SOMEWHAT FRANK

ESPN Goes Mobile

According to several reports ESPN is going mobile and now offering cellphones that not only give you the normal talking functionality but also allow you to receive highlights and scores real-time. ESPN has started selling these services which include stats, up-the-minute scores and highlights online via the ESPN mobile website.

I do not know if I would be willing to buy one of these phones since my LG VX9800 gets V-Casts and I can surf the web to get scores. In fact you might want to read the post titled LG VX9800 : What doesn't this phone do? for more information on the LG phone. However, I am sure some super fan could find this new ESPN phone to be the best thing that ever happened to them.

For additional blogosphere coverage check out these posts on line of site, gardgy, CrimsonLight.com and Uneasy Silence.

*Image from mobile.espn.go.com.

Somewhat Frank del.icio.us Bookmarks (11.16.05)

del.icio.us bookmarks for 11-16-2005 by Somewhat Frank (a.k.a)  Frank Gruber

Sports Lounge LLC launches the Sports Cartel Blog Network : The Blog Herald

Sports themed blog network launched.

Google's Classified Play Launches : Online News Squared

Ironically, this post mentions how Google's founder was puzzled by the Newspaper online classified ads a few years back and now Google has launched GoogleBase, its own classified ads project, of sorts. Additionally, I posted about GoogleBase on Somewhat Frank back in September and then again in late October in the post titled Google Base To Take On Craigslist, eBay, and Newspapers.

Amazon to sell individual book pages : Phil Bradley's Blog

One page at time...via Amazon.

Microsoft to remove Sony BMG malware

Microsoft is removing DRM from Sony CD's after a bug was found which opened PC's up to hackers!

Porn industry gears up for mobile phones, iPods

Wireless air waves are preparing to blast porn to phones, iPods, and other devices.

TiVo Netflix RSS Reader : tins ::: Rick Klau's weblog

This download allows Netflix users to view their account via the TiVo on your TV by putting it in RSS format.

State of the Blogosphere, Follow up : The RSS Blog

According this post, Mark Cuban has listed some things IceRocket is doing to combat Splog.

37 Signals, 1 Clear Message

One clear message = keep it simple!

"Spend less money, hire fewer people, work fewer hours, and -- most surprising of all -- offer fewer features."

PAL vs. NTSC

Excellent overview of PAL and NTSC formats if you are into video editing and need to figure out the best option for your project needs.

As Blogs and Citizen Journalism Grow,  Where's the News? : Poynter Online

An interesting article on blogs and citizen journalism.

Windy Sunday Afternoon At Soldier Field

Soldier Field Photo uploaded via camera-phone by Somewhat Frank.

I am bundled up with my girlfriend at Soldier Field watching football on a windy day in Chicago,  as the Chicago Bears take on the San Francisco 49ers. The 49ers are far removed from the dominate days of Montana, Young and Rice. Let's hope fellow Purdue alum Kyle Orton and the solid Bears defense can lead the team to victory in Chicago today (November 13, 2005).  GO BEARS!

GAME UPDATE: The Bears win 17 to 9 but lose rookie Texas running back Cedric Benson to a gruesome looking knee injury. We saw an usual record setting play as a missed 52 yard field goal by the 49ers was knocked out of the air by the dusty winds and returned 108 yards from the end zone by the Bears Nathan Vasher. This was an amazing play and is the longest return in NFL history.

Road Trip To Purdue

Purdue endzone originally uploaded via cameraphone by Somewhat Frank.

As a Purdue University alum I took a road trip down to watch Purdue's football team take on Iowa. While the trip was enjoyable the actual game was painful to watch as Purdue dropped their third straight game. It is quite obvious to me that it is going to be a long season for the Boilermakers. However, the Big Ten conference is filled with parody. It was most likely a historic day with Ohio State, Michigan, Wisconsin and Purdue all losing on the same Saturday. When was the last time that happened? My other Alma mater, Northwestern beat Wisconsin which completed the list of upsets. This leaves Penn State as the clear favorite in the Big Ten but Michigan State is also looking tough. You have got to love college football, especially in the Big Ten.

ProTrade Offers New Stock Market Fantasy Sports Game

The book Moneyball by Micheal Lewis (one of my favorites) analyzed sabermetrics and acted as an inspiration to Mike Kerns and Jeffery Ma in releasing a new website today called ProTrade.  ProTrade offers a new way to play fantasy sports.  ProTrade will treat professional athletes like stocks in a fantasy stock market game. The value of these players is influenced by the players performance on the playing field.  So think of these athletes as investments and at the end of a season the trader with the best portfolio wins and is rewarded win a prize jackpot.   This idea is very similar to BlogShares in the blogosphere but is going after a larger sport enthusiast demographic.

There are so many useless statistics in sports that carry too much weight and there are other stats that carry little weight but are so valuable. For example in baseball, the point of the game is to score the most runs. So why isn't runs scored one of the main stats used in baseball? Furthermore, you are more likely to score runs if you get on base, so why isn't on-base percentage the most heavily publicized and used stat in baseball? Therefore, I think this product will help bring the more important stats to light. Based on the success of fantasy sports games, I think this will be a successful and profitable endeavor.

What is ProTrade's business model? It appears that since registration and portfolio creation is free ProTrade plans to generate revenue from advertisements as well as 2 to 3 percent commissions on jackpots set up on league play.

ProTrade has some pretty decent backing with investors like former sports agent Jeff Moorad and Arizona Diamondback general partner and Kevin Compton a Silicon venture capitalist who is the principle owner of the NHL San Jose Sharks. One other interesting fact in about ProTrade in closing is that co-founder Jeffery Ma was one of the infamous MIT blackjack card counting students that took so many casinos that they were banned and inspired the best-selling book "Bringing Down The House." So just a suggestion, you might not want to invite Jeff to your next casino night at your place.   

Currently, ProTrade is only offered for NFL players but other leagues are soon to follow. To find out more about ProTrade check out these blog posts by Kevin Glennon,  Mike Trader and The New Economy. Also co-founder Jeff Ma has a blog of his own here.  Also check out the ProTrade Manifesto since it spells out 8 reasons why ProTrade will revolutionize sports.

Broadband Based Sports Sites Take Top Scores In Recent Survey

The University of Massachusetts-Amherst Isenberg School of Management recently completed its third study of 134 major league professional sites and found that baseball had moved up  significantly in fan involvement and interest into the top league position. The survey was led by sports communications professor Andy McGowan, the former director of public relations for the National Hockey League, with the help of 40 researchers and conducted with the assistance of the SportsBusiness Journal.

Using 40 questions, the survey analyzed content, fan interaction, web design,  and merchandise for sale with the approximately 50 percent of the overall score attributed to the content analysis questions.

While Major League Baseball uses the same framework and "look and feel" for all the the MLB teams, each specific team has control over the content of their site. The World Series Champion Boston Red Sox took top honors with their website coming in first in this years survey. While my beloved Chicago Cubs came in 29th overall and 25th of the baseball sites.

Here are a few of the other top finishers and their overall score out of a maximum 123 total:

MLB: Boston Red Sox (106.4324 to the Seattle Mariners' 106.4054).
MLS: Los Angeles Galaxy (98.2973).
NFL: Philadelphia Eagles (104.8108).
NBA: Cleveland Cavaliers (105.0541).
NHL: Atlanta Thrashers (102.6757).

Andy McGowan could not be reached for comment before the time this post was made.

For additional reading on the sports site survey check out the article on Poytner as well as the article on Internet Week. Also for a look a one of the past surveys results check out the link on the UMass website. Additionally, PaidContent.org did a post found here.

Little League Needs To Protect Young Arms

I was watching the Little League World Series last night on ESPN as Maitland, Florida battled Davenport, Iowa and I found it upsetting to see Davenport's 12 year old pitcher throwing 137 pitches in 5 and 2/3 innings only to give up the game winning home-run to Dante Bichette, Jr (son of the former major leaguer). Why was a 12 year old throwing 137 pitches? This reminded me of the book I read by Will Carroll titled Saving the Pitcher. I think every baseball coach should be required to read it since it gives excellent advice on how to handle a baseball player's most valuable asset.

Harold Reynold's was one of the ESPN commentator and he was upset to see a pitcher go that many pitches at such a young age and I agree with him. Why waste a potential pitching arm and career by going too hard as a youngster? I think it is time to implement a pitch count for Little League baseball to help protect the arms of young pitchers. I think implementing an 80 to 100 pitch count would take the decision making out of the hands of the coaches similar to the players are doing what it takes to win at any expense. In this case it is at the expense of the future of a young pitcher.

Busy Summer Sunday

The last Sunday in July 2005 was action packed. Here is a breakdown of my day's events:

6:10am - 6:30am   Woke-up & got ready for the day.

6:30am - 7:00am  Drove to the golf course.

7:00am - 7:08am  Ate a hearty breakfast which consisted of 3 scrambled eggs with sausage on toasted bread in the form of a sandwich.

7:08am - 12:12pm Played 18 holes of golf at Jackson Park on the south side of Chicago and shot a 104. I was pleased and found it respectable since I had not swung a club since May 20th. The course was dry due to the drought but for $25 in the city you cannot beat the convenience or play.  The course is located on the grounds of the 1893 Chicago World's Fair.

12:12pm - 12:45pm Rode back home.

12:45pm - 1:20pm  Cleaned up & headed to Wrigley Field.

1:20pm - 3:30pm   Watched the Chicago Cubs get clobbered 13 to 6 by Arizona. Left the game early to enjoy the rest of the summer day.

3:30pm - 4:20pm  Got ice cream at Cold Stone Creamery and ate it while listening to a band perform at the Wrightwood stage at the Taste of the Lincoln Avenue Fest.

4:20pm - 5:30pm  Rested while watching ESPN for updates on the MLB trade deadline.

5:30pm - 5:45pm  Headed to Webster Place Theater to purchase tickets for the 6:30 show of Wedding Crashers. The 5:30 showing was sold out and already in progress.

5:45pm - 6:20pm Snagged a quick dinner at Filippo's on Clybourn.

6:20pm - 6:45pm Secured seats at the sold out 6:30 showing of Wedding Crashers and watched lots of previews.

6:45pm - 8:44pm  Laughed hysterically at Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson in the comedy Wedding Crashers.

8:44pm - 9:00pm  Drove home.

9:00pm - 9:46pm  Prepared for work on Monday by going through some paperwork.

9:46pm - 10:00pm  Dosed off into a deep sleep after a full Sunday of activities.

What a way to end the month of July.

Smoking Ban Should Help Restaurants

Mike Ditka recently spoke out against the City of Chicago's possible smoking ban in restaurants.  Since Ditka is a restaurant owner and known cigar smoker, it makes sense he would be opposed to it. However, I also have been known to puff my share of cigars at weddings and other celebratory times and I would love to see the smoking ban take effect in Chicago! Chicago is a wonderful city with over a thousand restaurants however, I do not think restaurant visitors and workers should have to be exposed to the health affects of second-hand smoke because of the few that chose their smoking fate.  Second-hand smoke is a major health concern and is extremely dangerous.  Second-hand smoke needs to be controlled and stopped in public and some private venues. Furthermore, I am tired of having to shower and wash my clothes to get rid of the smoky scent acquired from visiting a Chicago restaurant.

Many other major cities have recently adopted similar smoking bans and have experienced a rise in restaurant attendance and increased restaurant revenues. New York, Boston, Toronto and the entire state of California have adopted a smoking ban in restaurants and businesses have thrived. Here is what one Californian had to say about the ban and it's impact on restaurants in Los Angeles. New York also has seen business growth as noted by this post on Rights and Reason. The Harvard School of Public Health even released a study noting how the smoking ban had not negatively affected business in Boston but had in fact had the opposite affect as reported here by the Bostonist. The BBC even recently released results about the positive impacts to public smoking bans here.

So Mr. Ditka, why not Chicago?

To support a smoke free Chicago visit: http://www.SmokeFreeChicago.org/