Twitter is my favorite of the social media, by far. Facebook is simply an excuse for people to flood you with friend requests for the silly games or to build up a vast number to feel important. I have used it as a way to reconnect with old friends or a way to keep tabs on family members I don't see that often, but the amount of sheer garbage outweighs it. MySpace no longer exists in its previous form, and I must say that I used it as a vehicle to blog and write five and six years ago. My interest in it waned for the same reasons as Facebook, however ... and now we have Twitter.
I love Twitter for the breaking news, primarily in the sports world but occasionally in the outside world as well. I love being able to get in-game updates from people who are there, and not all of them in the official, reporting capacity. I love that it gives fans a chance to vetch and commiserate without having to join a forum or "friend" someone you've never met, and really have no intention of meeting. It seems like Twitter combines the public aspect of our lives with a desire for privacy, since you follow who you want, ignore those you want, and only have essentially a text message to share yourself.
It's hard to be overly revealing in 160 characters, yet if you post enough people can still get an idea of who you are, or at least the person you project yourself to be. I, for example, project an alternately serious sports fan image with some posts, and a goofy fanboy image with others. I am often delighted to be responded to by big name celebrities - it's the new hanging out at the club to shake hands with an A-list type of person.
With the Major League Baseball trade deadline looming at 4 p.m. today, I've never loved Twitter more. I know who's going before it's announced, because people at the park are seeing the players pulled from games and hugging teammates in the dugout. I hear the rumors and can put together my own theories, some of which blow up just like the paid reporters theories, some of which pan out, and all of which I thoroughly enjoy. Ubaldo Jimenez to the Indians? Not enough to save them, and glad my Redlegs didn't give up what it would have taken to get him.
Why the Reds haven't made a significant move is pure speculation, but thanks to Twitter I get a better sense of how absurd the market has been and am not upset with my team. I see why they haven't mortgaged their future for one playoff run. I see that they would have given up far more than they gained in a deal for Carlos Beltran, Hunter Pence, Michael Bourn, or even Jason Bourne at this point ... something that five years ago I would not have seen, even with all the wondrous web sites available then and now. At least, I wouldn't have known until after I got angry, ran off at the mouth, and had a list of statements to retract.
So thank you Twitter, for saving me from myself.
I admit, I'm hooked on Twitter, I love to Tweet, I love to check it once every hour or two to see what's new, what's false, and what's true.
And I love it during the trade deadline most of all.
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Monday, July 25, 2011
First Post - non-working labor stoppage
Just checking to see if I still have this in me, it has been a few years.
First thing is first, I'm Stumpy, the original, accept no substitutes or lite versions. I was formerly a sportswriter who branched out into the adult world so I could make adult money and not spend every evening and weekend at sporting events ... and I miss the hell out of it. So read me, follow me, ignore me ... whatever. This is my outlet to vent about sports in general.
Now then, the NFL has been locked out since roughly the Super Bowl. If ESPN didn't beat me upside the head with this fact, I may not have known. I'm damn certain I wouldn't have cared had I known if it didn't take over the talk on Sportscenter, local sports news, sports talk shows, and Twitter. The fact that it has taken over such things tells me three things: 1) The NFL is hands down the most popular sport in the country. The NBA is currently locked out with little hope for a resolution before regular season games are scheduled to commence, and aside from a few NBA-types on the big websites, no one has said a peep about it. 2) Gambling should be legalized. When a big portion of the debate about the NFL lockout centers on money and how it is being split, let's get down to brass tacks on why we as fans care - the NFL is far and away the best sport on which to gamble. The games, the parlays, the coin toss at the Super Bowl, and the 800-pound gorilla of fantasy football are the reasons we care more about the NFL than we do about baseball, basketball, hockey, soccer, et al. If the gambling were legal, not just in certain places or "look the other legal" like fantasy or weekly knock out pools, we wouldn't need to worry about a lockout. 3) It tells me in my nearly decade-long hiatus from the business that things have changed, for the worse. That the drama and non-information about meetings between guys sitting at a table, wearing suits, carrying briefcases can lead news programs, talk shows and web sites over sporting events that are live or that happened within 24 hours tells me which sport is king.
I'm not denigrating football, nor the NFL in particular but time was, sports had a rhythm, and the sport that was in playoff mode got the most coverage, secondary coverage went to the sport that had just started, and tertiary coverage went to out-of-season stuff. There were always exceptions, such as prominent athletes being arrested, landscape-altering trades or signings, and the occasional death of a respected Hall of Famer. The NFL went through an out of season work stoppage - wrap your head around that - and dominated coverage. The basically walked into a party they weren't invited to an hour late, stole basketball's drink and baseball's girlfriend, puked in the punch bowl, and walked back out.
To quote a hero of mine, "Impressive. Most impressive."
Which doesn't mean I want to applaud what they've done, nor condone it. In fact, the whole non-working labor stoppage has soured me on the whole season to the point I'm considering dropping out of my fantasy league, picking up the Fox Soccer Channel, and getting stinking drunk watching the English Premier League instead of getting stinking drunk watching the National Football League. Haven't decided yet.
But either way, come September, life as the NFL knows it will go on just like it always has, meaning this whole off-season farce has been much ado about nothing. So can we please get back to Hot Stove talk?
First thing is first, I'm Stumpy, the original, accept no substitutes or lite versions. I was formerly a sportswriter who branched out into the adult world so I could make adult money and not spend every evening and weekend at sporting events ... and I miss the hell out of it. So read me, follow me, ignore me ... whatever. This is my outlet to vent about sports in general.
Now then, the NFL has been locked out since roughly the Super Bowl. If ESPN didn't beat me upside the head with this fact, I may not have known. I'm damn certain I wouldn't have cared had I known if it didn't take over the talk on Sportscenter, local sports news, sports talk shows, and Twitter. The fact that it has taken over such things tells me three things: 1) The NFL is hands down the most popular sport in the country. The NBA is currently locked out with little hope for a resolution before regular season games are scheduled to commence, and aside from a few NBA-types on the big websites, no one has said a peep about it. 2) Gambling should be legalized. When a big portion of the debate about the NFL lockout centers on money and how it is being split, let's get down to brass tacks on why we as fans care - the NFL is far and away the best sport on which to gamble. The games, the parlays, the coin toss at the Super Bowl, and the 800-pound gorilla of fantasy football are the reasons we care more about the NFL than we do about baseball, basketball, hockey, soccer, et al. If the gambling were legal, not just in certain places or "look the other legal" like fantasy or weekly knock out pools, we wouldn't need to worry about a lockout. 3) It tells me in my nearly decade-long hiatus from the business that things have changed, for the worse. That the drama and non-information about meetings between guys sitting at a table, wearing suits, carrying briefcases can lead news programs, talk shows and web sites over sporting events that are live or that happened within 24 hours tells me which sport is king.
I'm not denigrating football, nor the NFL in particular but time was, sports had a rhythm, and the sport that was in playoff mode got the most coverage, secondary coverage went to the sport that had just started, and tertiary coverage went to out-of-season stuff. There were always exceptions, such as prominent athletes being arrested, landscape-altering trades or signings, and the occasional death of a respected Hall of Famer. The NFL went through an out of season work stoppage - wrap your head around that - and dominated coverage. The basically walked into a party they weren't invited to an hour late, stole basketball's drink and baseball's girlfriend, puked in the punch bowl, and walked back out.
To quote a hero of mine, "Impressive. Most impressive."
Which doesn't mean I want to applaud what they've done, nor condone it. In fact, the whole non-working labor stoppage has soured me on the whole season to the point I'm considering dropping out of my fantasy league, picking up the Fox Soccer Channel, and getting stinking drunk watching the English Premier League instead of getting stinking drunk watching the National Football League. Haven't decided yet.
But either way, come September, life as the NFL knows it will go on just like it always has, meaning this whole off-season farce has been much ado about nothing. So can we please get back to Hot Stove talk?
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