Media | The Baseball Zealot

Mariotti on Fukodome

The Chicago Sun-Times’ Jay Mariotti pulls no punches against the White Sox front office in his analysis of the Cubs’ acquisition of Kosuke Fukudome.

"On the South Side, Fukudome is Japanese for brush-off. And when you add him to an earlier rejection by Torii Hunter, a failure to acquire Miguel Cabrera and a final knife in the back Wednesday from one of their old reliables — Aaron Rowand, who signed with San Francisco after telling Williams to shove his fewer-years offer — maybe the Sox should realize players in the industry aren’t real fond of their franchise, their plan or their way of doing business. In the spirit of the season, the Sox are Fred Claus, bitter and second-rate as the Cubs prepare to dominate another local summer and contend for a playoff berth again."

Bet that plays well on the South Side.

Tune in to hear the Zealot

I’ll be switching hats on Friday night. This time I’ll be the one interviewed. I’ll be a guest of Eric Loy on his radio show, DWS Sportsnite on Newstalk 1400 WDWS-AM based in Champaign, Illinois.

As far as I can tell, WDWS doesn’t stream their broadcast but those of you who live in the Champaign-Urbana area can catch me at 6:10pm Friday night.

The topic will be baseball (duh!) and despite the nasty, snowy weather out there right now, there’s actually a lot to cover right now between the Winter Meetings, Hall of Fame selections, Frick ballot, Hot Stove, Illini baseball…. I could go on forever.

Update: It was an enjoyable show. We discussed hot stove issues for three “local” teams (Cubs, Cardinals, Sox). Eric Loy knows his stuff and was so courteous to plug my blog twice.

Thanks to WDWS and Eric for the opportunity!

Enough with the Fat jokes, ok?

Ok, Tim Brown from Yahoo Sports, we get it. C.C. Sabathia is a tad on the heavy side. I count at least eight direct references to C.C’s weight in Brown’s article about the new Cy Young winner. And a few more subtle ones, too. Probably drinks Slim Fast for lunch.

Ok, Tim Brown from Yahoo Sports, we get it. C.C. Sabathia is a tad on the heavy side.

I count at least eight direct references to C.C’s weight in Brown’s article about the new Cy Young winner. And a few more subtle ones, too.

Probably drinks Slim Fast for lunch.

MLB’s DRM-laden videos no longer accessible for Red Sox fan

Allan Wood is a Red Sox fan and author of The Joy of Sox, a Red Sox blog. During the 2004 season, he purchased $280 worth of Red Sox game videos from MLB.com. Now, those videos are unable to play because MLB.com has gone on to a new deployment system. Wood blogged about it this morning and he’s … Continue reading “MLB’s DRM-laden videos no longer accessible for Red Sox fan”

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The problem?? Digital Rights Management or DRM.

What is Digital Rights Management? Sam Costello has a reasonably neutral definition for such a divisive issue.

Those media outlets who use DRM claim that DRM is necessary to preserve the copyright or digital rights to the intellectual property. However, I think it’s more than that. The frustrating thing about DRM is that it keeps ALL the control to the owners of the media and in situations like these when it may become obsolete, the customer has no recourse.

The frustrating thing for Allan Wood?? They are now selling the exact same games that he purchased 3 years ago (yes, the ones that won’t play) all over again.

Wood has talked to MLB and I have to say I’m surprised that they have been so responsive (bordering on rude). I’ve dealt with MLB.com’s media support once or twice on the phone and been ok.

I don’t know if Wood’s situation is isolated. Knowing how DRM works, I doubt it and Wood is one of few who is speaking up about it.

Also check out Ars Technica’s piece about Wood’s issue with MLB.

YES Man Kay slams Torre on his way out

Obviously, there is no love lost between YES man (and yes, you can take that two different ways) Michael Kay and Joe Torre.

Bob Raissman from the Daily News has the story.

TBS’ Skip Caray feels a bit left out

As you probably know, TBS will be broadcasting a good share of the postseason. And they’ll be doing without longtime announcer Skip Caray. TBS has elected to go with Dick Stockton, Ted Robinson and Don Orsillo for the NLDS. Skip apparently isn’t taking it very well going as far as to talking to the media … Continue reading “TBS’ Skip Caray feels a bit left out”

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Skip apparently isn’t taking it very well going as far as to talking to the media about it.

From the Atlanta Journal Constitution:

“I feel like I can do a better job than a tennis announcer or a football-basketball announcer,” Skip Caray said. “I’m not knocking Ted Robinson and Dick Stockton, but point of fact is they don’t do baseball anymore and I’m there every day.”

I’m not that familiar with Skip to make a call on his broadcasting skills. Also, with a few exceptions, I’m not too particular about who announces the games I listen to. Let me re-phrase that. You be amazed at the range of opinions out there on the topic.

That all said, I will have to comment on this quote by Skip…

Caray said he’d like to be voted into baseball’s Hall of Fame along with longtime broadcasting partner Pete Van Wieren someday. “But when your employer says you’re not good enough to do the playoffs, I don’t think that helps your chances.”

Sorry, Skip, I don’t care how good you think you are but lobbying for HOF induction just doesn’t look good. Bert Blyleven used to do it and I thought it looked bad… and I’m a big Blyleven fan.

Cubs in first and second??

Screen cap from USA Today standings page today: Making doubly sure that the Cubs are leading the division, I guess. Seriously, USAToday is experiencing some data import issues, I guess.

Screen cap from USA Today standings page today:

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Making doubly sure that the Cubs are leading the division, I guess.

Seriously, USAToday is experiencing some data import issues, I guess.

MLB.com brings on Silverlight

MLB.com has gone live with Silverlight as its default media player for its videos. There are some caveats though. One and a big one for me, it is not compatible with the Firefox web browser. Looking at my logs, some 30% people who hit The Baseball Zealot are using Firefox. Silverlight has been touted … Continue reading “MLB.com brings on Silverlight”

MLB.com has gone live with Silverlight as its default media player for its videos. There are some caveats though.

One and a big one for me, it is not compatible with the Firefox web browser. Looking at my logs, some 30% people who hit The Baseball Zealot are using Firefox. Silverlight has been touted as a cross-platform media player so I hope this incompatibility will be addressed.

Griffith joins Big Ten Network Broadcast Team

The Big Ten network have announced their broadcast team for 2007. In addition to Charles Davis and Thom Brennaman, former Illini fullback Howard Griffith will be part of the second on-air team.

The Big Ten network have announced their broadcast team for 2007.

In addition to Charles Davis and Thom Brennaman, former Illini fullback Howard Griffith will be part of the second on-air team.

All-Star wrap up

The ugly ass logo of this year’s All-Star game Before the game, Joe Buck and Tim McCarver were going on about how “now it really counts” but for Tony LaRussa it’s more than that and it’s a matter of pride and he wanted to break the AL streak etc etc. I think that’s how it … Continue reading “All-Star wrap up”

All-Star logo

The ugly ass logo of this year’s All-Star game

Before the game, Joe Buck and Tim McCarver were going on about how “now it really counts” but for Tony LaRussa it’s more than that and it’s a matter of pride and he wanted to break the AL streak etc etc.

I think that’s how it should have been all along except we didn’t need the home field advantage thing to give the teams the incentive to win. At least, we shouldn’t need it. Years past, managers were too concerned about making sure that all reserves and pitchers would get into the game rather than playing good fundamental baseball. We all remember the 2002 All-Star classic.

But the NL couldn’t pull it off despite Mr LaRussa using all his reserves… except one.

Now, with the bases loaded and down by one, why would you not tell one of the best hitters in the game to pick up a bat and get in the game? Pujols was itching to pinch hit for Rowand and if the situation called for it, he could have played the outfield. If LaRussa has a reason for refusing to do so, I don’t know it.

Pujols has publicly expressed frustration over the situation saying that he is “irked”.

Anyway, congrats to Ichiro for the whole running-around-the bases-without-being-tagged thing which contributed to his MVP award. Enjoy the Tahoe.

Note to Fox TV… the Eric Byrnes schtik in McCovey’s Cove was a joke. Don’t do it again.

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