Mike Downey article from the Chicago Tribune. 

A snip:

(quoting from Downey) Harold Baines has more hits than Brooks Robinson, Charlie Gehringer, George Sisler, Luke Appling, Lou Gehrig … (keep going) … Billy Williams, Luis Aparicio, Nellie Fox, Jimmie Foxx, Ted Williams, Reggie Jackson, Ernie Banks … (don’t stop now) … 


Who on blog’s green earth would evaluate HOF inductees solely by hits? What kind of insane cherry pick is that? Not any other stat. Not longevity or era…not even taking position into account. Just: hits. Hits! That’s like evaluating pitchers based on saves and deciding Pedro Martinez doesn’t get in because he only has three.

KT’s posting is lengthy, opinionated but actually on the mark.