Looking at the Game of Baseball from all ends of the Spectrum
Someone has a pretty slick YouTube channel called Baseball in Slow-Motion. Appropriately enough, itâs populated with high quality slow motion videos of Major League baseball players in action.
Hereâs an example showing Buster Poseyâs hitting mechanics:
Baseball Reference is now on Twitter.
From what I can tell theyâll be including updates to the B-R blog and their always interesting Stat of the Day blog.
It looks like MLB Advanced Media will be incorporating a Twitter client within its Gameday and MLB.tv interfaces for those fans who use the social networking tool.
I took the above screen captures from a Gameday stream between the Cubs and the Rockies. The presence of the Twitter window will be opt-in (chosen by a tab) so for those who donât use it, it wonât use up valuable screen real estate.
The question is will the new system get used?? Most avid Twitter users already have a preferred method of using the micro-blogging tool, most likely a client program theyâre comfortable with.
But perhaps, it will spur the group of people who signed on to Twitter but never continued to use it⌠to start using it (Donât know where I heard it but I think the majority of Twitter accounts remain inactive). Maybe even some new people might give it a try.
ESPN has now issued new guidelines to its employees on how they will interact on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter.
Essentially, the guidelines are two-pronged. First, they prohibit discussing (on any social network forum) internal policies or how stories are âreported, written or producedâ.
Second (and more open-ended), they prohibit employees from having sports-related blogs or websites. Further, they require a supervisorâs approval before discussing sports matters on a social networking forum. If employees violates the new policy, they are subject to dismissal or suspension.
To the first point, I agree with ESPNâs point. Internal matters stay within the business. To not do so would open up a whole can of messy legal worms.
As to the second point, I feel ESPN is going down the wrong road. They are missing the whole point of social networking. I donât want to subscribe to Rob Neyerâs twitter stream so I can hear about his vacation.
Will ESPN abandon Twitter and Facebook altogether? Iâm sure they wonât. They will have ESPN-sanctioned accounts in which the content will be very factual indeed but come off as stilted and will smack of the âcompany lineâ.
Should ESPN have come out with guidelines on how to deal with these new-fangled social networking sites? Of course! Employ new guidelines to encourage responsible online behavior. Encourage employees to interact with the public and put a good face forward.
But to totally ban discussing the very topic that they are in the business to report seems so backwards to me. And to threaten dismissal as a punishment⌠the mind reels.
Get with the times, ESPN. Itâs a brand new world out here.