Tag: mlb advanced media

Chase Utley takes Phillies to Game 6

Chase Utley is playing like a man on a mission.  A mission to get the Phillies their second straight championship.  Last night, his 2 homerun, 4 rbi performance keyed the Phils’ 8-6 win over the Yankees. 

He’s also playing like a World Series MVP.  For the Series, he’s batting .333 with five homers.  He could easily get that MVP award assuming Philadelphia wins it all.  Not an easy task considering that they’re down 3-2 going into the heart of the Evil Empire for Game 6. 

Cliff Lee was on his game last night despite his linescore.  He left the game with an 8-3 lead.  It’s not his fault that the Phillies seem to find value in Chan Ho Park and think he can get the job done.  Rumor has it that Lee might be ready for Game 7 should there be one and he might give Chase a run for his money for that MVP award.  Lee is already 2-0 for the Series with a 2.81 ERA in 16 innings.

 

World Series bits

Looks like the frequency and duration of mound meetings by Yankee pitchers and catcher Jorge Posada are giving MLB some pause.  They’ll most certainly be discussing it this winter. 

Nice going, Jorge.

 

The LA Times’ headline reads Another tight game means big numbers for Fox.  Nice sentiment but I’m giving more credit to the fact that the Series is taking place in two big market cities. 

 

On a related note, Business Weekly notes that World Series TV ratings are indeed up despite the influx of web streaming of the games.

 

YFSF presents:  Reason(s?) Why The World Series Isn’t Over

 

Finally, who doesn’t like a little trash talk?

MLBAM Live Streaming becoming more mainstream

Those fans who watch Major League Baseball via video streaming are increasing every day and the numbers for the playoff games are even higher. 

By now, Major League Baseball Advanced Media has the stats available for the Division Series.  On average, 350,000 live streams were served per game.  Even more interesting, 36,000 of those streamed were sent to mobile devices such as the iPhone. 

These video streams were all subscription or pay-for feeds.  MLBAM notes that these per game averages are higher than the 2009 All-Star Game video stream
 which was free. 

One other point
 the Postseason.TV package is blackout-free (yay!) but to avoid competition with other major networks, the video stream doesn’t give you in their words, “a complete game experience”. 

MLB Advanced Media introduces Twitter interface

It looks like MLB Advanced Media will be incorporating a Twitter client within its Gameday and MLB.tv interfaces for those fans who use the social networking tool.

gamedaytwitter

gdtwitterfull

I took the above screen captures from a Gameday stream between the Cubs and the Rockies.  The presence of the Twitter window will be opt-in (chosen by a tab) so for those who don’t use it, it won’t use up valuable screen real estate. 

The question is will the new system get used??  Most avid Twitter users already have a preferred method of using the micro-blogging tool, most likely a client program they’re comfortable with. 

But perhaps, it will spur the group of people who signed on to Twitter but never continued to use it
 to start using it  (Don’t know where I heard it but I think the majority of Twitter accounts remain inactive).  Maybe even some new people might give it a try. 

Good places to find info on the upcoming MLB First-Year Player Draft

It won’t be long before the 2009 First-Year Player Draft will be upon us.  The Washington Nationals will be on the clock for their first pick in the first round on the evening of June 9th, broadcasted on The MLB Network.  Draft time is 5pm Central time.  The draft is scheduled to last till June 11th.

If anyone wants to brush up on the exact rules of the First-Year Player Draft, here are the official public rules from MLB.  The gist of it is.. the eligible players are:

    • High school players, if they have graduated from high school and have not yet attended college or junior college;
    • College players, from four-year colleges who have either completed their junior or senior years or are at least 21 years old; and
    • Junior college players, regardless of how many years of school they have completed

While I’m on the topic of MLB.com, they are providing their usually good coverage of the draft.  Which is good since it is their baby.  Their Draft Central is a go-to site for anyone interested in the rookie draft.  Read their Draft FAQ which probably answers any question you might have regarding the Draft.  Draft Central has plenty of reports from different team’s perspectives Also, check out their Draft Tracker for a partial list of potential draftees and of course, the team order of the draft.

MLB.com has historical look at the draft which is worth a look but if it’s pure stats and data you want, you should go to Baseball Reference’s Draft section.  Interactive, clickable and very complete, BR has all the info you want on past drafts going all the way back to Rick Monday in 1965.  I’ll admit it, I got most of my info for my article about the history of the draft’s top picks from Baseball Reference. 

While MLB.com does provide pretty great and complete coverage, sometimes it’s nice to get some independent analysis (y’know, something that doesn’t read like a company communiquĂ©).  The Baseball Analysts really fits the bill.  Like they have for years, Rich Lederer from TBA is providing some good anticipatory coverage of the upcoming Draft.  Just go there and you’ll find plenty of articles on the subject but his Q&A with Baseball America’s Jim Callis is a good place to start. 

And I’ll be chiming in with my opinions here on The Baseball Zealot too so stay tuned for my witty insight.  If anyone has a favorite comprehensive resource for Draft Day coverage, feel free to leave a comment. 

MLB gives Silverlight the thumb

After two years, Major League Baseball will be discontinuing the use of Microsoft’s Silverlight technology for streaming its games and on-demand content. 

In its place, MLB Advanced Media will replace it with the more familiar Adobe Flash player.  Adobe has won a two year contract starting with the 2009 Spring Training Games. 

A happy story that involves MLB Advanced Media (really)

Sometimes MLB Advanced Media gets it.  Sometimes they understand what is in their best interests. 

This is one of those times.

Baseball fan Russ Gooberman created a mash-up video of Texas Ranger Josh Hamilton featuring his longest homerun from the All-Star Game Home Run Derby.  He set it to some music and uploaded it to YouTube. 

Gooberman says the very next day, MLB Advanced Media sent a trademark claim to YouTube and the video was taken down.  YouTube sent him a notice that read:

"This is to notify you that we have removed or disabled access to the following material as a result of a third-party notification by MLB Advanced Media claiming that this material is infringing:"

Through YouTube, Gooberman responded to MLB Advanced Media.  His counter-notification was very well written in my opinion.  It says in part (you can read the whole bit at lessig.com):

"Under established Fair Use principles, if a work is considered transformative, it does not represent an infringement. This video in particular, is extremely transformative. First of all, it takes less than a minute of footage out of an over three hour exhibition. Secondly, the footage is edited differently than the original telecast. Thirdly, the entire soundtrack has been removed and replaced. Fourthly, the footage itself has been altered, added to, subtracted from, and has had the meaning changed altogether.

…

This piece is fully non-commercial. The website behind the creation of this piece takes in zero revenue, and is a free entertainment service. Non-commercial use is another standard by which copyrighted material is allowable for re-use.

Again, this is only a small part of what Gooberman wrote and his whole piece is quite eloquent.  Kudos to him for taking the time and effort to make his case. 

As I said, this story does have a happy ending.  In response to his notice and perhaps a second look at the video, not only did MLB Advanced Media rescind their takedown notice, they featured Gooberman’s mashup video on the official MLB Entertainment Blog.

Is MLB starting to see the light about intellectual property?  Are they beginning to realize that posting one minute videos or photographs of MLB baseball does not hurt their bottom line but indeed increases fan interest in the game? 

Probably not.  But it’s a good step in the right direction and I heartily applaud MLBAM for seeing the light in this one case. 

There may be hope yet.

Here’s the video in question.  If you are Josh Hamilton fan, you’ll love it.

Deal between MLB Advanced Media and ESPN may help stream live games

In a new deal between ESPN and MLB Advanced Media, ESPN will have the right to digitally stream baseball games live.   No financial details have been announced and what the impact for us, the fan, will be is still up in the air. 

That said, I can assure you this will be a money maker for ESPN any way you look at it.  The technology to stream live games to mobile devices such as mobile phones and iPods (even gaming consoles) has been here.  The only stumbling block was a legal and financial one. For ESPN and MLB Advanced Media, this is the first step to breaking down that barrier. 

Interestingly, the rights are worldwide but do not extend to some Asian or Pacific Rim countries. 

Some comments from MLB Advanced Media head Bob Bowman and ESPN’s John Skipper may shed some more light on the matter.

Skipper acknowledged that there was some revenue sharing in the last deal. “This deal we’re paying cash for valuable rights.” Bowman wasn’t talking financial details either, saying only, “we believe in our content and we’re grateful that ESPN does, too.”

Or maybe not.