Category: Media

Looks like MLB.TV’s Mosaic for Mac is out in beta format.

If there are any Mac users out there who want to try it, I’m curious how well it works. Beware, it IS beta and there are known issues.

Baseball Analyst Peter Gammons is slowly but surely making his way back to work with his first column since his aneurysm.

Gammons relates a story that illustrates when things started to get back to normalcy for him:

I had been transferred from the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston to the Rehabilitation Hospital of the Cape and the Islands. I was perusing the morning box scores in the Cape Cod Times when I brusquely asked my nurse, “Linda, how did Austin Kearns get to the Nationals?”

I’ll bet Krivsky is asking the same thing.

Welcome back, Peter.

I’m excited about the weekend. The wife and I are going to the Cards/Giants game on Friday night. I’m looking forward to seeing Albert play and it will be interesting to see the crowd’s reaction to Barry Bonds. Schmidt and Suppan are the starters.

This will also be the first time I’ve been to their new stadium.

I’ve been to the old Busch a few times. My biggest memory was seeing Ozzie Smith (in his prime) make 2 errors in one game. Bad luck follows me wherever I go, I guess. That was in the days when he had Tommy Herr as a DP partner. Herr was one of the most under rated 2B defensively from his time period, in my opinion.

To close out, Mike Lopresti from the USA Today has a nice puff piece called No Telling How High Albert Pujols Can Go. Maybe it’s me, but if I a Cards fan, I’d get a little nervous after reading that, I’m not superstitious (much) but that kind of talk can jinx a player.

Go Albert.

Looks like we can vote for the Hank Aaron award brought to you by Century 21. Of course, you are treated to a video ad for the real estate company while you vote.

Does anyone know if these votes are binding? That would be a shame. Most people (myself included) don’t know what all the nominees have done for their communities so it would just end up to be a popularity contest.

Albert Pujols is the nominee for the Cardinals. That’s no surprise considering everything he has done via the Pujols Family Foundation.

Ryan Dempster is the Chicago Cubs nominee. That’s appropriate. He’s been so charitable towards so many NL teams this year.

Logged into MLB.TV’s Mosaic tonight and lo and behold! Player Tracker is working as promised. I noticed a few updates were pushed up last night so I’m sure that had something to do with it.

I quickly plugged in my “favorite players”. You can read that as “players on my APBA team”.

While on the topic of Mosaic, they’ve made another enhancement. For those games that are blacked out, you can double-click and a enhanced GameDay panel will open. It isn’t anything anyone can’t get from MLB.com and quite honestly (and for a reason I can’t quite explain) the graphics aren’t a whole lot better.

I can’t see using this too often ‘cept maybe to check on the status of a game. If I’m going to use Mosaic, it’s so I can watch a live game.

Oh I gotta go, “Luis Gonzalez is batting for the Arizona Diamondbacks’.

According to MLB.TV Mosaic’s web log, the latest update enables Player Tracker, something they have been touting for a while.

Put simply, Player Tracker allows you to enter a list of players you wish to follow. Whenever any of your players is making an appearance in a game (either at the plate or in the mound), Mosaic will alert you at the bottom of the screen. If you want, you can click on the alert and it will take you directly to the game.

Thing is, I haven’t gotten it to work yet. When I click Update, it spits back a strange code (Player &r2=&r) which I assume is some sort of code variable.

I’m curious if there is anyone out who has gotten this feature to work. If so, drop a comment.

MSNBC contributing author Mike Celizik is a bit confused about the Red Sox Nation.

In his article about Pedro Martinez’ return to Fenway last night, he insists that Red Sox fans must boo the former Boston star.

They’ve got to boo him like no one not named Roger Clemens has ever been booed in Boston’s little jewel of a ballpark. They’ve got to hiss and scream and bellow until the air is congested with spittle. They’ve got to boo his backside back to that mango tree in the Dominican Republic he once talked about sitting under.

Hmm. Anger issues much?

Commenters to his article, many of them Red Sox fans, had no qualms about telling him that he was clueless about the situation.

Celizik claims this would have nothing to do with logic rather it is a “emotional thing”. Further, he was sure that Sox fans would give them all they got.

Well, they did in a way.

The fans of Boston gave Pedro a warm welcome he won’t soon forget. They chanted Pedro! Pedro! as he warmed up before the game and he signed autographs for many fans.

The Red Sox team, however had a different type of welcome for Martinez though. They tagged him for 8 runs in 3 innings for his fourth loss of the season. Pedro maintained perspective:

“It’s not disappointing at all,” Martinez said. “The reception I got, I will always remember that as one of the best moments of my life.”

You’ve probably heard. Baseball analyst Peter Gammons had a brain aneurysm. He is currently resting after an operation to treat the aneurysm.

Gammons is one of few hard core intelligent baseball people to stay within the realm of today’s sports media world full of ex-jocks. I suppose it is to the credit of ESPN to recognize Gammons’ value.

Gammons was the Sportswriter of the Year three times, 1989, 1990 and 1993. He was honored with the J.G. Taylor Spink Award for outstanding baseball writing in 2005.

Something I didn’t know. Gammons plays guitar and actually has an album out. Yes, that’s the cover you see above. He’s also played at a charity concert organized by Theo Epstein.

Get Well Gammons.