Tag Archives: Baseball

What A Night For Baseball

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The Nationals played great yesterday afternoon – what a great last part of the season; what a wonderful set up for next season. A 500 season basically was played. What great improvement and what great expectations for next season. Well done; well played. We can’t wait as season ticket holders for what is to come.

I fell asleep last night as the Red Sox led the Orioles and the Rays were down 7 to 0.

Imagine my surprise when I awoke and saw such an unexpected turn around.

Wow!

Never give up – never go to sleep – expect the unexpected.

What a pennant race – and what great theatre.

Congratulations to the Nationals for a great season.

Tom Boswell’s Observation About Hockey

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Point. Counterpoint.

Tom Boswell is a long time respected columnist for the Washington Post. Deservedly so. I like Tom. I read his work but kid MSM journalists some times about “relevance to this next generation of sports enthusiast.” One of the reasons I enjoy publishing my blog is to be able to make observations about other folks’ observations and create a punch/counter punch kind of interactivity.

He is on record about his love of baseball; the lazy hazy days of summer; sepia toned highlights of sports heroes from the 50′s and 60′s dancing in his mind’s eyes in sloooooooooow motion; HBO Documentary like images; black and white videos; and Ike in the White House. Life was better then. Only organ music played here.

Tom also loves football. Football is a made for television sport. In an average 174 minute broadcast, there are only 11 minutes of actual action in a game. See this great Wall Street Journal article on this subject. There are many times more commercials played than plays run in a football game. Basically viewers are simply treated as a “target audience by marketers” with a few plays thrown in to keep you interested until the next commercial runs. Divide your ticket price by the number of minutes of actual in game action. How is that for return on investment?

Hockey? Tom has watched it for 35 years but believes it may move too fast and that there is too much action and too much drama. You can’t catch your breath. The players play HARD and FAST for 45 second shifts. The players have too much physicality. The “welter” of action can’t be seen by the normal eye.

OK. So based on new viewer habits created by the web on TV (MTV anyone?); in video games; with iPods; with iPhones; with Avatar-like next generation films being produced; with third screens everywhere; with Google telling you on every search that they searched the web and found 1 million listings in 1.3 seconds; in a Web 2.0 world - what sports do you think are best positioned for the new generation of consumers? The “fast” ones or the “slow” ones? The ones that reward a viewer’s investment of time with fast paced action or with commercials?

This is my bet: Younger viewers like multimedia, speed and pace and action. I am a zealot for hockey and for the NHL. I believe our fans “get” hockey; can process the speed and can follow the puck; and that there will be a large new generation that falls in love with the game. In a world of interactivity, speed rules. It doesn’t kill. It enhances the experience.

That is my take.

Baseball Season Is Over

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Yankees win; Yankees win; money can buy happiness.  In this one instance.

But — if you miss baseball — watch this new film on Snagfilms.com; tour the Baseball Hall of Fame.  Cooperstown.  Awesome Americana.

We have been there — done that — it was a spectacular day — and will love this film — get a virtual tour of the Baseball Hall of Fame Museum — by clicking here.

Red Sox Nation

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I went to see the Red Sox play our Washington Nationals last night. It was a beautiful night and a perfect setting for baseball. The Red Sox have a great team - and I mean team. They have strength throughout the lineup with great pitching and a great bull pen. They beat the Nats but it was a fun and well played game.
 
Last night’s crowd set all-time attendance records at Nationals Park and I bet more than two-thirds of the crowd were Red Sox fans. In my row, my son and I were the only Nationals fans.
 
When Ortiz hit his home run, I looked around and it seemed like everyone in the park was standing and cheering. Red Sox Nation was out in full force.
 
I know the Nationals can build up a big and loyal following and sell the place out on their own one day but more than 100 years of tradition have served the Red Sox well and winning a few World Series doesn’t hurt either.

“The Lost Son of Havana”

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I went to see this great documentary film on Monday night and met the directors, producers and the star of the show, Luis Tiant. The film was a sports film - produced in conjunction with ESPN - but, more importantly, was a film about family, coming home and politics as well.
 
My family and I really enjoyed it. It brought back lots of memories to me about growing up in Lowell, Mass; going to Red Sox games; and then watching the Sox play the Reds in the World Series from my dorm room at Georgetown University. Luis Tiant was truly then “EL TIANTE”.
 
I am going to the Nationals game tonight to see them play the Red Sox. I will be rooting for the home team but a little bit of me smiles when I see the Sawx play!

Much Ado About Nothing

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There is no feud between the Caps and the Nationals. We are close friends. We work together. We care about each other’s success. I am a Nationals season ticket holder. Mark Lerner is a minority partner in the Capitals as well. We are close family friends.

We want each other to be successful at the gate and in the standings.

The Caps re-branded and re-launched our new jerseys. Our home uniforms are red now not white. We used to have white jerseys and hence “White Outs” for years and years when we played big games and in the playoffs. When we went to red uniforms, it all changed to ”Red Outs”. And most of the fan adoption was virally and organically activated. End of story.

The town is big enough to have multiple teams wear red or burgundy and gold or grey and blue or teal and whatever color is best suited for that team.

Thom: Ever notice that both the Washington Times and the Washington Post are black and white and red less and less all over? :-)