Harrassing The Opposition

The digital age has given birth to a new, more powerful motivator. Internet trash talking, and all the questionable antics that go along with it. Orlando Sentinel writer Josh Robbins covers a few of them in an article regarding moderation of comments on sports sites. Among them are:

Leading up to one of their biggest games this season, University of South Florida football players grew increasingly angry. They kept hearing that someone had insulted the wife of Bulls middle linebacker Ben Moffitt on an Internet message board for UCF fans.

A few days later, USF players made a statement of their own. They routed UCF 64-12.

"We had to just go out there and fight for him and get revenge on everything that they said," said Bulls defensive end George Selvie. "That really crossed the line. You never talk about anybody's family."

And...

After learning the cell-phone number of Florida quarterback Tim Tebow, scores of LSU fans left voicemail messages for Tebow. Some threatened him physically.

"Some people did take it way too far, farther than you should take it with sports," Tebow said. "But I think for the most part people were just having fun. Unfortunately, there are people like that everywhere."

When Tebow scored Florida's first touchdown against LSU this season, he celebrated by putting his hand to his ear, as if he were speaking on a cell phone.

It does raise a good question as to how much information should a person, especially an athlete playing for a popular college team, put on a site like MySpace or Facebook. Obviously, an anonymous poster putting up derogatory statements, or posting someone's private cell number is different than listing personal information in a semi-public setting. However, they all can be used to harrass an opponent during a game. You would like to think that fans would police themselves a bit with respect to heckling, but that definitely does not happen.

So where should the line be drawn? I'm sure that many athletic departments do their best to keep tabs on what their athletes post online, but how much should they police? And should they be allowed to ask to have things taken down? If it's not an illegal activity, then is there really that much they can do about it? It's an interesting situation that will only get cloudier as technology continues to advance.

I Hate To Say It Rockies' Fans But "I Told Ya So"

Last Thursday, I wrote about how the Rockies' decision to only sell World Series tickets online might not turn out to be the best idea. In fact, what I said was:

The other problem would be if the ticket servers crashed during what will probably be a huge traffic jam of sales. It wouldn't be the first time that something like that has occured during online ticket sales for a sporting event. Just ask Pittsburgh Panthers' fans about their '03 ticket fiasco. And that was for Panthers basketball tickets. This is for tickets for the Rockies, the hottest team in baseball right now, first World Series appearance.

Good luck Rockies' fans, I have a feeling you might need it.

Guess what? The online ticketing system crashed, and sales have been suspended.

The Colorado Rockies suspended World Series ticket sales Monday after overwhelming demand crashed their computer system.

"Right now we're shutting the system down," club spokesman Jay Alves announced outside Coors Field, drawing boos from fans. "We expect to be online at some point."

"We're as frustrated and disappointed as they are," Alves said.

Alves had said last week that the Rockies were prepared for any computer problems.

On Monday, there were 8.5 million attempts to connect with the computers in the first 90 minutes after sales started, he said, and only several hundred tickets had been sold before the system had to be shut down.

The Rockies put as many as 60,000 tickets up for sale online only, and team officials said their computers were ready to handle the expected crush. But two hours after tickets went on sale, many fans reported they could not get access to the ticket-sales Web site.

Officials with the Rockies and Major League Baseball did not immediately return calls.

Irvine, Calif.-based Paciolan Inc., which is running the computers for the Rockies' World Series ticket sales, said the crash affected the company's entire North American system.

To add to it, because tickets were only available online fans without internet access had to "withstand near-freezing temperatures outside the Denver Public Library" as they waited for it to open so they could use the public access computers.

Sounds like that decision worked out great! They must have consulted with the same guy who thought that DirecTV plan wouldn't piss off anyone.

Quantum Boggs, Teaching Dan Marino and Protecting Gold Medalists

Just think about how many Super Bowls Marino would have won had Wade Boggs actually had a timemachine.

Videos are NSFW due to language, and some nudity. Or you could watch 'em, and if someone complains tell them that you're doing your part to increase workplace morale.

Episode 1

QUANTUM BOGGS: Episode I

Posted Oct 21, 2006

Episode 2

QUANTUM BOGGS: Episode II

Posted Oct 21, 2006

Major League Baseball Sure Does Enjoy Screwing Its Consumers

I don't know how it has evolved to this, but "America's Pastime" has become more like "Screwing America Is Our Pastime".

In recent times, Major League Baseball has endured asteriks and andro, a weird DirecTV/MLB Channel liason and now it's like they're punishing fans of the Colorado Rockies that don't use the Internet.

The Colorado Rockies have changed their plans for selling World Series tickets, switching to online purchases only.

The team announced the new plan on Wednesday.

Tickets were to go on sale at Coors Field and Rockies' Dugout Stores in the Denver area on Monday using a lottery system for in-person transactions, as well as online.

Instead, all sales will be online, starting at 10 a.m. Monday.

Sure, Al Gore would really appreciate it if everyone used his invention, but according to the annual National Technology Scan survey "29% or 31 million homes in the United States have no Internet and those residents don’t intend to subscribe to any access for the next year. In addition, 44% of households aren’t interested in any Internet content".

I'm not sure how many of those 31 million without Internet access are Rockies' fans, but there has to be a few. And if they don't have access at work, then Major League Baseball has just put them in a difficult position.

The other problem would be if the ticket servers crashed during what will probably be a huge traffic jam of sales. It wouldn't be the first time that something like that has occured during online ticket sales for a sporting event. Just ask Pittsburgh Panthers' fans about their '03 ticket fiasco. And that was for Panthers basketball tickets. This is for tickets for the Rockies, the hottest team in baseball right now, first World Series appearance.

Good luck Rockies' fans, I have a feeling you might need it.