You are here: Home / Archives for 2012

Archives for 2012

Baseball Adds Instagram to its Team

July 19, 2012 by

Major League Baseball is teaming with Instagram to show photos and images that come directly from the teams, enabling fans that are not at events to get a feel for the game, players and fans in attendance.

The concept is very simple but can be very compelling as well. Using @MLBOfficial as its tag line MLB teams will be posting photos from their games as well as behind the scenes images for others to view. Instagram says that MLB is the first professional league to do so.

Currently the teams that are already on board for the program include: SF Giants (@sfgiants), NY Yankees (@yankees), LA Dodgers (@dodgers) Atlanta Braves (@braves), Texas Rangers (@rangers), Seattle Mariners (@seattlemariners), LA Angels (@angels), and the Kansas City Royals (@kcroyals). Instagram said that eventually all MLB teams will be launching accounts.

A quick look over at the SF Giants official account finds that there are 339 photos and 41,530 followers. Note that you have to be an Instagram user to view the images at its site. However a quick visit to the Giants site can give you fan photos.

In the past a huge number of fans of teams have posted images of their teams and players. According to a recent piece in Mashable there had been a 400% increase in Instagram photo postings from major league ball parks compared to the entire 2011 season, with more than 40,000 posted at the time of the piece.

We have long thought that MLB was an organization that appears to really understand how to reach out to fans at multiple levels. It has developed mobile apps to enable you to follow games on mobile devices, is creating high grade stadium wireless networks and constantly launches games and contests to keep fans engaged.

I suspect that this will both help draw more fans to the site to view baseball pictures and also contribute additional images to the mix. I certainly hope that other pro and amateur sports follow this lead because they have the ability to get images that regular fans will not.

Filed Under: Android, Apple, Apps, Baseball, Facebook, Instagram, iOS, Los ANgeles Angeles of Anaheim, Los Angeles Dodgers, Major League Baseball, New York Yankees, San Francisco Giants, Texas Rangers Tagged With: ,

ESPN keeps the Pedal Down with Summer Soccer Broadcasts

July 19, 2012 by

Fresh off strong viewership numbers from the recently concluded Euro 2012 tournament ESPN will be broadcasting a series of international club matches over the next three weeks, with the first match coming last night with the Seattle Sounders vs. Chelsea FC (sorry I missed it).

The matches have a very interesting mix of teams with three teams each from the English Premier League, Major League Soccer, two from Italy’s Serie A, and one from Spain’s La Liga and the Scottish Premier League.

As is to be expected the broadcasts will be all over the networks properties and all but one will be on its ESPN2 channel, while also showing the matches on ESPN3 and ESPN Deportes channels as well in most cases.

The rest of the broadcasts are:
Tue, July 24 10:30 pm ET Los Angeles Galaxy vs. Tottenham Hotspur ESPN3
Wed, July 25 6:30 pm ET Liverpool FC vs. AS Roma ESPN2/3 ESPN Desportes
Sat, July 25 1:00 pm ET Liverpool FC vs. Tottenham Hotspur ESPN2/3 ESPN Desportes
Sat, July 25 6:30 pm ET Chelsea FC vs. AC Milan ESPN2/3 ESPN Desportes
Tue, July 31 7 pm ET NY Red Bulls vs. Tottenham Hotspur ESPN2/3 ESPN Desportes
Thur, August 2 10:30 pm ET Los Angeles Galaxy vs. Real Madrid ESPN2/3 ESPN Deportes
Wed, August 8 8 pm ET Real Madrid vs. AC Milan ESPN2/3 ESPN Deportes
Sat, August 11 1:55 pm ET Real Madrid vs. Celtic FC ESPN2/3 ESPN Deportes

This will be a nice fill in until the major European leagues start up in a month or so. The premier League starts Sat. August 18th while the La Liga starts the following day.

Filed Under: ESPN, ESPN3, FoxSoccer, MLS, Soccer Tagged With: ,

Watching Golf this Week: The Open Championship, aka The British Open

July 19, 2012 by

Are you ready for the third major of the year? It all kicks off Thursday morning at one of the stranger-named courses, Royal Lytham & St. Annes (not St. Anne’s), which its own website describes as “It is not a conventionally beautiful golf course, surrounded as it is by suburban housing and flanked by a railway line, but it has a charm all of its own.” Never you mind. This is the British Open, aka The Open Championship, and it’s all about history. With Champions at the course named Seve. Tom Lehman, Gary Player, and most recently, David Duval in 2001.

And best of all, golf when you wake up in the morning here in the U.S.! If you want to watch the Open Championship this weekend you best have a cable subscription with ESPN (and really, who doesn’t in the sports world). If you want to watch online or on your mobile device, you need a cable sub with the WatchESPN qualifying carriers: Verizon FiOS, Time Warner Cable, Bright House Networks or Comcast. This tourney is four days of wall to wall ESPN coverage, including ESPN radio, probably a bunch of SportsCenter from the Open broadcasts… starting at 4:30 a.m. Eastern time on Thursday, to catch all of Tiger and Phil, who are going out early.

And who will win it? Odds on favorite is, of course, the man who would be back: Tiger Woods. If he plays all four days like he played the first two days at Olympic, Tiger will be tough to beat — he’s even been seen working on his infamous “stinger” shots. Lurking in the gorse is Phil Mickelson, who is way overdue overseas — and had himself a few nice sub-70 rounds at the Scottish Open last weekend as a tuneup.

What about the local lads — guys like Lee Westwood and Luke Donald, who reign atop the world standings but have zero majors between them? Of the two I like Westwood’s chances since he always seems to be in it at the end, while Donald tends to disappear. Maybe like Darren Clarke last year, this is Westwood’s time. As a dark horse I like a guy who I saw live for the first time at the U.S. Open, and marveled at the style of his swing: Former British Open champ Louis Oosthuizen. Go join the MSR group on the ESPN fantasy golf game if you want to show your own picking savvy.

In case the Open isn’t enough golf, there is also a PGA Tour event this week, the incredibly ignored True South Classic in Madison, Mississippi, as well as the fun-to-watch American Century Classic from Lake Tahoe, where celebs and athletes from other sports show off their golf prowess, or lack thereof (see Barkley, Charles). We will include TV times for those tournaments as well, below.

Our final pick? We say Tiger gets off the major schneid. Here’s where to follow the action:

THE OPEN CHAMPIONSIP

(all times Eastern)
TV COVERAGE
Thursday, July 19 — ESPN, 4:30 a.m. — 3 p.m.
Friday, July 20 — ESPN, 4:30 a.m. — 3 p.m.
Saturday, July 21 — ESPN, 7 a.m. — 2:30 p.m.
Sunday, July 22 — ESPN, 8 a.m. — 1 p.m.

RADIO
ESPN RADIO (check local channels)
Thursday, July 19 — 7 a.m. — 1 p.m.
Friday, July 20 — 7 a.m. — 1 p.m.
Saturday, July 21 — ESPN, 9 a.m. — 3 p.m.
Sunday, July 22 — ESPN, 8 a.m. — 12 p.m.

Radio broadcasts will also be available through the Open app, at TheOpen.com, and at
ESPNRadio.com.

ONLINE
This is long, but worth it… what follows is the entire ESPN lineup of content from The Open:

The Open Championship on ESPN Digital Platforms
WatchESPN
All Open Championship programming on ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPN3 is also available on computers, smartphones and tablets through WatchESPN and the WatchESPN app, which are accessible to fans who receive their video service from affiliated providers Bright House Networks, Comcast, Time Warner and Verizon FiOS TV.

ESPN.com
News, blogs and columns from ESPN.com national columnist Gene Wojciechowski and senior golf writers Farrell Evans and Bob Harig.
“Digital Drive,” an exclusive ESPN.com program hosted by ESPN the Magazine columnist Rick Reilly, will be produced each day.
“CoverItLive” live chat with Michael Collins throughout the championship.
“Red Light/Green Light” with Collins each day, examining pin placements on selected holes.
The ESPN Golf Cast application, which offers an easy-to-use interface with scoring, “CoverItLive,” video and social media elements.
Best Ball Majors, the latest installment of the ESPN Best Ball Challenge.
Interactive leaderboards and live scores.
Extensive video content, including highlights, analysis, clips from SportsCenter and press conferences.
Photo galleries, podcasts, live chats, SportsNation polling.
Mobile WAP site.
Spanish-language highlights and coverage on ESPNDeportes.com.

ESPN3
ESPN’s live multi-screen sports network will carry ESPN’s telecast of all four rounds of The Open Championship. An additional feed will have live coverage of the 1st & 18th Holes, plus player interviews from the practice range, highlights and features. Trey Wingo and Jim Kelly will share the host role, with analysts Jane Crafter and Kim Thomas and reporter Mark Donaldson. Former Open Championship winner David Duval, who is competing in the event, also will serve as an analyst while not on the course.
ESPN3 also will have a Spanish-language feed with ESPN Deportes golf announcers Francisco Aleman and former LPGA pro Silvia Bertolaccini as well as the International View from the BBC/World coverage and alternating coverage of holes 8, 9 and 10.

ESPN Mobile
Live mobile video simulcasts of ESPN’s Open Championship telecasts on Thursday-Sunday will appear on ESPN Mobile TV. The Best of The Open Championship programs for the first, third and final rounds and Thursday’s The Open Championship Today programs also will be simulcast.
News, highlights and a leaderboard will appear on the ESPN mobile Web and there will be Open Championship Insider content, news and columns, scoring alerts for top players and video shot packs for select golfers.

PGA SHOT TRACKER
No Shot Tracker at the British Open, but it will be online for the True South Classic.

FACEBOOK PAGE
Get yourself close to the Claret Jug at The Open’s Facebook page.

TOP TWITTER FEEDS TO FOLLOW
The Open’s own Twitter feed.
Geoff Shackelford — well known golf writer. If you’re not following Geoff you are missing the online boat.
Golf Channel — official Golf Channel feed
@PGATOUR — official PGA Twitter feed
@StephanieWei — great golf writer who is a Twitter fiend. You may also catch her video reporting debut this weekend. Go Stephanie!
Doug Ferguson is the lead golf writer for AP. Good Twitter insights that often aren’t part of your wire-service lead.

TOURNAMENT APP
Powered by video mavens at Ooyala, the Open’s App has everything you want in a handheld device app. iPad, iPhone and Android. You will still need the ESPN contract to view live video, though.

WHAT’S THE COURSE LIKE?
The Royal Lytham & St. Annes has its own website, and there is good stuff on the PGA site as well.

WHO WON THIS THING LAST YEAR?
Darren Clarke.

WHY IS IT CALLED LYTHAM & ST. ANNES?
Because the two towns of Lytham and St. Annes-on-the-Sea grew together and formed one seaside resort. And they dropped the “sea” bit. According to Wikipedia.

FEDEX CUP LEADERS
1. Tiger Woods, 1,952 points
2. Zach Johnson, 1,920
3. Jason Dufner, 1,849
4. Hunter Mahan, 1,654
5. Bubba Watson, 1,617

See the full standings for the FedEx Cup points list.

WORLD GOLF RANKINGS
1. Luke Donald; 2. Rory McIlroy; 3. Lee Westwood; 4. Tiger Woods; 5. Webb Simpson.
See the official World Golf Ranking list.

TRUE SOUTH CLASSIC TV
Thursday, July 19 — Golf Channel, 3 p.m. — 6 p.m.
Friday, July 20 — Golf Channel, 3 p.m. — 6 p.m.
Saturday, July 21 — Golf Channel, 3 p.m. — 6 p.m.
Sunday, July 22 — Golf Channel, 3 p.m. — 6 p.m.

AMERICAN CENTURY CLASSIC TV
Saturday, July 21 — NBC, 3 p.m. — 6 p.m.
Sunday, July 22 — NBC, 3 p.m. — 6 p.m.

Filed Under: Android, Apple, Apps, British Open, ESPN, ESPN Radio, ESPN3, Facebook, Golf, Golf Channel, iOS, iPad, iPhone, Live sports via mobile, Live Sports Video Consumption, PGA, Tiger Woods, Time Warner Cable Television, Twitter, Verizon Wireless, WatchESPN, WatchESPN Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Spartan Races heads to London for some Pre-Olympics Competition

July 18, 2012 by

Top athletes are lining up for some grueling sports this weekend in London, and they are not here for something as easy as the Olympics, but rather the latest in this season’s Spartan Races as the event heads over seas.

The event is Sunday July 22 and will actually take place in Surrey and will be held by Priority Events Ltd. The distance will be 5k and the start time will be 10 am for the Elite class and then heats of 250 people starting at 10:30 with another group leaving every half hour until 12:30 pm.

If you are curious, and I know you are, there are a lot of events held in a variety of nations over the next year including Edinburgh, Quebec, Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal, London again and of course Fenway Park.

The top five men in last week’s race in Pa were, in order Singen Elliott, Olof Dallner, Chris Place, Brent Kreider and Jan Peter Brajer while in the women’s it was Jill Danley, Jessica Law, Shorty, Katherine Backel and Julie Jennings.

Looking at its point system, the better fit you are and the higher you compete then the greater the points you can earn. There are four race categories, Sprint, Super, Beast and Ultra Beast and each has a different payoff, using the Super races as the baseline. It’s a bit convoluted but in that race the Elite winner gets 5,000 points, second gets 4,999 etc.. The open winner in that race gets 3,750 points, second gets 3,699 etc.. Cash and prizes will be awarded to the top finishers starting at $5,000 and will grow to a total of $100,000 by the completion of the Arizona race.

Filed Under: Contests, Outdoor Activities, Spartan Race Tagged With:

Tour de France Nears Paris Finale But Monster Final Mountain Stage Remains

July 18, 2012 by

The final mountain stage and traditional penultimate time trial stage two days later will highlight beginning Thursday the final four days of the 99th Tour de France and its unique current overall title competition.

Not since the mid-1980s, when cycling icons Bernard Hinault and Greg LeMond battled for supremacy, has the Tour de France featured teammates in the top two spots.

Bradley Wiggins (Sky) of Great Britain has led the race for 10 days and while not a dominating climber, he’s ridden strategically well to remain in the lead. He’s held off all pursuers, including teammate and compatriot Chris Froome, who in the Alps at times appeared stronger than the race leader.


But after a difficult day in the Pyrenees in stage 16, the weary Wiggins, Froome and the rest will be at it again in stage 17 Thursday, the event’s “queen stage.” The 89.2-mile trek from Bagneres-de-Luchon to Peyragudes has five categorized climbs.

The summit of the Port de Balès (11.7km at 7.7 percent), the three-week race’s final beyond category ascent, arrives about 20 miles from the finish. It will be a new challenge for most of the field since the Port de Balès has only been featured twice in previous Tours.

Wiggins retains the same 2:05 advantage over Froome and 2:23 margin over Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Cannondale) of Italy that he’s had for days. Defending race titlist Cadel Evans (BMC) of Australia, faltered in stage 16 and is now seventh more than eight minutes behind.

There’s the chance Wiggins could suffer and lose time in the final mountain stage. But his strength waits in the stage 19 individual time, a 33-mile ride on Saturday from Bonneval to Chartes.

Wiggins claimed the race’s earlier shorter individual time trial over Froome by 35 seconds. Defending race titlist Cadel Evans (BMC) of Australia, lost nearly two minutes to Wiggins in the first time trial. And American Tejay van Garderen, now sixth overall (7:55) finished fourth, but more than a minute behind.

Wiggins, therefore, appears on his way toward claiming the first Tour de France title by a British rider. But as has occurred many times in the long history of the Tour de France, the riders still have to pedal their bikes to Paris on Sunday, which means anything can happen.

Note: To watch live Tour de France video online, you can sign up for the $29.99 package for the entire race, or $4.99 per stage. Plus, you need to sign up for a Map My Ride account.

Filed Under: Tour de France Tagged With: , , ,

Augmented Sports App Helps Celebrate Start of French Soccer Season

July 18, 2012 by

GoldRun and Front Row Marketing Services have teamed with The Ligue de Football Professionnel to create an app that enables fans to create uploadable images of themselves and the Trophee Des Champions that is awarded to the winner of an annual grudge match.

The Trophee Des Champions is the award given to the winner of the annual match between the Ligue 1 champion and the winner of the Copue de France. In one format or another it has been played since 1949 and in its current mode since 1995. The match marks the beginning of the French soccer season.

While it might seem a bit odd that the match opening the season would be played on a foreign shore, the purpose is to help promote French soccer and it has been played in Montreal and Tunis, Tunisia in the past.

The app is not just so that fans can download images of the trophy and then share with their fans, it is a contest in which the winners will get a VIP paid trip to see the match between the two champions at the Red Bull Arena in Harrison, N.J. on July 28, 2012.

The contest is pretty simply to play as long as you participate in social media. A user downloads the GoldRun app that is available for both Android and Apple’s iPhone, and then they need to open the app and then sign in using either Twitter or Facebook.

From there the process is pretty simple, select the Trophée des Champions “photobooth” from
either the featured carousel or campaigns list and then follow the instructions. Once you create your image then share via Facebook, Twitter or email. Sharing enables you to actually enter the contest.

GoldRun is a mobile app that enables the superimposing of a computer generated image with one from a smartphone camera. The app has been used in a variety of contests designed to promote brands including Ice Age: Continental Drift and New York Giants Virtual Super Bowl Ring.

Filed Under: Android, Apple, Apps, Contests, Soccer, The Ligue de Football Professionnel Tagged With:
« Previous Page
Next Page »