Category Archives: Red Sox

Web 2.0 Goes Jock

Co-worker Matt pointed me to BallHype, found via TechCrunch.

I do my share of sports watching. But I don’t read/watch much sports reporting. I find it too repetitive. I mean, how many times can one person hear about Terrel Owen’s latest meltdown? Once is plenty. Even sports writers that I enjoy, like Bill Simmons, are a bit hit-or-miss.

BallHype looks like it will help me filter. I’m going to let it show me what is interesting and what isn’t. I get to help shape what is seen as important and what isn’t. Neat twist: I can pick games and get to have my record tracked and matched against others.

I think Web 2.0 mavens look at this and say “boring, it’s been done, look at Digg.” I think everyone else will be a bit confused at first. But this is one of those websites that can jump from the first 50,000 users up to 500,000 and maybe even 50,000,000. They’re combining some of the social website dynamics that have flowered in the last couple years with an audience that has been proven to be loyal and lucrative in other areas. I think it could take off.

If you register, search for ‘dunster‘ and add me as a friend.

Happy Truck Day

As always, Soxaholix has a finger firmly on the pulse of Red Sox Nation (the good one, not Lucky Larry’s commercial RSN doppelganger). And Eric Wilbur managed to drag up an excellent quote from one Dr. Charles Steinberg:

In any baseball city, the truck’s departure for Spring Training connects with a lot of fans. In Boston and in New England, that is magnified so many times over. Instead of just making it our little private fireplace of warmth, you want to connect with the fans, resonate with the fans, share it with the fans, give them a chance to celebrate spring as well.

When you see the images of snow at one end and sunshine at the other … this trip is a metaphor. Winter is going to end. Spring is going to come. And baseball is the robin. Baseball heralds spring. You want to celebrate that.

Truck Day is here.

Red Sox Ticket Lottery

I considered not making this post. The fewer people that enter the lottery, the more likely I am to win, right? But then I realized that if you win, of course you’ll thank me by taking me with you! Right? You will, won’t you? Take me to Opening Day? Or the Green Monster?

Enter online before Monday at noon.

Trot Nixon’s Last Game as a Red Sox?

On Saturday I went to the second to last Sox game of the season.

I love September baseball. Some years it’s taut, emotional, full of do-or-die. Other years, like this one, it’s the opposite. It’s baseball being played for the sake of the game. It’s undistracted and undiluted. It’s a continuous, fluid flow of balls and strikes and hits and runs and innings. The outcome matters only in the most limited scope.
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Manny and Theo, Theo and Manny

My favorite Red Sox reading is a comic called Soxaholix. I guess it is a blog, but it’s not in the standard model.

Today’s episode is typical. Good critique of Boston media. Witty writing – check out the “arms” entendres. Good links to content on the web. And, best of all, the comments. The Sox have a lot of smart, articulate fans, but I think Soxaholix has the highest signal-to-noise of all of the fan sites.

June ’04 is when I realized the brilliance. There is no way to link Michael Moore’s anti-Bush tirade to the Saudi oil sheiks to Babe Ruth – or so you’d think.

The Week In Review

I haven’t found my writing rhythm yet, as evidenced by this week’s output. Catching up with a grab-bag of topics.

It was a very busy week. We pushed a bunch of minor features and good bug fixes that kept me hopping. I had lunch on Tuesday with Jason Butler. He’s at Boston.com with a very interesting job. Ask him about search – he’s doing some vThat night I went to the Red Sox game. I was hoping to see Ortiz hit 50. Instead I stood in the rain and watched Wakefield give up 6 runs. I’ve enjoyed better games.

Wednesday, or course, was Grandma and Grandpa’s 65th.