Archive for June, 2009
NHL Winter Classic Comes to Fenway on New Year’s Day 2010
Posted by: | CommentsLike many Americans, I tend to watch hockey casually; if I come across a game while flipping around I’ll watch for a bit, especially if the matchup is intriguing, and/or if the score is close. From my point of view, it combines the back-and-forth action of soccer with the speed you get from skates. And hey, I’m not ashamed to admit that a little extra physicality makes things more interesting.
And out of all four American sports, I feel that hockey has gained the most from high definition television. I’m sure some folks will disagree with this, especially given all the crazy camera angles and analysis FOX does with football. After a play, they’ll generally show you five different camera angles, along with some graphics for good measure. But oddly enough, it’s the scaled down approach in hockey broadcasts, forced by the flow of the game itself, which I believe utilizes the technology most effectively. The action is constant, so there are very few breaks for slow motion, instant replay, graphically intense recaps, and so on.
What I like most about hockey broadcasts though, is that because the action is so constant, you generally have one camera angle that pans back and forth. So on my giant HD television, because the perspective rarely changes, hockey feels more like “you’re there” than any other sport.
Three paragraphs in and I’m blathering on about why hockey is awesome in high-def: nerdy, I know. But what I’m getting at, because I’m sure you read the title of the post first, is that the NHL Winter Classic should be coming to Fenway Park this year, as the Bruins take on the Flyers (not 100% confirmed, but it’s being reported everywhere today). For those who aren’t familiar, the Winter Classic is a NHL game held in an outdoor venue on New Year’s Day, and is considered a huge showcase game for the league.
There have been other outdoor games in NHL history, but this new series will be entering its third year. In 2008, the league took advantage of the Buffalo Sabres’ rabid fanbase by packing Ralph Wilson Stadium (home of the Buffalo Bills) with over 70,000 fans as they took on the Penguins. Going from a huge stadium to a more classic venue, the Blackhawks played the Red Wings in 2009 at Wrigley Field. And if the reports are true, the NHL will now visit baseball’s other classic stadium on the first day of 2010.
This series is a brilliant move by the NHL. It’s destination programming on an otherwise quiet day, and the unique nature of the venue packs the live crowd (a pretty huge feat in the middle of winter for Buffalo and Chicago), not to mention good television ratings. And hey, let’s be honest: most people are just getting through their New Year’s Eve hangovers, and I bet a few warm cups of coffee while watching an outdoor hockey game is pretty cozy, and helps. I don’t know what it is, but somehow a big hockey game on New Year’s Day just “feels right”. Much like watching the Detroit Lions lose on Thanksgiving Day.
And while I find high definition hockey to be entertaining, the Winter Classic in the same format is even better. The visual feel of the game is so unique, and you really feel as if you’re watching it from the stands in person. Granted, it’s still summer and New Year’s Day is very far away, but I’m already looking forward to seeing the game come to historic Fenway. Should be a fun game to watch as we collectively reboot from our partying.
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Pack Break Missionary Series 2 Trailer
Posted by: | CommentsI’m pretty amped up. How about you?
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Do Not Fear Injuries, For They Shall Renew Your Fandom
Posted by: | CommentsI’m sure the following is an experience most sports fans can relate to, but it’s never hit me personally more than this 2009 Mets team: sometimes, it’s more fun to watch your B-Squad than your stars. In this case, some of my strongest beliefs as a fan are being challenged, but I couldn’t be happier about it. Allow me to explain.
Following the 2000 Subway Series (where the Mets went up against the Yankees), things more or less went downhill for New York’s National League team. Mo Vaughn and Robbie Alomar are often cited as the two biggest failures of this Steve Phillips administration, symptomatic of a larger problem. The talent on the field couldn’t win, despite the team’s fairly substantial payroll. This all came to a head in 2004, when the team was sniffing an unlikely playoff berth and decided to “go all in”, trading top prospects for Kris Benson and Victor Zambrano: notoriously, fireballing lefty Scott Kazmir was traded for the latter. It didn’t work, and by the end of the season, it was decided that a massive change was needed.
Enter General Manager Omar Minaya, and he decided to rebrand the franchise immediately, signing Pedro Martinez to a four year deal. Carlos Beltran followed a few months later. Most fans knew the team wouldn’t contend in 2005, but a winning record was a step in the right direction. 2006 featured more top talent coming in with Carlos Delgado, a legit closer in Billy Wagner, and a still productive Paul Lo Duca. That season ended in a NLCS Game 7 that’s too painful to describe here.
In 2007 the team brought in . . . Moises Alou and Luis Castillo? Still wasn’t enough, as we endured the first “collapse”, where a playoff berth was denied on the last day of the season. And in 2008, Uncle Omar brought us all Johan Santana for Christmas, but there were no playoffs to be had for the second year in a row (again, decided on the last day). So in 2009, we wisely threw more money at fixing the bullpen in the form of Frankie Rodriguez and J.J. Putz.
Here’s what I’m getting at- in the last five years, the following All Star talent has come to the Mets from elsewhere: Pedro, Beltran, Delgado, Wagner, Lo Duca, Alou, Castillo, Santana, Rodriguez, Putz. And to show for it? One playoff appearance.
Now I’m not a spoiled fan, and if you ask me what I want from my team, I’ll flatly tell you: to at least contend every year, and let the chips fall where they may. I have no issues with paying top dollar for the best players, especially if you’re a big market team with needs at a position, and tickets to sell. That’s the way it goes. But the interesting thing about 2009 is that it seems as if every day, another player is going on the shelf: Reyes, Delgado, Putz, Oliver Perez, John Maine, Beltran, not to mention prior injuries to guys like Church. The star power of the team has been more or less decimated, and we trotted out this lineup yesterday:
1. Alex Cora SS
2. Daniel Murphy 1B
3. David Wright 3B
4. Fernando Tatis LF
5. Ryan Church RF
6. Omir Santos C
7. Jeremy Reed CF
8. Luis Castillo 2B
9. Tim Redding P
Does this look like the lineup for a baseball team with a $149 million payroll? I think not. They won though, clawing and scratching to score runs and prevent them. But here’s the best part: fans are loving this team. After months of lamenting the injuries and the team’s fate, it seems we’ve finally conceded that what happens will happen. There’s no longer any expectation or feeling that a playoff berth is obligated. It’s actually kind of freeing, in a way: the sort of “cheer and simply have fun watching the team” vibe that Yankees fans will never get to experience.
What helps the most though, and I’m trying to say this without sounding cliche- this B-Squad version of the team plays with heart. It actually hurts me to say this, because I’m the kind of fan who likes to see cold, hard facts. Give me a player with a high OBP any day, and you can keep your intangibles. Generally speaking, if I can’t see a trait a player has in a quantifiable way, I dismiss it. Given the choice between Albert Pujols’ amazing talent or David Eckstein’s legendary “scrappiness”, I’ll take the former over the latter. Every. Single. Time.
If you hit lots of home runs, get on base and can play adequate defense, I could care less about your attitude, unless you’re making life miserable for the players and fans around you. For example, Adam Dunn was the scapegoat for many years in Cincinnati, because he “didn’t play with enough heart” and struck out too much, all while routinely hitting 40 monster home runs and getting on base at a .380ish clip. As if we expect stolen bases and small ball from a 6′ 6”, 240 pound player? On the other side of the coin, when fans or journalists talk about how a certain player is worth a lot because he’s a “leader” or “plays the game the right way”, I scoff.
But this B-Squad Mets team is changing my perspective, at least a little. While I love Jose Reyes’ talent, Alex Cora’s leadership and positive attitude are helping keep morale high (and hey, a .387 OBP doesn’t hurt). I miss Carlos Delgado’s ability to get hot and hit game changing home runs, but Daniel Murphy’s obsessive relationship with the batting cages and improving his game helps ease the sting. Luis Castillo may have dropped that pop-up a short while ago and contributed to one of the most embarrassing losses I’ve seen, but he’s now playing with added drive and fire, and has made a number of spectacular plays in the field since. Gary Sheffield, after being released by the Tigers right before the season started, is now playing with a chip on his shoulder to prove them wrong at age 40, all for minimum league salary. Omir Santos? Not even a blip on our radar in Spring Training, and now a fan favorite who keeps coming up with clutch hits. And David Wright, the only active position player “star” left on this team is finally assuming the leadership role he couldn’t grab while the veteran stars were in the clubhouse.
So there’s absolutely no way the level of talent on this Mets squad is equal to their massive payroll. And while I won’t go so far as to spout a cliche that might make both of us cringe like, “But you can’t measure the level of heart on that field”, there’s something to be said for how they’ve changed my perspective. The guys with less natural ability are getting it done by working that much harder, and it’s a blast to watch. And hopefully, when the stars do come back from their injuries, that approach will remain intact.
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I Fell Into Mark Cuban’s Trap
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Although I haven’t followed the minute details of Mark Cuban’s life, I do like what I’ve seen from him. He seems to take his ownership of his team seriously, not just as a businessman, but as a fan. And we can all project ourselves onto that: I know that if I bought a sports team, I’d still prefer to watch the games from the stands with the fans, instead of in a stuffy, isolated box.
And at the end of the day, when your owner has an emotional investment in your favorite team, that’s never a bad thing (unless he makes rash, short sighted decisions like George Steinbrenner used to). You know that when your team loses, the owner is going to take it seriously. And seeing as how the Dallas Mavericks are no longer the joke they used to be (remember when they’d be the bottom rung team you always played first in NBA Jam? They were like the Glass Joe of that game), it’s done wonders for the fanbase.
That being said, seeing as how he was blogging and interacting with fans long before other celebrities jumped on the Twitter train, I was a bit surprised by his recent post about the credibility of blogs. He even used a “B” word that’s fairly profane from my point of view:
Unfortunately, ESPN and local newspapers, radio and TV media have become the patsies of bloggers. If some random blogger reports that “he has heard that a trade of Joe for John is being discussed”, then the traditional media, as they have told me many times “is requested by their editor to run it down and see if its real”. Its almost like a sad joke. How do you make an ESPN reporter jump ? Make up something and put it on your blog. Somewhere a bunch of sports bloggers are playing a drinking game. Chug if the other guys made up trade rumor makes the ESPN crawl.
How to stop it ? ESPN.com puts up a page of blacklisted blogs and websites who’s posts they wont comment on or report on in any way. It will create a short term surge of traffic for those sites, but then they will go away as the proprietors of the sites realize that being discredited is not a good thing.
This is a pretty misguided suggestion on a number of levels. For starters, ESPN is not exactly a beacon of journalistic integrity. No doubt, they are the strongest sports media entity around, but they built their brand on entertainment like SportsCenter, and gimmicks like having the audience vote on “Who’s #1?” And they’ve had a baseball reporter on their network for years who has been known to lie about stories, or just can’t remember them correctly. In any event, Joe Morgan and say, Dick Vitale, as cherished as they may be among many fans, are not the sports reporting equivalent of Walter Cronkite.
Cuban acts like unsubstantiated sports rumors didn’t exist before blogs. When I was in elementary school, my morning routine involved grabbing the Newsday we had delivered each morning, and going through the sports section while wolfing down whatever sugary cereal we had in the house (particularly fond memories of Rice Krispies Treats cereal…that sounds pretty good right about now as I write this). And guess what? They usually printed trade rumors. Granted, these were from beat reporters, but they didn’t always pan out. So what’s the difference between a beat reporter speculating on a trade, and a fan looking at different wants and needs for teams and how they could fit? For example, sports talk radio has always revolved around Joe Sixpack calling and offering some crazy trade for listeners to chew on.
(Side note, cant help myself: Not sure if this is still a standard, but Yankee fans used to call into New York sports radio shows with the most lopsided trade ideas you could possibly think of . . . yet they’d be dead serious about the validity for both teams. You know, something like, “We need pitching help, so I think we should trade Brett Gardner, Kei Igawa and Phil Coke to the Blue Jays for Roy Halladay.” Does this still happen?)
Here’s my real point: at the start of this decade, only a handful of guys controlled the vast majority of media outlets. If you had something you wanted to express, you’d either need to attach yourself to their resources, or try and publish it on your own (far easier said than done with the latter). Fast forward to 2009, and everyone has a voice: me, you, a blogger who makes up trade rumors and yes, Mark Cuban.
If you’re a fan of open communcation, it’s a wonderful time. Anyone can express anything, from the most intelligent ideas to drivel that was made up on a whim. But a blacklist isn’t necessary, and certainly not censorship of any kind. Want to know why? Because what we’re seeing moving forward is the democratization of mass media. Everyone can express themselves, anyone can read it, and the cream rises to the top based on the reputation you build for yourself.
Speaking of which, I bet Mr. Cuban knew that by writing that post, he’d get bloggers such as myself to get up in arms, comment and link to it. So kudos to him: I bet there’s a big traffic spike today. False rumors? Sure, posting those can help traffic. But if you really want to grab attention? Nothing beats calling out the whole blogging community and what they do. They’ll all get up in arms and link to you in a heartbeat.
Hook, line and sinker Mark, you got me. Everyone else too.
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Hitting a Collecting Grand Slam with Derek Jeter
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The five winners from Upper Deck’s Yankee Stadium Legacy Collection contest pose with Yankees Team Captain Derek Jeter alongside the YSL card collection that was on display at the NYY Steak restaurant in New York on June 16. From left: Kent Hayes, Tommy Baxter, Josh Adams, Leo Wiznitzer, Jeter and Chuck Sauter.
They traveled to New York City from as far away as Panama, Sacramento, Little Rock, Pensacola and Largo, Florida. And thanks to Upper Deck, their tickets were covered, as were their hotel accommodations and meals. “They” were the five Yankee Stadium Legacy Collection contest winners that Upper Deck promised would meet none other than New York Yankees Team Captain Derek Jeter if they were able to put together the company’s mammoth YSL baseball card insert set from 2008 chronicling every Yankees home game ever played at the old Yankee Stadium starting in 1923.
Each of the fantastic five not only pieced together the enormous, 6,661-card collection of inserts, but they did it before the April 30, 2009, deadline closed. Leo Wiznitzer, in fact, made things interesting by sending in his set on the final day of eligibility. “I wasn’t even aware that there was a grand prize involved,” he explained, “not until about ten days before the contest ended.”
But when he heard about the chance to not only meet Jeter, but to also have lunch with the 11th Yankee Team Captain in history, it was too cool to pass up. “Mariano Rivera’s actually my favorite Yankee player, but Jeter is such a terrific guy,” said Wiznitzer, who was simply putting the set together for several months because he wanted to.
YES Network producer Christa Robinson interviews YSL contest winner Leo Wiznitzer.
On Tuesday, June 16, Wiznitzer, who lives in Panama, along with Tommy Baxter (Little Rock); Chuck Sauter (Pensacola); Kent Hayes (Sacramento); and Josh Adams (Largo), all got their chance to live out a baseball dream by having lunch with Jeter at the NYY Steak restaurant, which is located inside the new Yankee Stadium; attend batting practice on the field that afternoon; and then watch the Yankees battle the Washington Nationals that evening from field-box seats up the third-base line.
“This was even better than I expected,” said Hayes, who brought along his eight-year-old son, Everett. “Jeter was super.”
Starting at 1 p.m., with the YES (Yankees Entertainment & Sports) Network filming for a small feature they plan to run next week and Yankees Magazine on hand, I introduced each of the five winners to Jeter, who was gracious and seemed excited to meet his guests as well as get a glimpse of the Yankee Stadium Legacy Collection set we had on display at NYY Steak. “Can I get this, with the cards?” he asked me smiling, after I told him it was a 1-of-1 display case. After some personal grip-and-grin pictures were taken, everybody sat down to lunch and a casual question-and-answer session ensued.
Tommy Baxter gets some press on YES Network
“Who was your sports idol growing up?” “What’s your favorite sports movie of all time?” “Do you have any pregame rituals you can share?” “Did you play other sports growing up?” “When did you sign your first autograph?”
Jeter was courteous and provided well-thought-out answers to each of the questions. As lunch orders were taken (Derek went with a chicken dish, veggies and a tall glass of water), he answered with responses like: “Dave Winfield was my idol growing up. My favorite sports movie is the original Major League. It’s such a funny movie. And I loved 61*. I don’t really have any pregame rituals or superstitions I do – unlike Wade Boggs and his need to always eat chicken before every game – but I always get to the ballpark early [2:30 p.m. for a 7:05 start], stretch and listen to some R&B music. I played every sport growing up, but I always liked baseball the best. And I signed my very first autograph while I was in high school, which I thought was kind of strange at the time.”
Josh Adams proudly wearing his Yankee jersey.
At 2:10 p.m., following a pair of short interviews with YES and Yankees Magazine, Jeter relocated his seat to make his virtual world debut at UpperDeckU.com, Upper Deck’s recently unveiled online world for kids. More than 300 kids from across the country signed up to ask the star shortstop various questions and he knocked out hundreds of answers with the help of keyboard aficionados Carrie Peterson, Upper Deck’s online marketing manager, and Christine Lee, the company’s events planner. He giggled, drank coffee and seemed amazed that the online avatars on the flat screen in front of him represented actual kids eager to chat.
At 3 p.m., Jeter said his good-byes to everyone, including the wait staff at NYY Steak, signed a few select items for the YSL contest winners, and then made his way toward the clubhouse by exiting through the kitchen door. The YSL winners, still buzzing about their time with Jeter, were then treated to a private tour of Yankee Stadium, which included a memorable visit to Monument Park behind the centerfield wall.
Jeter coming in from shagging flies in the outfield.
At 5 p.m., five of the guests were granted on-field access for batting practice. Sauter and Adams were part of the contingent, while Hayes sent his son, Everett; Wiznitzer let his 12-year-old nephew, David, attend; and Baxter watched his 11-year-old daughter, Madeleine, accompany the group down to the field. And almost like it was scripted, Jeter – on his way to the dugout after shagging flies – stopped by and signed more autographs for Upper Deck’s lucky attendees as well as for some other rabid fans nearby.
Jeter signs for YSL contest winners including Madeleine Baxter, left, and Josh Adams (with backpack).
Jeter signs Josh Adams’s Yankee jersey on the No. 2.
The game ended on a high note as the Yankees won, 5-3, and Mariano Rivera notched his 15th save of the season (497th of his career). And even though Jeter went 0-for-3 with a walk, and left the game with a nagging ankle injury in the seventh inning, the evening was a complete grand slam for Upper Deck’s five winners and their guests.
“We had a great time,” said Hayes. “I don’t think we could have asked for more.”
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