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In a stunning blow to Red Sox Nation, the evil empire scooped up Johnny D. last night. Say it ain’t so, somebody? The Boston Globe’s Dan Shaughnessy sums it up this way:

So now your Boston Red Sox have no center fielder, no shortstop, and no first baseman to go along with no Theo Epstein and no clue. It’s fair to say this is becoming a winter of discontent in Red Sox Nation.

Ah, there is trouble in Beantown, and no savoir in sight. How could the front office have let Johnny Damon go? I can only hope the Braves pickup of BoSox refugee Edgar Renteria gives my other fave team some help in 2006 with Furcal heading to the Dodgers.

technorati tags: red sox, yankees, baseball, boston, braves, furcal, damon

Tags: Sports

Talk about convergence! Girls and (fantasy) football, courtesy of the advertising geniuses at Weiden + Kennedy. ESPN.com fantasy football implements a tried-and-true way to get the attention of the coveted 18-34 male demographic - babes. Link to the videos here(Quicktime).

(Via Adrants)

Tags: Sports, Video

The Associated Press and News Corp.-owned Stats, Inc. announced yesterday that they were forming a joint venture to “create a one-stop shopping destination…providing the best and most comprehensive sports information and context to their customers.” It’s an interesting play (sorry for the sports pun), combining two of the biggest sports data companies, a potential blow to #3 provider Sportsticker, owned by ABC/Disney/ESPN.

PaidContent.orgtalks about potential conflict with the leagues over the consolidation, citing the now-ancient NBA v. Stats, Inc & Motorola suit. That set the precedent in the mid-90s allowing the ‘facts of the game’ to be public domain. But the real battles in terms of statistical access have revolved around reporter/data gatherer’s access to some venues. My old company, Morris Communications, sued the PGA Tour relative to rights to gather and distribute detailed golf scoring information, but for all intents and purposes, Morris lost that battle. And there have been various dustups over reporter’s rights to gather detailed MLB data, like pitch position and such, and the ballyhooed controversy recently over the official licenses for fantasy sports activities.

I would argue, however, that the leagues will appreciate the fact that the data consolidators are also now all tied, in some way, to business units that own broadcast rights. That just gives them more ability to press these providers to behave how they want them to.

If more leagues go to great lengths to create data themselves about their events, the PGA Tour case could have great ramifications. But on the flipside (and I’m no lawyer, so take this with a grain of salt), if the scoring aggregators are performing similar feats to provide their content, they may gain other protections.

Tags: Sports

Well, not literally. But now Amy and I have a real understanding of military planning, logistics and supply lines. We packed the Rover full of gear to take Sam on his first road trip, down I-16/I-75 to Savannah on Memorial Day weekend. Grandma and Uncle Jerry enjoyed him immensely! See the photo gallery here.

Tags: Gallery, Photography, sam, Sports

Despite the calendar indicating it’s still the depths of winter, Sports Illustrated has it’s annual respite for all of us. The annual Swimsuit Issue launched today on SI.com. 2005 is the first year since 1997 that I haven’t worked on the production of the online version of the American icon, but it’s great to see the issue without getting sick of all the photos weeks in advance of the public release. The magazine blessed the release of close to double the number of photos in past years, although some are for magazine subscribers only. But there are tons of free video clips (it was pay-only in past years), and a smattering of VR photography by my friend Bruce Kaufman. And my friend Chris Gibbons created some very slick Flash features for the Rate-a-Photo section. Another new feature this year is a digital edition of the magazine available for download for $4.99. The application from company OliveSoftware uses their ‘ActivePaper’ technology, basically serving the assets to registered users via Flash. An interesting model, so to speak. Anyway, start clicking!

Tags: Photography, Sports

My hometown of Savannah, GA is in the news today, but not for a terribly positive reason. Savannah State University, one of the country’s historically African-American colleges, achieved the dubious honor of going 0-28 this season with a loss to Florida A&M 49-44 on Monday night. In 50 years, only one other Division 1-A team has lost every game. Head coach Edward Daniels’ explained to the Savannah Morning News that his former coach Al McGuire taught him to ‘keep a sense of humor…You can’t let things get you down so far that you’re a Grim Reaper-type guy.’ Well, maybe going 0-28 gives you reason to be just a little bit down…Read coverage at SI.com here, and at the Savannah Morning News site here.
Photograph by Richard Burkhart/Savannah Morning News

Tags: Sports

So we didn’t have Massachusetts’ native son win the highest office in the land. As a consolation prize, the Red Sox and now the Patriots claimed the highest honors in their respective sports. I don’t expect the Celtics to join the club this year, and of course, the Bruins are playing golf instead of hockey this year. But kudos to the Patriots for their third Super Bowl championship in four years.

Tags: Sports

The New York Times Richard Sandomir reports today (free registration required) that subscribers to Sports Illustrated can call a toll-free number to skip the annual Swimsuit issue and instead extend their subscription by one issue. SI management is quoted as saying that this has always been the policy - but the mag decided this year to post a message in their pages stating this explicitly. So far, 25,829 have opted out. That’s 0.8% of the magazine’s stated 3.2 million subscribers. When the policy wasn’t publicized last year, a total of 21,065 skipped the issue.

Tags: Sports

Well, not exactly. It’s not an XML feed - it’s a pay-to-download deal the NFL has struck with Audible.com to offer day-after recordings of the remaining playoff games, plus the Superbowl. Games should cost users $10 each, or up to $5 for game highlights. Yawn. Who wants to listen to a game after the fact. Especially football. I hope Audible didn’t pay too much for this deal. Read more in this AP story.

Tags: Sports

Petra Nemcova, the 2005 SI Swimsuit Issue cover model, survived the tidal wave while vacationing in Phuket, Thailand with her boyfriend (who remains missing). She is suffering from a broken pelvis and internal injuries, but is expected to return to her home in the Czech Republic soon. She has been in every annual Swimsuit issue since she first appeared in 2002

Tags: Sports