Early this morning, Turner launched the new NBA.com - and our intrepid ads team was there at the dawn of crack (5ish) to make sure our piece of the puzzle went smoothly. Check out the site, it’s pretty spiffy, if you’re into that whole basketball thing.
Tags: advertising, launch, nba, techwood, turner
We passed an important milestone. We became (drumroll please) - soccer parents today. We succumbed to the pressure, and signed Sam up for YMCA soccer in the 4 and under age group. Our friends the Casson’s son was there, as was the Ferguson’s little girl too. I also ran into my old buddy Lee Clontz who’s older son was playing in a nearby field. I guess this is a taste of things to come. Sam even scored a goal during his match - we were quite proud!
Now I’m not saying this is the only reason, but I do not believe it’s purely coincidental that the Red Sox have only won the World Series in any years since 1918 when my lovely wife was not pregnant! With Sam in 2004, and now with the player yet-to-be-named roiling around in Amy’s belly in her 39th week, our beloved Sox have won yet again. Now while I’d like to assure all my Red Sox friends that we will keep up our end of this bargain, I may need some help convincing Amy of the same. Anyway, I’m darn ecstatic, and know that Sammy will be at least as excited when he wakes up to hear the news in the morning. Go SOX!
Tags: baseball, pregnancy, red sox, sam, world series
My nephew Taylor Hogan’s Rochester (NY) Monarchs made it to the USA Hockey Tier1 12-and-under semi-finals of the national organization’s annual hockey tournament. We had flown into Rochester for the Passover holiday, and were able to make the drive over to Buffalo where the championships were being held to see the semi-final game. The Rochester Monarchs unfortunately lost to the Colorado Thunderbirds team 6-4. But check out the ‘do on the Rochester team members! The whole gallery can be found here.
The 2006 Leroy the Hoard FFL title game came down to the tiebreaker of bench points, with my nemesis the Cadaver Dogs winning their second league crown.
After the starters finished deadlocked 111-111, the Dogs’ bench routed the Joebobs Bombers reserves. Ironically, the bulk of the points from the Bombers’ bench came from QB Matt Hasselbeck with 14. Had the Bombers realized Drew Brees wasn’t scheduled for much action for the playoff-bound Saints, his 14 points to Brees’ 1 would have given Joebobs the win. With only 95 seconds left to go after the Manning-to-Harrison TD pass, I was up 111-104. Then Cutler passes to Scheffler, for 7 total points. Sob. A true rookie mistake on my part, not realizing Brees would be on the sidelines. I always have this loyalty thing going with my fantasy team, trying not to change my lineup too much - here, it bit me in the tush. Meanwhile, a late missed field goal against the Steelers by Shayne Graham cost both the Bengals a playoff spot and also a clear-cut win for the Cadaver Dogs.
Congrats to the Dogs. Maybe I’ll have better luck next year…
Tags: Sports
No, not the real SuperBowl - I’m talking fantasy here! For the first time since ever, my sad little fantasy football team has not only made it into the postseason but won last week’s semifinal (sorry Firf) to contend for the title of the Leroy the Hoard Fantasy Football League. It’s a pretty competitive field - mostly sports writers and current or ex- SI.com folks who tend to know a great deal more about the ins and outs of the NFL than yours truly. But in keeping with the league’s namesake, I have persevered over the years to never really distinguish myself. My opponent, the illustrious Cadaver Dogs (9-5, 4th seed) are off against my JoeBob’s Bombers (9-5, 3rd seed). The Bombers have owned their division rival in the regular season (6-2 in the modern era) including a week 14 win to claim the Rosey Potts division title and relegate the Dogs to the Wild Card play-in game. But the Cadaver Dogs hold the edge where it counts - 1-0 head-to-head in playoffs and 1-0 in league crowns. Hopefully, this year will be different. Here are the lineups:
| JoeBob’s Bombers | Cadaver Dogs | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| QB | Drew Brees - NO v. Car | QB | Tony Romo - Dal v. Det |
| RB | Ladell Betts - Was v. NYG | RB | LaDainian Tomlinson - SD v. Ari |
| RB | Larry Johnson - KC v. Jac | RB | Steven Jackson StL @ Min |
| WR | Marvin Harrison - Ind v. Mia | WR | Jerricho Cotchery - NYJ v. Oak |
| WR | Eddie Kennison - KC v. Jac | WR | Vincent Jackson - SD v. Ari |
| TE | Todd Heap - Bal v. Buf | TE | Tony Scheffler - Den v. SF |
| DST | Jacksonville Jaguars - Jac @ KC | DST | San Diego Chargers - SD v. Ari |
| K | Jay Feely - NYG @ Was | K | Shayne Graham - Cin v. Pit |
Tags: Sports, Uncategorized
Watching the Open Championship (aka The British Open to us Yanks), I thought I spotted an unusual mode of transportation being used by one of the roving camera positions. A quick search of the wires found the image above - a television cameraman operating a steadicam rig atop a Segway was in fact following the golfers. Having chased the likes of Tiger, Norman, Els and the rest of them in the past, I know how heavy all that gear can be - seems like a perfect application of Dean Kamen’s technology. In the image above by AP Photographer Alastair Grant), you can see the driver has the rig aimed backwards at the group walking down the fairway - probably a lot easier this way than fast-walking backwards into one of those pot bunkers! I’m pretty sure this is a custom version of the XT model - while they do sell a version of the scooter adapted for the player with more money than sense that also carries their golf bag (the GT), I don’t see a camera-ready version on their site.
Tags: golf, Sports, Television
Unlike back in the day when I was with CNNSI.com, real-time biometric and GPS data on the competitors in the Tour de France is now apparently being published into the public domain. Typolis/Ubilabs have created an amazing mashup between Google Maps and data being published by SRM. Here is the result - realtime tracking of the riders, complete with heartrate, speed and similar metrics. Very slick - and better than what I’ve seen on the ‘big sites’ - including ESPN.com. Too bad we can’t see Lance or his disqualified heirs to the yellow jersey.
As an early Father’s Day present, Jonathan hooked me up with BoSox tickets for their interleague series against our hometown Atlanta Braves at nearby Turner Field. Yes, I’m a Braves fan, but I’m a bigger Red Sox fan, and jumped at the chance to let Sam see them play. This was Sam’s third MLB game, the first at six weeks, and then again last Fall. As in the past, he was a bit overwhelmed by the crowd noise and the sheer number of people, but soon began to enjoy himself. The BoSox won, of course, pushing Atlanta further into a downward spin they have been in lately, this being their 16th loss in 19 games, and their worst record since 1990. In better news, this win - along with the Yankees loss today - put the Red Sox into a tie for first in the AL-East. Woohoo. Photo gallery is here.
Editor and Publisher has released the 2006 EPpy Awards (full list here), an annual competition in some 32 categories chiefly focused on new media in the print industry, and several buddies of mine can claim a part in some of the larger awards. My old friend from his AOL Sports days Jim Brady led Washingtonpost.com to Best Overall Newspaper-Affiliated Internet Service (>1M uniques) as their executive editor and vp. Former Augusta Chronicle photographer Natalee Waters current newspaper The Roanoke Times took home the same award in the under 1-million unique visitors category (one of her audio/picture stories can be seen here). In the Best Internet News Service under 1 million category, The Naples Daily News took the honor where my old boss John Fish and his director of new media Rob Curley won that award. Last but not least my old buds at SI.com took home the award for Best Internet Sports Service over 1 million.
Tags: awards, journalism, new, Sports
