Don't quit, Adam Dunn! The economy needs you.

Adam Dunn is thinking about quitting baseball.  We can't let this happen!

First of all, this situation creates very entertaining content on Chicago sports radio.  As bad as my Cubs are this year, it's pretty fun to listen to the media blast Dunn every day.

But more importantly, we need contracts like Dunn's (four years, $56 million) to work out terribly for teams and perhaps they will eventually begin to bring these salaries down to something a little closer to reality.  Hopefully, this would then allow ticket prices to drop, along with everything else related to attending a major league sporting event.

Twenty years ago, before player salaries were beyond outrageous, I attended a couple of Cubs games in the Houston Astrodome.  The first night, we went with the cheap seats and paid only $5 per ticket.  While the Astros now play in Minute Maid Park, you can use a seating chart to compare the seats and find a similar ticket today would cost $23.  I understand inflation, but that doesn't justify the price increase here nearly as much as salaries like Dunn's.  If I paid .50 cents for a Coke in 1991, according to this math, that same Coke would cost $2.30 today.

For the second Cubs/Astros game in 1991, we stepped it up and went with the $10 seats.  Similar tickets at Minute Maid Park today would cost $58.

It's pretty obvious to me.  We need players like Dunn and Alphonso Soriano to show up every day and collect their millions.  Maybe then baseball executives will stop handing out these absurd contracts.

Baseball is Not Just Hitting a Ball With a Stick, and Driving a Race Car is Not Just Sitting and Turning a Wheel

IndyCar's Tony Kannan
Clearly a donut eating
couch potato
You're welcome ladies

This comes up fairly often in internet message-boards and in casual conversations, and usually with American football fans, and I honestly can't do more but roll my every time I hear it. Its now recently coming from Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Golden Tate. Race car drivers are not athletes, and its always the same fairytale excuse: "they're just driving a car, I do that every day."

Only you don't do that every day. That's like telling a F-18 fighter pilot you can do what he does because you've flown in commercial aircraft or that you could operate a construction crane because you once got the prize out of a carnival crane machine game.

Equating IndyCar or NASCAR to "just sitting in a car and turning a steering wheel" is like saying baseball is "just throwing and hitting a ball with a stick" or football is just "throwing a ball and running into other people" and soccer is "just running around kicking a ball."

Many people are recently starting to mention J.R. Hildebrand tearing his ACL while doing a rigorous obstacle course that was set up by the National Guard. Sammy Sosa once threw out his back from sneezing. Soccer player Robbie Keane once ruptured ligaments reaching for his TV's remote control. Jeremy Clarkson on Top Gear once famously sprained his neck from test driving a a super sports car because it couldn't handle the constant change in G-forces from the sharp turns. Numerous football players have injured themselves while celebrating their scores (Deion Sanders, Bill Grammatica and Gus Ferrotte just to name a few). Injuries happen regardless of athleticism.

The fact is it not only takes the quick reflexes and response time of any sport, but just as much athletic strength to drive a professional race car. The SportsScience TV show proved that IndyCar drivers experience more G forces than fighter jet pilots do. Its less extreme G's than the pilots, but pilots only do it for a few seconds while drivers do so over the course of hours while the cars have no power steering. Ever lose power steering and know how hard it is to turn that wheel, now imagine doing it at 200 mph.+ They don't get breaks every 12 seconds like football players, or sit on a bench every inning like baseball players. NASCAR drivers get power steering, but their races are longer needing more endurance stamina.

Tony Kanaan Body Shot or see more Tony Kanaan Videos

Back in the early 2000s, ESPN had a battle of the athletes competition with wall climbing, obstacle courses, running etc. Unfortunately I can't remember if he won or came in 2nd, but I do remember IndyCar driver Tomas Scheckter was in the final matchup. These guys and girls need to be in prime shape to do what they do, many regularly run triathlons or do other rigorous sports to stay in shape.

Back in my former hometown of Baton Rouge, they recently built a pro-level high speed go-kart track, and my brothers (one a varsity baseball and football player who has stayed in shape and the other just recently the Division I runner-up wrestler in Louisiana) were texting me all excited and telling me how much fun they were going to have. I've done karting before so I knew what was coming and called the next day.

Anyone who doubts the need to be athletic to drive a race car simply need to go to a high-speed go-kart track (a fraction of what the pros do), and they'll learn what my brothers did. They had a ton of fun, but even though the tracks usually only let you go out for 8 minute stints, they were winded, tired, and more sore than they'd been in a very long time.

So to any naysayers out there, I just want you to find a good high performance karting track, and give a good 30 minutes of it, and when you're winded, sore and tried, let me know if you still think it takes no athletic ability and only requires sitting in a chair and turning a wheel.

Time For a Change: Blown Save

In Wednesday night's game against the Giants, Ryan Dempster pitched great for the Cubs.  He entered the final inning with a 1-0 lead, but gave up a double to the first hitter.

The Cubs went to Carlos Marmol to close out the game, and in true Marmol fashion, the bases were loaded and a run scored before a double play got them off of the field.  Of course, Aramis Ramirez drove in the winning run in the bottom of the 9th and the Cubs got the win.

The pitching "win" in these situations, however, is kind of odd.  Dempster gave up no runs himself, but because his baserunner, inherited by Marmol, ended up scoring the tying run, Dempster automatically lost his chance at being awarded the win.  Marmol, the pitcher who actually let Dempster's runner score, then became the pitcher of record and did receive the win when the Cubs scored later that inning.

Is it time to change this?  I believe it is.

I don't think it is fair for Marmol (or any relief pitcher) to be credited with a loss for allowing inherited runners to score.  But in this case, when an inherited runner scored only the tying run, if the home team scores to win in the bottom of the inning, I believe the starting pitcher should be given the win.  The relief pitcher can have the save, which is a more valuable stat to him anyway.

Justin Bell Never Disappoints

Ex-driver Justin Bell is one of the "on the scene" reporters for SpeedTV for most of their long distance endurance races. At Daytona this year for the 24 Hours, he spent a considerable amount of time interviewing fans in Daytona's backstretch Fan Zone, who seemed only tangentially aware that there was a race going on (in fact, I think one of them claimed that they were waiting to see Dale Earnhardt Jr., who may not have even been in the state of Florida at the time). Usually, when Justin's doing these remote reports, it seems that Justin may be suffering from...an imparement of some sort? I can not say if this imparement stems from massive sleep deprivation, or a beverage or five that he's recently consumed (be it coffee, Red Bull, or something a little stronger), or if it's just from years of carbon monoxide intake in the cockpits of enclosed race cars, but whatever it is, the results are usually spectacular. This year at Le Mans, Justin has not disappointed. While saying something about how this is his last gig working for SpeedTV, he claimed to have found an old "friend" of Dorsey Schroeder, who is working with the booth crew this weekend.

This man should be getting a raise, not walking papers. The campaign to save Justin Bell's broadcasting career starts right here. Who's with me?

Happy Race Weekend, Y'all!

Only time for a quick post today, but I just had to weigh in and say that I'm...ahem...Positively Geeked for all of the racing that's on this weekend. In short, here's what we've got:

- 24 Hours of Le Mans - Starting in, oh, about 5 minutes, and running until...well, this time tomorrow. It's sure to be another EPIC battle between Audi's new R18 and Peugeot's new 908, with the Sebring winning Oreca 908 HDi-FAP (the previous model Peugeot) playing the role of "garbage man", should all of the to six diesels stumble. Don't look for any petrol cars up front though, since they were some 7 seconds off the pace of the top diesels in qualifying. GT should be a fascinating battle as well, with some 19 different manufacturers (or, at least it feels like it's that many) in play for the win.

- IndyCar Firestone Twin 275s - You can look elsewhere for a good, full preview of this race, but here's what you need to know: Two races, two winners. Race 1 starting lineup decided by yesterday's qualifying session (with Alex Tagliani on the pole again, just like at Indianapolis). Race 2 starting lineup decided by random draw. Hilarity is bound to ensue.

- Canadian Grand Prix - The Red Bulls look quick again, but it appears from Friday Practice times that there are several teams that should be in play for the win. Also, the Canadian GP has a tendency to get a little...let's go with "chaotic" from time to time. Airs tomorrow at 1:00 PM Eastern on Fox, so nobody reading this should have the excuse that they don't get the channel. Well, unless you don't have a TV.

There's more going on (MotoGP from Silverstone, NASCAR at Pocono, not that I endorse watching NASCAR), but that's all there's time for now. As a special bonus, the good folks over at Fast Lane Daily are doing 25 hours worth of live, streaming racing coverage, with Leo Parente apparently going to do all 25 hours himself, along with cameos from all of the other guys who appear there. Go here to check it out, and you can communicate with them through Twitter, as long as you use the hashtags #FLD and #LM24. Should be a good time.

That's all, folks! Grab a comfy couch, some tasty beverages and your favorite salty snacks, and get your sloth on! I know I am!

Things I Hate

The Brewers.
Having to watch Brewers announcers.
Prince Fielder homeruns vs. the Cubs.
The stupid sliding mascot.

I want to line the slide with razor blades, put a pool of alcohol at the end of the slide, and serve a hanging slider to the Prince.

Lets be clear here: I hate the Brewers.

2011 MLB Projections

Baseball is here! Finally, the only sport that I can watch every single day for months.

With the start of baseball, a sport where each team plays 162 games, it's always fun to see who gets off to a hot start and do some stat projections.

So here are my Top 5 MLB Stat Projections for 2011:

5. Of course, the most obvious stat is that the Orioles, Rangers, Phillies, and Reds are all on their way to perfect 162-0 seasons! Meanwhile, it will be a long summer in Boston, Houston, and Milwaukee, where their respective teams will apparently finish up this season at 0-162. Sorry, Brewers!

4. Diamondback speedster Willie Bloomquist (who??) is going to steal 162 bases this year!

3. Nelson Cruz, on the other hand, is definitely going to smash 162 homeruns. Steroid conspiracy!

2. In the year of powerful secondbasemen, Brian Roberts is going to drive in an amazing 324 runs. (And to think I kept drafting him in fantasy the last few years and finally gave up on him this season.) Roberts will completely overshadow Pittsburgh's Neil Walker, who will knock in a respectable 283 runs himself. Unfortunately, he will also strikeout 283 times. I think the Pirates will take it!

1. As a Cubs fan, (in addition to Starlin Castro's .500 year-end average and 81 triples) I am most excited about Matt Garza's projected 344 strikeouts. It will be equally amazing to watch him scatter those 344 hits, while keeping that ERA under 4!

Max Lagod 1969-2011

Most of the folks reading this post have likely never heard of Max Lagod, as he was a race car driver who never hit the "big time" (NASCAR, IndyCar, F1, etc.), but nevertheless, he was one of those guys who I followed whenever I saw results online or in magazines for big bore sedan racing, or on the off chance that a TransAm or SCCA GT-1 race managed to make it on to TV. I never met Mr. Lagod, but he was one of those guys who struck me as a scrappy, underfunded underdog, who was able to drive a race car to the exact speed that it was absolutely capable of. With all of this in mind, and knowing that he was somebody that I stumbled across early on in my race fandom, I was extremely saddened to hear that he died on March 12 of lymphoma.

The first time I was aware of Lagod, he was in the process of absolutely demolishing the GT-1 field at the SCCA June Sprints at Road America, a race that my parents took me to in lieu of a high school graduation party (they gave me the choice; I thought about it for about 0.042 seconds before picking the Sprints). In qualifying for his race, I distinctly remember the track announcer excitedly exclaiming that on Road America's brand new pavement, Lagod had just broken the all-time GT-1 track record. Given the speed and quality of the equipment that this class contains (ex-TransAm cars), I knew that this was no mean feat. Race day was no different. Lagod sped off into the distance, and left the rest of the field in the proverbial fight for 2nd.

So, among the amateur racer set, Lagod was obviously incredibly quick, but was he professional material? As I'd find out a few years later, the answer was definitely "yes". Lagod made periodic appearances in the TransAm series in his family-prepped Camaro over the years, with a little success sprinkled in here and there, but I managed to cross paths with him again at Cleveland in 2003. Most folks will remember this race weekend as being the world's first major road race held at night, but I also remember Max Lagod's run in the TransAm race that year. The race was won by Scott Pruett (who I'm sure said hello to his kids at home afterward), and was notable for Paul Gentilozzi hitting pretty much every car within a mile of Burke Lakefront Airport, but Lagod largely kept his nose clean and finished on the podium, only the second of his career. In such storied company, this was no mean feat. After the race, I took my pit pass and headed toward the padddock to see if I could congratulate Lagod on such a great finish and mention that I'd last seen him race eight years before in that demolition job at Road America. Well, between my crippling bashfulness around real, actual race car drivers and the fact that the ChampCars were being pushed toward the grid before I could spot Lagod wandering around his paddock spot, I never got a chance to say hi.

Anyway, this is a far cry from a real eulogy, and of course, I never even met the man, but I just couldn't let this piece of news go by without saying a little something. Thanks, Max, for giving this race fan some thrills on the track, and Godspeed.

What I Learned While Watching the 1971 Indy 500 On My TiVo

Last May, ESPN Classic ran ten old Indy 500s in abbreviated formats, but each still clocking in at a relatively comprehensive two hours. Since I am a sucker for posts with recurring themes, I'm going to take a periodic look at the races my TiVo captured and recap what I learned. This week (month? year? decade? whatever), I'll be taking a look at 1971.

1) Back in those days, it was totally OK to make non-PC jokes on the air. At one point, Jim McKay made some sort of remark about how somebody had hit a bird on the track during qualifying. He then joked to boothmate Jackie Stewart, "Of course, that's a different kind of bird from what you're used to where you come from." Wow! Can you imagine Bob Jenkins and Jon Beekhuis joking like this today? I mean, Bob Varsha and David Hobbs would, but one of those guys sounds like he's got something other than coffee in his cup (how else would we be treated to the world's best Mark Webber, Alan McNish and Flavio Briatore impressions?) and they'd be making the joke at like 5:00 AM, so nobody would be any the wiser.

2) Safety measures were held to a far lower standard than they are today. McKay remarked something like "that would have been a far worse fire, if it weren't for the space age fuel cells that these cars use" when Mike Mosely's car hit the inside wall of Turn 4. Note that at the time, there was an actual 40 foot tall (my estimate, though it might have been more like 60) mushroom cloud of burning methanol towering over the wreckage in the infield. Um, so this would have been worse somehow without a fuel cell? I guess 50 people could have died or something?

3) It was totally cool to smoke at the track, and a cigarette could be bummed off of just about anybody (grade school kids possibly included). I learned this when Bobby Unser lit up a smoke as he walked away from his wrecked car after the Mosely crash.

4) David Hobbs was already hilarious. He was incredibly philosophical and even cracked a couple of jokes after Rick Muther's car hit the inside wall of the front straight and speared back across the track and collected a completely innocent Hobbs at well over 180 MPH.

5) People who say that you can't tell the difference between 180 and 220 MPH are full of crap. The cars, while fast, looked like they were crawling in comparison to even the cars from the 1981 race that I watched later (more on that race in a subsequent installment).

6) Chris Economacki was not available to interview Mario Andretti when Mario dropped out of the race (McKay threw down to Chris for the interview), but the guy who was actually standing by with Mario in Turn 3? A guy named Dave Letterman.



7) The commentators were not aware of basically anything that was going on other than what their own eyes and the eyes of their corner reporters saw. No timing and scoring, no instant replays, no video to analyze, very limited pit reporting = two guys saying stuff like "Joe Leonard comes into the pits! We think this is a planned stop, but it might be a little earlier than we'd have thought!" And now people complain that we know too much about fuel strategies, in- and out-lap times, push-to-pass applications remaining and car setup changes made during the race. Go figure.

8) The 1971 McLarens, the first cars to have the huge rear wings, were crazy fast in comparison to everybody else in the race. Al Unser led more than half of the laps and beat Peter Revson handily, but Revson and Mark Donohue were able to pass people wherever they wanted, whenever they wanted. Only trouble for the McLarens allowed Big Al to win that one, in my opinion.

The Online Streaming Fraternity

I've gotten a lot of twitter/comment/email followup on the NBC/IndyCar article mostly asked about the same two issues that I figured we could use an addendum.

1 - NBC already does live streaming for over 100+ Olympic events so they definitely have experience and server capability.

2 - We can all agree that IndyCar fans have been spoiled with free streaming, but those of us up in a stir are not mad because we think NBC needs to offer this stuff for free. We all just know some option needs to exist; whether pay-per-view-streaming or a free but slightly inferior online product compared to TV with sold ad space. Both are revenue streams NBC is ignoring that ESPN and CBS have found a way to make work very well.

Here is a list of all the many sports that I can watch LIVE online as of today:

- Olympics (free via NBC)
- MLB (paid for any game / some free on ESPN3)
- NFL (paid)
- NBA (select games free on ESPN3)
- NCAA basketball (select games free on ESPN3, paid to watch any regular season D-I game)
- NCAA baseball (select games free on ESPN3, paid to watch any regular season D-I game)
- NCAA football (free for a multitude of games on ESPN3)
- NCAA softball (select games free on ESPN3, paid to watch any regular season D-I game)
- NCAA Wrestling (free for select tournaments)
- NCAA Hockey (select games free on ESPN3, paid for most other D-I games)
- ATP Tennis (everything free except champ matches)
- PGA & LPGA Tour (free until final day then TV only)
- American LeMans Series (free qualifying and races)
- La Liga (free / soccer)
- German Bundesliga (free / soccer)
- Eredivisie (free / soccer)
- Serie A (free / soccer)
- FIFA World Cup (free)
- FIFA U20 and U17 (free)
- MLS (free)
- X-Games (free - all events qualifying and final runs)
- Rugby (free)
- U.S. High School basketball & football (select games free)
- NCAA Lacrosse (free)
- Major League Lacrosse (free)
- KHL (free / hockey)
- Race of Champions (paid)
- FIA GT1 World Championship (free)
- Superleague Formula (free)


IndyCar is falling off a list that includes basically every major sport on this earth. For a sport that tries to brand itself as being at the forefront of technology, its about to start looking like its on the cutting edge of the late 90s for fans.

I don't imagine ESPN, CBS and CBS-C are eating huge losses to keep those many streaming options alive, some of them are on their 4th or more year. That list is also only based on U.S. availability, I'm sure other countries can add more to it.also send me anything you think I missed.

NBC Missing the Boat, Taking IndyCar With It

NBC/Comcast hasn’t even yet aired a single race of the IndyCar Series since their merger, and yet they already seem committed to their first monumental mistake...

“Because of network TV contracts, live streaming video of IndyCar Series practice (outside of the Indianapolis 500), qualifying and races won’t be available this season.”

To say this development is shocking would be a lie; NBC is the same organization that thought it was a good idea to cut away from the 2010 Winter Olympics closing ceremonies so they could show the pilot episode for “The Marriage Ref.” A tactic that backfired, not only in tons of anger in social media but also negative big-media press, plummeting ratings and the show seemingly disappearing from air anyway.

Even as this decision to kill off ANY race related streaming in IndyCar goes, it’s not a new concept; we’ve seen this exact tactic before:

In 2008 at the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona, SPEED committed itself to 16 hours of live race (including 30 min post/pre) coverage of the race. During the 9 race hours off of TV coverage, fans were able to log into Grand-Am’s website and access three live track cameras with audio simply picking up the track’s PA system. The cameras never moved, in fact their positionings were awful. It wasn’t anything you could actually watch, but die-hards and off-site media like me were able to stay up all night and hear a few developments be announced over the track PA.

When 2009 came around, it was gone, and it very quickly became evident why. Enter stage right is The Racer’s Group team, who had an epiphany, let’s bring a little attention to ourselves because SPEED focuses a bit much on the DP class and not our GTs. So to give a little something extra to their fans, they mounted a webcam in their pit-stall. It did not pan or zoom, it had no announcing and it was clearly just a $0 setup web-cam staring at their pit-box. The idea was that when it came time for pitting, fans could go to their site and watch them perform a pit-stop, nothing more. Only, the stream never lasted to the first pit-stop.

TRG (who kept fans up to date via a chat box) noted an ongoing struggle with SPEED who shut them down. SPEED cited that it interfered with broadcast rights (which it did). But in the agreement they came to, TRG would be allowed to go back live once the race was off the air… only it never did. SPEED actually instead made sure TRG never went live again, threatening legal action, even though SPEED wasn’t showing the race or any coverage at all during those 9 hours. All TRG could do was change it to a refreshable picture from the pit-cam. Thusly fans got NO INFORMATION about the race except from Grand-Am’s (much underrated) timing and scoring application.

Now it’s 2010, and TRG was still trying to be at the forefront of technology and fan-connectivity, so they devised an idea that shouldn’t go against SPEED’s broadcasting rights. TRG’s plan: set up a web-cam not showing the track in any way. This year instead, the webcam faced a table and 2 chairs with a white background showing their team logo. the video was crap, and the audio wasn't perfect either, and if it weren’t for hearing cars in the background you’d never know it was at a track. In one chair sat one of TRG’s PR reps on a headset, and all they did was answer questions in a fan chat box embedded in the page. It was nothing short of great fan interaction.

Occasionally they let fans know updates about the team like “we’re coming in to pit next lap” or “we’re in 6th place now” information that could already be garnered from timing and scoring or twitter or TV broadcasts. They’d occasionally pull TRG’s drivers into the 2nd seat and let them answer fan’s questions in real time. It was great, while it lasted; as once again there was a struggle with SPEED, who again cited broadcast rights even though TRG weren’t showing anything race related. After what one assumes was a pretty interesting debate, TRG and SPEED came to an agreement and TRG was allowed to go back live, but with 50 corporate logos of SPEED or TaxSlayer all over the white tarp backdrop. Because neither company had anything to do with TRG’s web-cam, all it did was gave SPEED more bad publicity with fans.

Now in 2011, SPEED has cut their broadcasting back by 2 hours, meaning they give fans even less coverage. TRG, meanwhile does the same awesome behind-the-pit webcam, bringing in drivers to talk directly with fans during the race, and in no way attempting to cover the on-track action, and they do it for the FULL 24 hours and it’s great.

In the end TRG has increased the amount of behind the scenes coverage they do each of the last 3 years, Twitter has boomed meaning fans can follow all the drivers, teams and media for real-time updates, JustinTV and many other illegal online streams have boomed, and things like GrabBagsports’ very own Blogathon give fans immediate information and analysis of 24 Hours of Daytona.

The way SPEED (and now NBC) act/react to new technology mediums, you’d think it’d be the death knell for the broadcasts… well apparently not:

In 2010: “In total, 2010 Rolex 24 viewership was up 22 percent over 2006,”

In 2011: “SPEED's coverage racked up some impressive TV viewership numbers, with an average of 443,000 viewers tuning in - a four percent increase from 2010.”


You can’t fault the IndyCar regime; most TV networks require the all-inclusive broadcast clause, in-fact give props to them for breaching the contract for the last 2 years to continue their online offering. But IndyCar better be trying to change NBC’s mind, because the world is changing and NBC clearly isn’t paying attention.

This Thursday/Friday will see millions (yes, millions) across the globe watching multitudes of college basketball online as the NCAA March Madness tournament begins. CBS is smart, rather than allowing the NCAA or illegal streams to take charge, they take care of this rebroadcasting themselves and they sell advertising for it.

In fact, here’s just a quick list of sports I can currently watch LIVE online (some free, some paid): National Football League, Major League Baseball, NCAA basketball, NCAA baseball, NCAA football, practically every professional soccer/futbol league in the world, professional rugby, the Olympics, NCAA track and field, The X Games, all events on the ATP Tennis World tour, PGA and LPGA Golf, and now the American LeMans Series.

There are some serious heavy hitters in there, and I bet you they aren’t worried about hurting Nielsen Rating’s points. Instead they’ve realized that they can capitalize on the advanced level of advertising and specified/reliable statistics the internet brings. They can tell advertises exactly how many people clicked/watched their ad (not hopeful estimating like Nielsen), they can tell exactly where the viewers are geographically, how long they watched for, what they watched, what they clicked, how they go to the stream, where they went after the stream and more.

By not jumping on the technology and continuing to do their own stream, IndyCar/NBC will not create a ratings boost; that’s just as silly as the RIAA’s thought that suing/killing Napster etc. would boost music album sales. Instead, international and non-Versus able fans will simply find their way to illegal streams. This means it’s now a lose-lose for broadcasters, not only do ratings not go up, but they also don’t reap any advertising revenue.

Why NBC/Versus/ESPN3(ABC) wouldn’t take the opportunity to sell more advertising to IndyCar fans is beyond me as a marketer. The cameras are already monitoring the track, there’s already a radio feed, so the only extra person to pay is the one combining those and sending the feed to the internet; and frankly advertising revenue should more than cover that.

CBS has been doing this for the basketball tournament for over 5 years now, ESPN is starting to throw any sport they have onto ESPN3 and yet their ratings rise every year on TV. Clearly online streaming is a net positive; not only for the bottom line, but in finding, converting and increasing the fan base.


As to the possibility Randy Bernard laid out for trying delayed online broadcasts...

At 1:11pm today, I found out via twitter and ESPN that Kurt Busch had been eliminated from the NHRA Gatornationals. Any opportunity for people to view this (outside of attending) won’t occur for more than 5 hours later on ESPN; and Kurt Busch, NASCAR and driver cross-over fans won’t be watching; we'll already be over it and NHRA loses potential eyeballs to convert into fans.

Sports are not scripted, people don’t watch to see how an ending was set to happen, they watch to see a contest bdecided at the moment it is being decided. It’s all about real-time action and results, it’s why we watch; its why there are 3+ 24-hour live news networks. Newspapers aren’t dying because people stopped needing news, it’s because we the consumer found a way to get news with the same accuracy quicker and within a more relative time-frame.

IndyCar fans have already tasted and feasted upon live real-time practice and qualifying and they know how great it tastes; they won’t go back to tape-delay; they’ll just go elsewhere.

Well, That Changes Everything

This just in: IndyCar owners vote to keep Firestone in as tire supplier in 2012!

In related news, my wife and I had a vote at our house as to whether or not winter should continue. We voted unanimously that it should not. We expect 80 degree temperatures to commence tomorrow.

Let the Parity Ensue! Can 2011 Be the Year of the Underdog?

Tidbits and observations from the realm of sport

Huge win for the Gryffindor Lions who now pull solidly into a 5th place tie of the NHL’s Western Conference after their 4-0 win over the Montreal Canadiens. Awesome Calgary uniforms aside, it was great to see outdoor NHL hockey return to Canada where it belongs. Some worry if outdoor games will lose their cachet. If the NHL doesn’t change one thing, the answer is yes. Fans are often noting the Winter/Heritage classic games have poor sight-lines and are separated from the action but are worth the high price for “the experience.” As time goes on, the “experience” factor will soon fade away. Get fans as close to the action as they get in an arena.

It was nice to see NASCAR stick to their guns for once rather than just fenagle with rulings to make things better for marketing. (I say 'for once' because I'm still not sure how half a spoiler is ok in the truck series). In all three of the NASCAR series over the weekend, the winners in Daytona logged a whopping 0 (zero) championship points. Some people think of it as silly, but it’s not. Nationwide driver Trevor Bayne winning the Daytona 500 is an odd situation, but he does not intend to contend in Cup; and not awarding points for Michael Waltrip or Tony Stewart is exactly what needs to happen to start discouraging Cup drivers from ruining the ladder series.

I guess we shouldn’t really be surprised by anything that Bernie Eclestone does these days; but really I have to say I’m shocked that, even with someone who loves money as much as he does, he is still trying to get the F1 Bahrain GP rescheduled. I just don’t think he understands human nature; once a government starts killing its citizens, no amount of time is going to allow that blow over; at least not until that government regime is gone. Hopefully the race’s so-called “postponed” status is actually an indefinite moniker but is just stated as is to not have the series jump into something political... then again am I giving Bernie too much credit to hope that?

The sound of ‘ping’ means Spring has begun! Ok, it’s still cold in many places, but this weekend was the official start of the NCAA baseball season and that means I have an excuse to put that cartoon anteater on here. College baseball is right next to basketball in terms of post-season parity and also awesomeness of the post-season format. Unlike Major League Baseball, it doesn’t take forever to complete (champion will be crowned in June) and there’s no Yankees or Red Sox. In fact, college baseball more than any other major NCAA sport has the most parity in terms of underdog contenders who win. In the last decade, 8 different teams have won the College World Series, from 6 different conferences and 6 different states. It also introduces us to some of the best mascots around as teams like the Dirtbags, Waves, Golden Eagles, Ragin Cajuns, Aztecs and the Anteaters are serious contenders, even as underdogs.


Congrats to the Baltimore Grand Prix! They have now gone 5 days without copying/pasting on twitter. They’ve not stopped tweeting to accomplish this, they’ve gone back to a great patter of interacting and finding new stuff to say. A nice breath of fresh air, and one we can only hope continues.

Get the popcorn, because this is going to be good! If you were watching the Daytona 500, you may have seen a trailer for the new Cars 2 movie. But that’s not what the popcorn is necessarily for. The movie’s premise calls for the main character (a stock car) to compete in a Race of Champions against formula, sports-prototype and rally cars across the world on road/street courses. The movie will no doubt be great and entertaining, but may not be as near entertaining as all the bitching/whining/complaining that will soon flood Formula 1/LeMans/IndyCar message boards.

Speaking of message boards, IndyCar fans should head over to this new Tomas Sheckter Q&A forum. Tomas opened this up after Paul Tracy did one earlier. Just like Tracy, Tomas is being incredibly candid about everything. What was it like to drive for Eddie Cheever or John Barnes and why he left Panther, but my favorite so far has to be a hilarious story about pretending he wasn’t himself at a hibachi restaurant after the 2002 Indy 500, and understandably so.


Lastly, thank you NCAA basketball for always keeping things interesting as we head closer to your post-season, underdogs are very much alive! This past week four of the “Top 5” ranked teams lost. This means we’re heading into March without a clear favorite. #4 San Diego State now holds the best record being the only team with only 1 loss… but has a rematch with the Jimmer (#7 BYU) who gave SDSU their 1 loss. that's right the Mountain West has not one, but two teams in the Top 10 as we head towards March Madness, underdogs unite! Then there’s all the many conference races…

Let’s attempt sorting Conference USA: Southern Miss (USM) is technically on top by virtue of having the best overall record but has a loss at Marshall and lost twice to Memphis (both happening in the final seconds). Memphis has been just outside of being ranked but has lost games to Marshall and Tulsa. Tulsa hasn’t played USM or Marshall yet and beat Memphis but then lost to UTEP… only to return and beat them later. UTEP was the conference leader until they recently lost to Southern Miss this weekend and also previously got beaten by UAB whose losses are Tulsa, Memphis and USM... So who is #1? Its times like this you need to be incredibly thankful football is the only sport that determines its champions by opinions and rankings…


The #6 seed Green Bay Packers win in the NFL, "2nd Cup race ever" Trevor Bayne wins the Daytona 500, Aztecs and Cougars Top 10'ing in NCAA Basketball, Anteaters and Red Storm ranking in NCAA baseball; now if we could just get Penske/Ganassi to get a little competition in IndyCar we could truly have a year of underdogs. I'm calling it now, Cubs win the World Series... yeah ok maybe not all underdogs.

As the Technology Turns...

With the many changes in the technological world, and especially social media, it’s often that people venture forth in the many new venues available. You can’t expect everyone to automatically be experts at all the new tools available, but as someone whose daily job is in marketing; I don’t think it’s too much to expect marketing types to understand basic marketing tools and best practices.

There are some true visionaries in the world of motorsports: The Racer's Group with their 137 Porsches in Grand-Am, by leaps and bounds has left everyone in the dust. TRG for 2 years straight has given fans live video interviews with all the TRG drivers and team personnel as the race goes on. They’ve accomplished this by bringing an extra laptop into their pits, some headphones and marrying a live UStream video feed with a chat box where fans can submit questions. In effect TRG has not only done a great effort to connect fans to their team/drivers, but it’s a great, free of operational cost, marketing opportunity for team and sponsors.  

Then of course there is the other end of the spectrum, where we’ve recently poked fun at the 3rd person speak coming out of Scott Dixon’s twitter account. Sadly Dixon’s account may now only be the 2nd or even 3rd most annoying “practice” coming out of motorsports marketing.

We, as fans, now have to deal with constant un-disguised name-dropping of sponsors. It’s one thing to name-drop like a NASCAR driver’s post-crash interview when on TV, or even do the occasional name-drop on twitter; but it’s another to try and pretend like everything you do in life revolves around oil-changes and tire changes. The reason doing it is not a “best practice” is because you are assuming your consumer is an idiot and won’t see that you are actually marketing.

The other variation are the people who think repetition = success; if they didn't respond to my email, I'll just send them another. Mark Cuban once wrote about exactly why this is stupid:

"For those of you who are not smart enough to figure it out,  it is not perseverance to resend an email to someone, anyone, multiple times. Its LAZINESS . Lazy people think they are working hard when they hit the send key. That’s not work.  That’s wasting time. That’s the lesson of the day.  Sending the same email over and over again not only shows you to be lazy and annoying, but it gets you sent directly to spam."

These are the companies that sends you emails every day selling their whatever, or the credit card company that sends you the same mail every week; just throwing money at the problem on the hopes that they'll get you with the same thing over and over. In all cases of over-saturation, it simply serves to annoy 99% of the recipients. You see this all the time from people who don’t quite understand current mediums and tools.

Case and point (actual tweets of @BaltimoreGP):                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

21-Jan	We are looking for interns to help us in a number of different areas! Check out the Contact Us section on our website for application forms
1-Feb	Check out our ticket options! http://baltimoregrandprix.com/tickets/
2-Feb	http://baltimoregrandprix.com/vendors has info for the businesses interested in working with the Baltimore Grand Prix
2-Feb	The Engines Won’t Roar Without You! Become a volunteer at the Baltimore Grand Prix. www.baltimoregrandprix.com/volunteers
2-Feb	Check out our ticket options! http://baltimoregrandprix.com/tickets
2-Feb	All businesses wanting to work with the Baltimore Grand Prix should be looking at our website in the Vendor section. we are taking BIDS
2-Feb	Are you interested in hands-on work in the developing, planning and running of the 2011 Baltimore Grand Prix? www.baltimoregp.com/contact
3-Feb	Check out our ticket options! http://baltimoregrandprix.com/tickets
3-Feb	Check out our promo video and GET EXCITED! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=963TzAaLu9I
3-Feb	DID YOU KNOW?! The Baltimore Grand Prix will be held on Labor Day weekend 2011! (September 2-4)
3-Feb	Do you want to see the Baltimore Grand Prix? Check out our ticket options! http://baltimoregrandprix.com/tickets
3-Feb	http://baltimoregrandprix.com/vendors has info for the businesses interested in working with the Baltimore Grand Prix!
3-Feb	Check out the ticket options! http://baltimoregrandprix.com/tickets
4-Feb	We want to give all vendors an equal bidding chance! Electrical, plumbing and power washing companies wanted! www.baltimoregp.com. Please RT
4-Feb	We are currently looking for companies specialized in electrical, plumbing and Power Washing! Be part of the Baltimore Grand Prix!
4-Feb	Check out The Baltimore Grand Prix ticket options! http://baltimoregrandprix.com/tickets
4-Feb	The Engines Won’t Roar Without You! Become a volunteer at the Baltimore Grand Prix. www.baltimoregrandprix.com/volunteers
4-Feb	Check out the Baltimore Grand Prix ticket options! http://baltimoregrandprix.com/tickets
4-Feb	http://baltimoregrandprix.com/vendors has info for the businesses interested in working with the Baltimore Grand Prix!
4-Feb	Check out the Baltimore Grand Prix promo video and GET EXCITED!    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=963TzAaLu9I
5-Feb	The Engines Won’t Roar Without You! Become a volunteer at the Baltimore Grand Prix. www.baltimoregrandprix.com/volunteers
5-Feb	We are currently looking for companies specialized in electrical, plumbing and Power Washing! Be part of the Baltimore Grand Prix!
5-Feb	Check out the Baltimore Grand Prix promo video and GET EXCITED!    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=963TzAaLu9I
5-Feb	Check out The Baltimore Grand Prix ticket options! http://baltimoregrandprix.com/tickets
6-Feb	http://baltimoregrandprix.com/vendors has info for the businesses interested in working with the Baltimore Grand Prix!
7-Feb	http://baltimoregrandprix.com/vendors has info for the businesses interested in working with the Baltimore Grand Prix!
7-Feb	Check out the Baltimore Grand Prix ticket options! http://baltimoregrandprix.com/tickets
8-Feb	http://baltimoregrandprix.com/vendors has info for the businesses interested in working with the Baltimore Grand Prix!
8-Feb	The Engines Won’t Roar Without You! Become a volunteer at the Baltimore Grand Prix. www.baltimoregrandprix.com/volunteers
9-Feb	Do you want to learn what it takes to make an event like this happen? Fill out the intern application! www.baltimoregrandprix.com/contact/
11-Feb	Do you know Adobe Creative Suite? Graphic design interns wanted!    www.baltimoregrandprix.com/contact. Experience with web design is a plus!
13-Feb	Do you know Adobe Creative Suite? Graphic design interns wanted!    www.baltimoregrandprix.com/contact. Experience with web design is a plus!
14-Feb	Check out the Baltimore Grand Prix promo video and GET EXCITED! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=963TzAaLu9I
14-Feb	http://baltimoregrandprix.com/vendors has info for the businesses interested in working with the Baltimore Grand Prix!
15-Feb	Do you know Adobe Creative Suite? Graphic design interns wanted! www.baltimoregrandprix.com/contact. Experience with web design is a plus!
15-Feb	http://baltimoregrandprix.com/vendors has info for the businesses interested in working with the Baltimore Grand Prix!

We get it, you want people to buy tickets, you need volunteers, you need business partners and plumbers, but look, twitter is a medium to stay in communication and increase information depth, its not a stock-ticker, or a commercial buy on television or radio. We f’n get it already. It’s not that we don’t want you to get your interns and welders and succeed; many people including myself plan to be at your race in your city Labor Day weekend; I can’t wait to see cars racing past Camden and the Inner Harbor, and still hope that you’re getting Charm City Cakes to do a cool IndyCar cake.

But man, you started so well back in 2010 giving us updates about the track map, linking to IndyCar and ALMS news, and even re-tweeting relevant people from all the different series associated with your upcoming race weekend. Dear Baltimore Grand Prix… you’ve suddenly started doing it wrong. All you're doing right now is giving us all the impression that you have no staff at all to run this race. At least give the copy/pasting a rest, for the sake of all us that follow you.

Edmonton City Centre's New IndyCar Track.. and old

So today Edmonton's IndyCar race promoter, Octane, unveiled the new track layout for the race. The layout, worked on by the promoter and NZRConsulting (Tony Cotman) is pretty awesome, especially when in comparison to the old track. It has 2 very long straights, and 3 clear passing zones with possible others.

The buzz is out there; Mike Cockrall, one of the guys behind saving the race, even posted on a familiar forum that he's gotten 150 comments, all positive about the new track. Awesome!

Another site posted a fuzzy screen-capture from Google Maps with numbers to show the locations of circuit turns but it's pretty difficult to read. Since the airport is clear from Google and because the overlay is worth fan's interest to see the track comparison without eye-strain; I decided to start from scratch and even spent more time on it this go-around, and I present to you now:

Ye Official GrabBagSports Super Exclusive, you totally couldn't make by going to GoogleMaps searching 'Edmonton City Centre Airport'  pulling screenshots then merging images and adding arrows, text and nifty Photoshop effects, Edmonton City Centre Track Map:

So what say ye fans? Do you like the new track? the old track? Any ideas?

My Top 5 Racing Video Games

My latest Tecmo Bowl post was so much fun (for me at least) and it made me realize how much I love playing sports video games. So I decided to start a Top 5 series where I list my favorite video games of all time for each sport.

[Disclaimer: I do not play a lot of video games and never really know about the newest, coolest stuff. But it would be awesome if you comment and tell me how terrible my picks are. Or maybe just let us know your Top 5.]

For my first edition, I will stick with this blog's #1 topic: racing. As our readers know, I am not a racing guy. Over the years, though, I have managed to get addicted to quite a few racing video games, even if I wasn't very good at all of them. So here we go...

My Top 5 Racing Games

5. Cruisin' USA - This was the first arcade game that I remember where we could sit in the driver seat and have a more realistic experience. You could change the radio station! The only problem is I never really played much past the first couple of "continue" spots.

4. RC Pro Am - Fun Nintendo game using remote control cars. I'm pretty sure I remember that you had decent opportunities to fix up your car. The courses were fun and quick.

3. Pole Position - Classic arcade game. The only console available in our town was at our movie theater. I spent an hour before and after so many movies as a kid, having to replace my high score! The stupid theater would reset the scores. I'd go to show my friends how I had the #1 spot, and it never failed... "ASS" or "XXX" would be sitting in my top score spot and I'd have to do it all over again. One day I want to get one of these for my house.

2. Rock and Roll Racing - Zolof BLASTS into FIRST! How awesome was this SNES game?? Even the stupid songs ("Born To Be Wild"??) would get stuck in my head. We spent so many hours playing this stupid game.

1. Mario Kart - All systems. Hands down the best racing game, even if I'm absolutely terrible at it. Anyone who played with us during Blogathon knows what I'm talking about. Even if I lose, I feel like if I knock someone off of the course with my Flame Runner, then I've done my job.

Super Bowl XLV: The Tecmo Super Bowl Prediction

Well, here we go again.  It's Super Bowl Sunday and I know you're all sitting there hitting refresh, going, "When is he going to post his Tecmo Super Bowl prediction??  I have to know who will win tonight's game!"  Well, your wait is over.

For today's game, I chose to play as the Packers.  I don't really care who wins the game, although I think it would be neat for another QB (Roethlisberger) to have three Super Bowl rings.  I just want to see if people will bring his name up any time they are talking about how amazing Tom Brady is.  However, two years ago I played as the Steelers for my prediction game, so I wanted to try something new this time.


1st Quarter

Brister

The Steelers got the ball first and put together a decent drive, including a 34-yard Bubby Brister pass to Eric Green.  This would be Brister's only completion of the game!  This first drive ended with a Jerry Holmes leaping interception, giving the Packers the ball at their 30.

On the first offensive play, Don Majkowski completed a 70-yard touchdown pass to Sterling Sharpe. Packers lead 7-0.

Sharpe

Majkowski

Brister's first pass of the next drive was also picked off by Jerry Holmes.  After a couple of runs, Majkowski hit Sharpe again for a 25-yard score to end the first quarter.  14-0.

2nd Quarter

Brock

The Packers started the second quarter with a successful onside kick.  A 35-yard touchdown to Sharpe prompted me to bench the WR for the rest of the game, a move I needed to make to resist the temptation to throw to him every time.  21-0.

Defensive lineman Matt Brock began to dominate on the next possession, blowing up plays in the Steeler backfield on almost every snap.  He ended the game with six tackles for losses and five sacks, more than he had in any of his first four seasons according to his card shown here.  Mark Lee intercepted Brister, and Majkowski led a Sterling-free drive that ended with a Michael Haddix one-yard touchdown. 28-0.

After a bad onside kick, the Steelers finally managed a Gary Anderson field goal at the half.  28-3.

Anderson

Haddix

3rd Quarter

The Packers opened the second half with a 60-yard completion from Majkowski to tight end Ed West.  Haddix, in "excellent" condition, followed with a 30-yard touchdown on a screen pass. 35-3.

On the next Steelers possession, Brock kept the pressure on Brsiter, causing him to throw his fourth interception (to Mark Murphy).  Haddix then scored on a 70-yard screen pass to end the quarter.  42-3.

4th Quarter

Query

After a Brock safety put the Packers up 44-3, Green Bay began to get the ball to Sterling Sharpe's replacement: Jeff Query.  Query started the possession with a first down run and then caught a 40-yard touchdown.  51-3.

The Steelers likely experienced deja vu on the couple of series, as Brock caused another safety and Query immediately caught another TD pass, this time for 60 yards.  60-3.

Following a failed onside kick attempt, Merril Hoge broke away for a 50-yard run to score the only Steelers touchdown of the game.  60-10.

The Steelers tried an onside kick, giving Green Bay a short field and allowing running back Darrell Thompson to score on a 50-yard run of his own. 67-10.

Brock ended the game by sacking Brister and causing a fumble, which was recovered by Green Bay.

Hoge

Thompson

Stats

Passing Leaders
Majkowski -- 90% | 388 yards | 7 touchdowns | 0 interceptions
Brister -- 12% | 34 yards | 0 touchdowns | 4 interceptions

Rushing Leaders
Thompson 7-71
Hoge 4-35

Receiving Leaders
Sharpe 3-128
Green 1-34

Prediction

The Packers will win the Super Bowl and I will move to 3-0 in Tecmo Super Bowl predictions.

Closing things out

As I sit here marveling at the fact that the photographers won't let Scott Pruett get out of the car yet, I just wanted to take the time to say thanks to all the readers who joined us for our 3rd year of marathon posting/chatting/tweeting. Thanks to our guest writers Shane, Pat, Steph, Paul, James and Tony for chipping in and posting on our site simply because we asked.

And also definitely much thanks to our guests for the new guest live-chatting we did this year; Alex Tagliani, Tony Cotman and Ryan McGee; all 3 guys I'm sure have busy schedules, and we along with the fans here much appreciated the chats.

Thanks to all our participants in the "Ask a Blogger" chat, bloggers and fans both; and thanks for all of you who joined in for 5 great rounds of MarioKart, and 5 rounds of hating the blue turtle shell.

Congrats to Chip Ganassi Racing on capturing their 4th Daytona 24 Hours win in 6 years, it almost feels like 6 for 6 with how well that team performs. Congrats to TRG for getting one of their seven hundred and ninety two Porsches to win the GT class, I kid, I kid, another great victory for them.

Most of all congrats to all the pit crews for all the cars in the race, those guys are the REAL warriors of the weekend, those guys do ALL the pit stops through the 24 hours, taking small short naps when they can, waking up at a moments notice as needed for emergency stops, and doing some wicked repairs on what these cars manage to break over 24 hours.

I'll close it out the way we opened it up; happy racing season everyone!

gonna wrap this up...

I wanted to get out of Wedge's way and leave the final moments to him (and maybe Andy and any others). It's been a blast. Maybe I'll do a recap post or I'll likely just comment on the others.

I'll be around with my usual nonsense.

Cheers!

Just before we get to the excitement of the finish I just wanted to say a huge thanks to Allen, Mike and Andy for a great Blogathon this year. Better than ever. The Q&A chats were a highlight.

Cheers for inviting all of us guest contributors!

Ganassi have this sewn up I think.? Right now I'm pulling for Brundle to get Barbosa, it would great to have that car on the podium.