mlb

Why the MLB steriods debacle is a crock

In a slight departure from what I normally cover here on the Digital Home, I thought I would touch on one of the biggest stories affecting all media today -- the MLB steroids debacle.

In the extremely unlikely chance that you've been able to stay away from any and all news surrounding the topic, George Mitchell -- the MLB's resident steroids czar -- released a huge report detailing how deep steroids and Human Growth Hormone (HGH) use runs in Major League Baseball.

According to former Senator Mitchell, a whopping 87 players have been implicated in his first testing and in a statement to the press, he mentioned that subsequent investigations will surely conjure up even more stories about player abuse of both steroids and HGH.

But after reading the majority of the report and going over the finer details describing exactly how Mitchell and his minions caught these players, I'm hard-pressed to see how this even matters. As best as I can tell, only three players -- Daniel Naulty, Wally Joyner and Andy Pettitte -- have admitted to using illegal substances, while many of the others were implicated on circumstantial evidence -- at best.

With that in mind, how can we make a judgment on one man's career if he cannot be implicated of a crime, he will not be brought up on charges and cannot clear his name of any wrongdoing if Mitchell's report was factually incorrect? Sadly, we can't.

And it's for this reason that this report is not only nominally important, it's a crock.… Read more

Episode 599: Et tu, Prince?

Jacked launching Netvibes-like platform for live TV

This weekend Jacked.com is launching the first stages of its service. The easiest way to describe it is like a souped-up Netvibes you can use as a reference while watching live television programming. The service is rolling out its features slowly, beginning with a partnership with Notre Dame and NBC Sports to serve up real-time content for Notre Dame's football season which starts on Saturday. NBC is billing the service as "Play Action." You can visit the site now, but there won't be anything on it until game day.

Jacked is linked up to what you're watching on TV, so say you're watching the game, and a player scores. Jacked's smattering of Web widgets will pull up the player's stats, photos, related news stories, a comparison chart of that play to others, etc. The idea is to save you from having to track down player, team, and historical information on your own, and serving it up automatically.

The widgets are powered by a group of underlying technologies that scan through live TV content and grab bits and pieces of information from its metadata. Combine that with things like optical character recognition, and you've got lots of information to work with. The result is an impressive array of widgets, that--when viewed during a live broadcast--will pull up information and related content seconds after it happens.… Read more

This watch has its game face on

During football season, there are really only two times of day: game time, and the lame 164 or so hours a week when your team isn't playing.

Finally, there's a watch that realizes this. The Pro Sports Schedule Watch comes preloaded with your favorite NFL or MLB team's season schedule.

These $130 watches aren't one-year wonders, either. The USB-compatible watch can download future schedules from the Web, so you'll always have the current schedule on your wrist.

When it's game time, the watch plays "The Star Spangled Banner" for football games or &… Read more

NHL nets deal with Sling Media

Major League Baseball might not be a fan of Sling Media, but the National Hockey League on Wednesday announced its support of a forthcoming Sling feature called "Clip + Sling."

The NHL is the first pro sports league to make a deal with Sling. Clip + Sling is a feature that will allow Slingbox users to select clips of live or recorded television and share them with others. Though the content can only be clipped by Slingbox users, anyone can access the Web portal that will host the clips. The 2-year-old company also has a Clip + Sling licensing deal with … Read more

Sling called out by Major League Baseball

Is watching an out-of-market baseball game illegal? Potentially yes, according to Major League Baseball.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Esq. a lawyer for the league's Advanced Media division said Slingbox's capability to placeshift MLB content--that is, allow owners to watch their subscription channels from a remote location--is illegal, and MLB is mulling a lawsuit.

"Of course, what they are doing is not legal," MLB general counsel Michael Mellis told the publication. "We and other leagues have formed a group to study the issue and plan our response. A lot depends on ongoing discussions. … Read more

Take me out to the ball game

The Washington Nationals may not have the best record, but they're ahead of the game in creating new ways to use your cell phone. As of April 26, the team is letting fans use digital tickets on their handsets to gain admission to games. After buying a ticket from the team's Web site, you can request to have it sent directly to a phone in a multimedia message (MMS). You then take your phone directly to the admission gate where they scan the bar code from your handset's screen. Then it's off to enjoy the ball … Read more

MLB.tv having trouble handling season opening demand

If you're a real baseball fan, watching games online instead of on TV is one of the more frustrating uses of the Internet. But for some fans who subscribed to Major League Baseball's online package, watching the first games of the 2007 season was a study in aggravation.

In the wake of MLB's exclusive deal with DirecTV--in which the season-long Extra Innings package is available only on that one satellite network, rather than on any number of cable networks--many hard-core fans have had little choice but to turn to the Internet to get access to the … Read more